because google does understand that no and without are interchangeable. But, understandably, it does not correlate "shirt without stripes" as being the same thing as "solid-colored shirts." Why, because no one advertises or describes a solid-colored shirt as a shirt without stripes and no one searches that way. It's an irrelevant point, in my opinion.
my point was that this very web page on HN got to top of Google search in 42 minutes or less on this search term
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Shirt Without Stripes | Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.com › item
42 mins ago - The point that the author is making, in a very understated way, is that all three companies have PR websites that breathlessly describe their ...
So the better search would be "DisplayPort adapter for a Mac."
As with including the word "stripes" in a search where you want to omit results with stripes, including the word "mini" is only causing unnecessary confusion. The adapter that works for a Mac Mini will also work for a Macbook, as an example.
Point being that the more narrowly-defined search does not require Google or Amazon to infer any meaning beyond what the object of the search is actually defined as.
A shirt lacking stripes would never be described or labeled as a "shirt without stripes."
In the absence of that actual description, you are asking google to assume what you mean.
It seems quite doable to handle "shirt without stripes" in the following way:
1) Gather all items labeled as "shirts" (among other labels)
2) Filter out any labels that includes "stripes"
A shirt doesn't have to be labeled "shirt without stripes" for this to work. A shirt labeled "shirt with stripes" or "striped shirt" would not match, and lots of other shirts (solid shirts, shirts with prints, whatever) would match just fine.
