At the risk of inadvertently dragging us into a discussion about the "bubble" that Google and other social services lock us into...Here are two points that I think are worthwhile:
1. Search has always been opaque. We've never known the complete details of PageRank, and we know even less about the hundreds of other flags and signals used by Google search to parse a query as vague as the famous "mike siwek lawyer mi" into something useful.
2. It is largely a good thing that we don't need to hack the search parameters anymore...because, in one sense, it means that search has gotten amazingly accurate. It's so good that I hardly ever go to the second page of results...instead, if I don't find what I want in the first 10, I just slightly alter my text query and Google will eventually get what I need (or at least what I think I need, but that's a philosophical question). I think that is a better UX experience for even hackers, as you can refine using natural language rather than tinkering with vague params.
1. Search has always been opaque. We've never known the complete details of PageRank, and we know even less about the hundreds of other flags and signals used by Google search to parse a query as vague as the famous "mike siwek lawyer mi" into something useful.
2. It is largely a good thing that we don't need to hack the search parameters anymore...because, in one sense, it means that search has gotten amazingly accurate. It's so good that I hardly ever go to the second page of results...instead, if I don't find what I want in the first 10, I just slightly alter my text query and Google will eventually get what I need (or at least what I think I need, but that's a philosophical question). I think that is a better UX experience for even hackers, as you can refine using natural language rather than tinkering with vague params.