Google Books Search - erratic behavior

[Garson O'Toole]

Joel S. Berson wrote
> Can anyone explain the flawed and inconsistent Google Book search
> results when a time period is specified?  E.g., if I ask for "1700 -
> 1799", I find "dull as ditchwater" at 1747; if I ask for "1600 -
> 1799", GBooks says none.  Or if I ask for "any time - 1910", GBooks
> alleges that it appears in the Manifesto of the Communist Party (and
> no other book)?

The results returned when performing searches in Google Books are
inconsistent, inaccurate, and illogical. The situation has
deteriorated in recent weeks in my opinion.

Using time bounds in queries causes erratic behavior in Google Books.
Now all the big Google databases are afflicted: Google Books, Google
News and Google Groups. One must guess what the search algorithm is
doing (or not doing) and try to develop workarounds, apparently.

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