How did the following search results occur?

search engines use the key words found in your request, as compared to the mega-words and keywords left on the website by the programmers.

@DrBill , there’s actually quite a bit more to it than that. There’s tons of ranking factors and algorithmic mechanics that search engines use. Also, flo isn’t talking about Google and websites, but rather youtube and videos.

First of all, this is a youtube search, so not really an engine. However, bear in mind that Google owns Youtube now, so we will presume that their search technology is integrated with youtube.

Much like google, if your query doesn’t turn up any / many results… they will amend the query for you and show you the results of the suggested query. (Hence the message that says : “No video results for ““On Rosie O’Donnell’s original show, student declines full scholarship” . Under that, you have their suggested results.

Also, it merits mention that video searching will work differently than Google. You can put descriptive queries, ask questions and search with more of a subject matter query in Google and get what you’re looking for most of the time. But videos are a bit different, and the conventions by which people post them, describe them and search for them are different.

It appears the second query got you the closest, but none of them pulled up what you were looking for. The video simply isn’t there, it appears. What you’re getting instead is the engine’s best bet for your desired results based on your query and its algorithms. You’ll notice words that are bolded within descriptions that match your query, although they don’t help much (such as singleton keywords like “student”, “on”, “show”, “in”, etc.)

You’ve given the site a long search string that simply has nothing close to matching it, so your results are equally obscure. It’s like typing in a bunch of random stuff into google that won’t really gel when it comes to spitting out a close match in the results.

Like typing in “Bea Arthur Mountains and Pizza” ........ wait…. bad example :)

You’re using too many key words in your search. When I search I first try the least amount of key words possible.

Do not use the words: the, a, an, is, in, on unless they are an integral part of a title you are searching for.

I understand thanks, esp. @gambitking, that was quite a detailed answer.
I tried Google and I got:
this

Where is the website of the orginal show? Isn’t everything archived and available for whoever wants to verify facts, for legal purposes for example?

well you need to broaden your query, you’re trying to be too specific. Google is powerful, but not omnipotent, so there are those occasions where you just have to give up and believe the horrible truth that the precise thing your looking for might not be on the internet – or, at the very least – indexed at Google and therefore find-able through search.

Also you might have to be creative sometimes. I did do some searching to see if I could find this item, and I didn’t have much luck. Maybe if I sat down and plugged away at it for a while, I could muster something close.

But I know you wouldn’t wish anyone to suffer through more than a few minutes of searching through anything involving Rosie O’Donnell because you’re a nice person, aren’t you !!

And I thought everything was on the internet! So, let me put the last paragraph aside for now. I can work at making a statement clearer, I dont know how to make something more vague. What were the phrases you tried to make it less specific?