Anything A3+ (13” x 19”) or smaller in the commercial printing industry is pretty universally considered “small format”. (Some places consider anything sheet-fed as small format and sheets come a lot bigger than A3+.)
It’s not surprising that searching using a specific industry term that’s different from your understanding of it would bring results for that larger-than-you-thought category of product.
Further, the smallbiztrends article that comes up first for me, that Adam claims “not a single one is an actual laser printer”, contains several printers that use the same dry toner, electrostatic process as laser printers and that most people outside of printing, if asked to name the printing tech, would call a “laser printer” (because they’ve never heard of an LED printer). The print quality issues that started his search were likely fuser-related not laser-related, meaning these colloquially incorrectly called laser printers would have been fine.
Search engines have problems, but this video isn’t hitting on them for me.
I think your take is a bit generous for that website.
Take this blurb for example:
> HP Designjet Z9+ PS Large Format Color Inkjet Printer
As one of the most expensive printers on the market, this HP DesignJet Z9+PS provides exceptional color control with a secure wireless connection and fast printing. Without a doubt this is a large format laser printer of the highest quality which can produce prints up to 44 inches wide.
It's literally written in a way that is completely lying and designed to mislead and keyword stuff. It's not even trying to hide the fact that it's lying to a human reader since it contradicts itself immediately by calling it an Inkjet printer (which it is). It makes more sense when you realize it's not trying to trick the human reader at all! It's trying to trick Google bot!
The title of the article implies it is about laser printers or at the least laser-like printers, but the list contains inkjet printers, making it somewhat useless even if some of the results are in fact laser-like printers because it forces the person to continue to sift through the spam for what they need.
The whole article is garbage information and just because it accidentally actually included one or two laser printers does not mean it is a relevant result! Why are you nit-picking on Adam Savage being wrong about how there is indeed a laser printer when the literal whole article is mostly lies.
So a printing industry professional looking for a web printer wouldn’t at all be upset with getting procedurally generated listicles about inkjet printers?
Clearly the problem here isn’t Adam’s lack of industry knowledge. Had he been served the correct results for his query he would have instantly learned what large format means in the industry and would have adjusted his query accordingly. The problem is that Google helps scammers and spammers at the expense of legitimate creators. Just like removing the like/dislike ratio on YouTube, which of course has caused a big increase in generated spam.
For a huge pile of things that aren't consumer goods, google is pretty good at figuring out what you're looking for even if you use imprecise terms, especially if the particular imprecision is common among non-specialists. That's sort of the selling point of google search and why the primary interface to just about all general-purpose web search engines isn't what used to be called 'keyword search'. It's definitely a search engine quality problem
Are there even lasers in the large format (50cm+ x roll of paper) realm? I thought it was all ink plotters/printers, at least that's all I've seen in print shops or design places. A lack of lasers might contributes to the SEO spam for the odd terms.
There are digital presses in B2 size using dry toner indirect (“laser”), liquid toner indirect (also “laser”), and inkjet processes. They are available in both sheet-fed and web-fed (“rolls”) configuration. (B2 sheet is 514x728mm, ~20x29”, or think “home/small poster size”; it’s sometimes called “half sheet”)
I work in this space (as a consumer of this equipment); all opinions here are my own, not my employer’s. For that reason, I’m reluctant to link to any specific vendor products, but if you’re interested, googling/YouTubing “b2 digital press” will give you some cool “how it works” videos.
A3 lasers certainly exist. But A3 is not wide format.
I've never heard of a true wide format laser (A2 and larger), and I suspect the technology doesn't exist to make an affordable one. You'd need super-precise optics, an absolutely huge toner/fuser system, and a supply chain for all of the above.
And there would be limited sales. Wide format printers are used for high quality art/photo printing, signage and ads, and sometimes for fabric printing.
Lasers are optimised for office document printing. You don't often need an A2 or larger office document. And when you do - cartography and blueprints - you're probably going to use a plotter.
It’s not surprising that searching using a specific industry term that’s different from your understanding of it would bring results for that larger-than-you-thought category of product.
Further, the smallbiztrends article that comes up first for me, that Adam claims “not a single one is an actual laser printer”, contains several printers that use the same dry toner, electrostatic process as laser printers and that most people outside of printing, if asked to name the printing tech, would call a “laser printer” (because they’ve never heard of an LED printer). The print quality issues that started his search were likely fuser-related not laser-related, meaning these colloquially incorrectly called laser printers would have been fine.
Search engines have problems, but this video isn’t hitting on them for me.