I think I broke the LIVE search engine
I have been using the LIVE search engine to do resume searches, but have been running into a lot of issues. I would do a search on “inurl:resume C++” and get nothing but a blank screen. Yet, when I perform a search on just “C++” I get results just fine. Grrr…
So, I try again with other advanced search queries like “Linkdomain” and more white space on the screen. Was I searching on LIVE too much?! Did I over tax its systems? Or is there a gremlin in my browser? After scratching my head and doing a bit of research, I was (so glad) to find an explanation. It was on the Windows Live Spaces blog - go figure. Here is a quote from the blog post I discovered…
For those of you who use some of the advanced query syntax in our search engine such as link:, linkdomain: and inurl:, you may have noticed that this functionality has been recently turned off. We have been seeing broad use of these features by legitimate users but unfortunately also what appears to be mass automated usage for data mining. So for now, we have made the tough call to block all queries with these operators.We are doing our best to get this back online as soon as possible in a manner that allows folks that use this functionality for real queries. We have a few good ideas up our sleeve on how to enable this, but want to make sure we are making the right changes that will give you the functionality you want and all of our customers the experience they deserve. Our apologies and thank you for being patient.
Okay, so apparently its not just me. So glad… (And for the record, I am not the one using an automated tool to data mine Live.)
-Jim
Nothing says "Thanks for posting this Jim!" like Starbucks Coffee. Click here to buy me a cup (or two).
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Comments
Interesting post Jim. Wonder if other search engines are going to get in on this as well.
Will this become a trend? Wonder if the tricks up their sleeve will ultimately be scanning IP addresses and seeing trends in useage and moderate how data is being found.
sorry for the cross post, but did you see this as well -
http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/
Microsoft is allowing people to protect their web sites with this product - for free
An interesting conversation on this topic can be found on -
http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2007/03/28/we-are-flattered-but.aspx
Google already has issues with over-complicated strings. I believe it’s a 405 or a 403 error your get and it asks you to input a security code to proceed. The worst part is the security code page doesn’t always come up and you have to wait almost a week before you can even attempt to run that string again.
I haven’t noticed any complications with Yahoo yet…
And Live has been buggy since it’s unveiling. I use the macro builder frequently, and despite only being able to use a maximum of like 12 words, if you use more than 3 operators the whole thing breaks down and you get a blank page.
Yuck I say!
Oh, and Google recently re-enabled the filetype operator… but that was also shut off for a long time…
k, that’s all.
Oops that’s me. I’ll slow down. I’ve been using the linkdomain: with a new series of spiders.
Oh well. I hope it comes back up soon.