The Lemon Fool

I’ve noticed recently that sometimes when I make a search with Google instead of producing the usual list of results it just takes me to a page consisting of one single answer.

In this particular example, I searched against “Sunbury plantation house” (without the quote marks) as I wanted to read something about its history. However, instead of a list of results it produced one page headed “Sunbury Plantation Great House, with a list of three options, call, directions or website.

Clicking the back button simply took me back to Google with an empty search box so I had to type the entry again, but adding the word “history” at the end in order to get the normal response of a list of links.

I’ve had this happen a few times, and it’s extremely annoying. I had thought that it might be because I was signed in with a Google account, so I signed myself out, but it’s still happening.

Does anyone know why this may be happening or if there’s anything I can do, for example in the Google settings, to prevent it?

Clitheroekid wrote:I’ve noticed recently that sometimes when I make a search with Google instead of producing the usual list of results it just takes me to a page consisting of one single answer.

In this particular example, I searched against “Sunbury plantation house” (without the quote marks) as I wanted to read something about its history. However, instead of a list of results it produced one page...

I guess it's a browser issue, as a search just now gave multiple hits.
I'm on Firefox whatever the latest update, using The Duck.

V8

I get lots of Google hits with Firefox.

Clitheroekid wrote:I’ve noticed recently that sometimes when I make a search with Google instead of producing the usual list of results it just takes me to a page consisting of one single answer.

Funnily enough, there’s a word for that. It’s called a GoogleWhack.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlewhack

That sounds like something isnt working quite right, try restarting the browser and/or doing a hard refresh.

GeoffF100 wrote:I get lots of Google hits with Firefox.

It's strange, so do I when I make a search on my PC, using Chrome. I hadn't realised until you mentioned it, but it only happens on my iPhone.

This is the result I'm getting:



As you can see (well actually you can't, as they're obscured by the `About my location' section at the bottom but they're the three circles under the phone number) apart from the three options mentioned, there's no way out of the search result.

Can you drag the panel down by grabbing the small bar just above the picture and dragging down?

If your phone is running Android and Chrome, it is controlled by Google. Google doubtless charges extra to be the only search result (or perhaps it is an advert) that is easily accessible. I am using Linux Mint and Firefox on my desktop, which avoids any nonsense like that. (Google is currently waging a war on ad blockers, and I have not been affected.) I have got an Android phone, but I do not use the browser, except in an emergency. Most people's phones do not get security updates after the first year or two, and minimising your use of the browser reduces your chance of picking up a nasty.