Its got a name, information white out, and can occur for a number of reasons. The example I use is finding information on Steve Jobs from 2000 - 2005 is nearly impossible on Google because the first 50 - 100 results of the query 'Steve Jobs' is filled with eulogies and references to his death.
But news worthy events are only one form of white out, historical weight is another (as the perl example shows).
Disclaimer I work at blekko.com (a search engine) which allows you to specify things like /date=2005 in the search providing semantic intent. Searching through white-out situations is one of the uses of the slashtag system.
Thanks for the disclaimer. Your post is propaganda.
Finding information on Steve Jobs from 2000 - 2005 is actually pretty easy on Google. Search "steve jobs", then on the left-hand bar, click "custom range," and input 2000 to 2005. Done.
I invite readers to actually try the blekko example to see how incapable it is. Searching with /date=2005 : (a) sorts the results by date, such that you the first few pages are full of irrelevant pages from Dec 31, 2005. And, (b) only returns results from 2005 (it's not clear how to search over a time range).
But news worthy events are only one form of white out, historical weight is another (as the perl example shows).
Disclaimer I work at blekko.com (a search engine) which allows you to specify things like /date=2005 in the search providing semantic intent. Searching through white-out situations is one of the uses of the slashtag system.