I agree that Google is aiming at most people, and not the HN crowd, and that they're doing a good job.
But I remember the days when you could craft a Google search url by hand and tweak the results. It was part of an advanced user's toolkit. All of that has been taken away. Searching is now opaque.
This is the point right here. Google intends these URLs for machine consumption, that you can simulate the work of the computer by hand doesn't change the facts. It also doesn't prevent them from creating another alternative URL scheme which is meant to be entered by humans explicitly.
At the risk of inadvertently dragging us into a discussion about the "bubble" that Google and other social services lock us into...Here are two points that I think are worthwhile:
1. Search has always been opaque. We've never known the complete details of PageRank, and we know even less about the hundreds of other flags and signals used by Google search to parse a query as vague as the famous "mike siwek lawyer mi" into something useful.
2. It is largely a good thing that we don't need to hack the search parameters anymore...because, in one sense, it means that search has gotten amazingly accurate. It's so good that I hardly ever go to the second page of results...instead, if I don't find what I want in the first 10, I just slightly alter my text query and Google will eventually get what I need (or at least what I think I need, but that's a philosophical question). I think that is a better UX experience for even hackers, as you can refine using natural language rather than tinkering with vague params.
But I remember the days when you could craft a Google search url by hand and tweak the results. It was part of an advanced user's toolkit. All of that has been taken away. Searching is now opaque.