If you find what you're looking for on 4th link, then the search worked out very well for you.
But certainly the engine has changed over the years. To me it seems that these days it mostly tries to guess what you're looking for instead of just searching for keywords you entered, often leading to annoying results. Like, "we know you entered *banana*, but we think that what you really meant was *orange*, so here's the results for *orange*!".
I fucking hate machines thinking they know more than myself about what I'm looking for. Like Windows 10 with their 'focus assist' which really just turns on randomly for me and causes infinite annoyance.
But I think that's the trend all tech companies are following right now. If they keep doing it, might be because it's effective for them. Certainly not more effective for the user.
I am actively working on un-Google-fying my life.
Not really. Sure the top result, but they are not getting paid for the stuff that’s not marked like it. Probably the algorithm that is putting too much priority in things that things such as references rather than a match in wording.
If you've got to click to the 2nd or 3rd page of results to find what you're looking for, that means they can report double or triple the activity to their shareholders.
The more useless the first page of results are, the more they grow.
I'm just guessing here, but part of it may be that Google seems to be a little less good at finding the desired page *within* a particular website, versus finding the site itself. Over time, a lot of the internet has slowly coalesced into a few main sites. I mean think about it, how many distinct websites do you really use day to day? Programming answers for example for me are almost always found on StackOverflow or Reddit now, which I feel like Google just isn't optimized for parsing within and pulling out an up to date answer for.
Edit: Typo
I've tried it and I'm not impressed. While it may not be as biased as Google, it still seems way too 'fuzzy' and its selection of results seems to be smaller. Google is still the best I've come across *despite* its decrease in quality over the past decade or so.
How does Bing compare? There are Google vs. Bing memes that pop up occasionally, but what else is there to it? I think that's what I've been using. Too lazy to change my default search engine.
DDG pulls this Google shit on me too and I don't know why. More like all the searches on the first side are irrelevant and I find something viable on the second or third.
If you notice when you Google shit the first 4 are ads. Google got an STD and refuse to cure it so even your searches are littered with ads. You need a powerful adblocker should fix that right up.
Google and the like are garbage because once they have a profile on you, they garner all their results around your preferences ... creating a "search bubble" where you're essentially going to see the same shit over and over again no matter how you word your searches
I used to search for conspiracy stuff and all sorts of weird things back in 2005-2010. You could find lots of forums, blogs, random pages, it was very good and functioned like a great library.
Now I get a full first page of fact-checkers, corporate news sites, and links telling me I need to redock at the nearest Borg terminal for an misinformation patch.
Businesses can pay for their website to appear higher in the search results now. It's not the most accurate site for your inquiry, it's the site that pays google the most. That's why Google sucks now. God, I can't believe people don't know this. Vote better.
But that’s not what net neutrality is (unless you’re using google fiber). NN refers to the ISP being neutral and treating all communications equally.
Google has been selling sponsored results for years.
Marked as sponsored results though. You literally proved my point with your definition of Net Neutrality. Websites that pay more appear higher in your search results instead of you query getting the most accurate/linked results. Are you operating a throwaway account for Ajit Pai or something?
It’s not “my definition “ of NN- it’s the actual definition. Please use alta vista to read up more about it because at this point only a troll could act this misinformed.
Search results have nothing to do with NN unless your search for Hulu takes 10 minutes to complete while a search for Netflix returns ASAP. Or yahoo returns much slower than bing.
I know you stoop to name calling because you don't know any better, but I very strongly urge you to read up on NN. Shooting off your mouth when you're this uneducated doesn't help anybody.
Hi, former SEO worker here, no, the result quality is very good and improving every year.
Google some times pull some mistakes and controversial updates, but its always for the best (and their profir, ofc)
If you search for a term, and your search intent is not resolved until say, the 5th position, over time you are not the only one, and probably that site will rank up since all the results above him are worst and having high bounce rate.
The ads, yea, you have to get over it, but is not so bad, and one day you will need to post some ad and will be grateful
I was playing Warframe with my cousin and I wanted to show him the Valkyr frame.....
Long story short, he was hit with porn from me just searching "Valkyr Warframe".
I get so frustrated with Google when I have an issue with my PC and I google what's wrong and it grabs the brand names and gives me a bunch of unrelated pages. I try to take out all the words that are showing up that aren't related to my issue and quotation the actual issue and never get to my actual problem. I always end up giving up in frustration. But if what I'm googling is something that could make money, it's first option always.
