Why does Google mainly finds AHK results from old archived forums? Topic is solved

[zvit]

This has been going on forever. When I Google AHK and then something I'm looking for help with, most of the search results come from old AHK archives from 10-15 years ago. Why isn't Google picking up on more recent results?

In addition, if I filter my google search to only show results from the past year, the results are almost irrelevant to my search.

Do you know why this is happening?

[flyingDman]

I would be surprised if anyone has an answer to the question and this goes deep into Google's algorithms. One way to deal with is is to make a script to get the results from the last x years only:

Code: Select all

needle := "subroutines vs. functions"
var := "https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=site%3Aautohotkey.com " needle "&as_qdr=y5"    ; last 5 years
;~ run, msedge.exe " %var% "
run, C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe " %var% "

[zvit]

Google search has filters for that - no need for scripts.

[flyingDman]

We all know that you can do that manually as well... the script saves you about a dozen clicks. In addition, not too many people know that adding "&as_qdr=y5" to the search string creates the desired result.

[zvit]

Ah, ok. Yes, it's a good tip. I use url parameters a lot in my code. You can find all the url parameters you need in the url after making any type of search

[BoBo]

If you limit the search using Google's 'site'-parameter (as already mentioned), but restrictively adding the new forums "../boards" sub directory there’ should be no way to find any "old forum" ("../board") related stuff, right?

[gregster]

You can also do that on the results page of our Google AHK custom search: All results vs Forums (these ar the current ones) vs Archived Forums
Sorting by date seems to turn up the most recent ones...

results.png (24.34 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

[zvit]

Unfortunately, it seems like people aren't posting as much quality content as they used to over the past decade. Perhaps I'm just searching for simple questions that people won't post about. I have used AHK for 15 years now, and I have been coding very complex stuff with it. I've never used a subroutine before, so I thought I could look this up with a simple Google search. Nope. Additionally, anything I search for about AHK shows results from years ago. If I limit it to recent times, the results are so unrelated to my question that they are useless.

@gregster The results there show the same 10-15 year old results as on the Google page.

@BoBo Google didn't find anything at all when doing this.

[gregster]

If I google function vs subroutine in the custom search, and limit the results to the new forums (click "Forums"), I get "about 8410" results: https://www.autohotkey.com/search/?q=function%20vs%20subroutine
10100 results in total (it shows "about 1650 results" in the archived forums) Edit: numbers seem to change a bit on consecutive searches, for whatever reason, but at least roughly the same size.

But since there are 10 results per page and Google only seems to show 10 pages (have a look at the bottom) in this custom search, I can only see 100 results for a specific search (either sorted by "relevance" or by date)

I admit the display of the page selector at the bottom of the page is a bit faint and could need a tad more contrast:

pages.png (2.41 KiB) Viewed 2349 times

[zvit]

If I google function vs subroutine in the custom search, and limit the results to the new forums (click "Forums"), I get "about 8410" results: https://www.autohotkey.com/search/?q=function%20vs%20subroutine

I know. I showed a screenshot of these results. There's nothing wrong with them other than that they are posts from 10-15 years ago. I like reading more recent posts.

[gregster]

Obviously, you are looking at "All results" (sorted by relevance, and including Documentation as well) and didn't click Forums at the top of the page to filter for the new forums (vs Archived Forums and Documentation, next to it).

Again, these links could use more contrast and might get overlooked... but it's not so bad like the page selector at the bottom (at least for my rapidly ageing eyesight).
Perhaps @joedf could adjust colors a litte, at least for the page selector. I would appreciate it.

forums.png (7.89 KiB) Viewed 2332 times

If I filter all results for "Forums", I get posts from 2014, 2018 and 2018 as the top results (sorted by relevance (default)). If I sort by date instead, the top results are from 2022.

[BoBo]

Searching with Chrome and Google for this 'site:autohotkey.com/boards function subroutine' opens several pages of hits that are restricted to the new AKA "boards"-forum. The same if I use DuckDuckGo's search engine with the same phrase.

[gregster]

Searching with Chrome and Google for this 'site:autohotkey.com/boards function subroutine' opens several pages of hits that are restricted to the new AKA "boards"-forum. The same if I use DuckDuckGo's search engine with the same phrase.

Can confirm (in Firefox)! Only tried Google so far, but the results are all from the new forums from the years 2014-2022 (the old, now archived forums were only active until ~2015, afaik).

[joedf]

I've readjusted the colours as requested!

image.png (304.77 KiB) Viewed 2230 times

[gregster]

Awesome Thank you, joedf!
That's so much better.

[boiler]

You can also do that on the results page of our Google AHK custom search: All results vs Forums (these ar the current ones) vs Archived Forums

How has this page eluded me all this time? I never clicked "Search" from the main AHK page before. Perhaps a link to this at the top of the forum pages would also be useful. Or maybe it's there and haven't found it.

[joedf]

I guess maybe I add something like "Web Search" near here?

image.png (28.45 KiB) Viewed 2179 times

[boiler]

I personally think it would be nice because I often find google searches better to find what I'm looking for than the forum search feature. I don't know if that might be confusing to some about why there are two, but I think your name for it should help prevent that.

[joedf]

Okay, I'll add it to my To do list.

[joedf]

All done!