On: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Search

[dexen]

>>> A customer using the same query twice expects the same results for both searches

Of course this is false; please consider:

- customers expect to see in search results whatever new information they added/updated in the system (this is related to "Customers don’t expect near real time updates");

- customers expect "personalized" search results; having built up a history of searches centered around particular subjects (say, programming), you'll expect much different results for "string" than the general population gets;

- customers expect new/more results having logged in, or having gained new permissions/roles;

- customers running "knowledge" or "command" queries ("what is the weather?" "password 16") expect varying results

[greggyb → dexen]

Or, for a short query string, the user may have a different intent without realizing they've put the same query in.

I might dash off a search for "sneakers" when I am researching footwear. A week later, I might be thinking about movies and enter the same query string, expecting IMDB results.

[ashelmire → dexen]

- customers expect "personalized" search results; having built up a history of searches centered around particular subjects (say, programming), you'll expect much different results for "string" than the general population gets;

Not always the desired behavior. This should be toggleable. It becomes very difficult to find results outside of what google thinks you want.