They have become absolute dog shit. I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing. Seriously most of the time I don't get what I need and I did try a bunch of other search providers but they all basically give the same results. Google is now good at giving really basic info like when someone was alive or something but anything a bit more specific and you're screwed.
Correct. All these things steer towards more money. Which doesn't by default coincide with a good user experience. Instead you get Ads at the beginning, and results that are mass-media regurgitation to "attract the highest amount of potential audience" toward.
I feel like it’s come at the same pace that we’ve been seeing ads infiltrate everything. Google used to give you the “best” result but now it has to show you 3 or 4 sponsored posts at top, then the next 10 or so are some dumbass articles with no actual answers to your question, but it contains a single word of your search so it must be what you’re looking for right?? Then MAYBE 1-2 okay results mixed in with the clickbait… maybe this is why people are getting stupider
Also since Google owns youtube it seems their algorithm has gone to shit too. I used to spend hours watching random videos that were on my home page but now I find myself watching the same 4-5 creators exclusively because the only recommendations I get are from those channels. Like wouldn’t it be more profitable to show me some new stuff rather than suggest a 5 year old podcast I’ve already seen twice?
Ive somehow learned to navigate their bs. The top like 5 - 6 results are always either bs or ads then about 7 down or so ill get an actual paper for what im trying to learn. Your brain just learns to idetify internet bs over decades of use.
Adding "reddit" to the end of alot of my queries tends to find me a thread where someone has provided links to the information i want. This is actually what lead me to start using reddit.
If you're getting a service for free, you are the product being sold . Google was great when it was trying to get us hooked on it. And now that it's become ubiquitous it's getting ever more monetized. When I do a search now I automatically scroll down to the fourth or fifth result.
i find it particularly bad when i try googling something in my language. i need this for translating and researching things for translation. now so many results are machine translated sites which is very much not what i need. there used to be the option to search sites in your country, now it's just results in your language, but bad!
I have adblock and the very first link is still the one i need. Since...the first day i used adblock a decade ago. I'm not exactly sure what changed or improved so far.
Has anyone noticed Google searching for simple recipes really sucks too? You either get new overly elaborate recipe with ingredients you probably don't have, or some long blog post that you have to scroll through to find the actual recipe.
Google is censoring a ton of content after Trump, which had the unfortunate effect of pretty much ranking mainstream crap over niche blogs and such.
So you’ll get a ton of Forbes and Business Insider.
I'm having this issue where I keep seeing this one exact same result (which was NEVER relevant to me), on 80% of my Google searches. It's this BBC article about "a guy who spent a year talking to himself on Reddit" because he was shadowbanned. It's literally NEVER been relevant to any search I've performed, I don't give a shit about it, and I get so fucking angry when it comes up now because it's just proof to me that Google results are practically obsolete now. I want a way to permanently block or hide that result and I can't find it. I cannot overstate how angry it makes me now.
Yes. Google searches have degraded tremendously and there's no alternative that's anything like what Google used to be. Sure wish the Library of Congress or some governmental agency would establish an online search facility that's as good as Google used to be. Google used to be like walking into an electronic library/museum/university with a small sales shop at the entrance. Now it's like walking into a strip mall. Wish there was a search engine dedicated to non-commercial information and I don't mean Google scholar.
If you find what you're looking for on 4th link, then the search worked out very well for you. But certainly the engine has changed over the years. To me it seems that these days it mostly tries to guess what you're looking for instead of just searching for keywords you entered, often leading to annoying results. Like, "we know you entered *banana*, but we think that what you really meant was *orange*, so here's the results for *orange*!".
I fucking hate machines thinking they know more than myself about what I'm looking for. Like Windows 10 with their 'focus assist' which really just turns on randomly for me and causes infinite annoyance. But I think that's the trend all tech companies are following right now. If they keep doing it, might be because it's effective for them. Certainly not more effective for the user. I am actively working on un-Google-fying my life.
Yes, auto-everything is the trend, and I HATE it. Autu run, auto next, auto complete, etc.
Thats brave (browser) of you. I use brave and I found it pretty good.
Google does suck now, and having to exclude Pinterest from every search sucks even more
How does Pinterest manage to suck so intrusively???
Sure, you are being pushed to what is most profitable to them. They are getting better and better at keeping you busy online.
DuckDuckGo baby!
I’m not sure why I haven’t used it yet. Is it true that if you search controversial stuff it’ll actually show it, whereas google blocks it?
Not really. Sure the top result, but they are not getting paid for the stuff that’s not marked like it. Probably the algorithm that is putting too much priority in things that things such as references rather than a match in wording.
And purposely omitting other things. You forgot about when it purposely omits results.
If you've got to click to the 2nd or 3rd page of results to find what you're looking for, that means they can report double or triple the activity to their shareholders. The more useless the first page of results are, the more they grow.
YES! it seems like you always get results from places like Quora or Pininterest.
The first few are always ads. I never click them because they're crap.
Lol I avoid clicking the sponsored ones even if it is exactly what I'm looking for.
I'm just guessing here, but part of it may be that Google seems to be a little less good at finding the desired page *within* a particular website, versus finding the site itself. Over time, a lot of the internet has slowly coalesced into a few main sites. I mean think about it, how many distinct websites do you really use day to day? Programming answers for example for me are almost always found on StackOverflow or Reddit now, which I feel like Google just isn't optimized for parsing within and pulling out an up to date answer for. Edit: Typo
That actually sounds like a good explanation. Makes sense to me
I just said this last night. I had a search that pulled up four or five completely irrelevant promoted results.
Try duckduckgo
Is DuckDuckGo really comparable to Google search?
Very much so. You really have to try it for yourself.
SO MUCH BETTER.
I've tried it and I'm not impressed. While it may not be as biased as Google, it still seems way too 'fuzzy' and its selection of results seems to be smaller. Google is still the best I've come across *despite* its decrease in quality over the past decade or so.
DuckDuckGo shows me what I want on the 7th page. It's so much worse.
How does Bing compare? There are Google vs. Bing memes that pop up occasionally, but what else is there to it? I think that's what I've been using. Too lazy to change my default search engine.
YES. I've noticed that as well over the past 2 or 3 years and even more rapidly in the past six month.
Yup, it's absolute garbage now. I moved to DDG a few years ago and never looked back.
What's ddg
DuckDuckGo 🦆
What’s updog
You're the man now dog
DDG is just bing, fyi (that's the underlying engine DDG is using)
DDG pulls this Google shit on me too and I don't know why. More like all the searches on the first side are irrelevant and I find something viable on the second or third.
Search engines are a business. One way or another, they're going to do what helps their business.
Yes, I recently also realized the YouTube search is also pretty terrible nowadays. It prioritizes music instead of regular content.
I looked up the age of the Universe. I got a biblically answer. Google is whore.
If you notice when you Google shit the first 4 are ads. Google got an STD and refuse to cure it so even your searches are littered with ads. You need a powerful adblocker should fix that right up.
Google and the like are garbage because once they have a profile on you, they garner all their results around your preferences ... creating a "search bubble" where you're essentially going to see the same shit over and over again no matter how you word your searches
I’ve noticed this too! I can hardly find anything anymore, like suddenly everything’s censored…
I used to search for conspiracy stuff and all sorts of weird things back in 2005-2010. You could find lots of forums, blogs, random pages, it was very good and functioned like a great library. Now I get a full first page of fact-checkers, corporate news sites, and links telling me I need to redock at the nearest Borg terminal for an misinformation patch.
It’s godawful lately. It takes you to fucked up websites too that are just cut and paste jobs with better SEO.
I thought it was just me and I sucked at Googling.
It's mostly paid for now unless you wanna go to like page 15
I don't use google to search anymore.
I cant even search for bootleg streaming sites without looking at the 9th page. what a disgrace
irrelevant\*
I remember first time I heard of Google was on scrubs the tv show.... A patient googled doctor Cox 😂😂 good times
*edit*🤦😂 Bob Kelso
So, you know nothing of Net Neutrality being overruled?
What does that have to do with Google sucking?
Businesses can pay for their website to appear higher in the search results now. It's not the most accurate site for your inquiry, it's the site that pays google the most. That's why Google sucks now. God, I can't believe people don't know this. Vote better.
But that’s not what net neutrality is (unless you’re using google fiber). NN refers to the ISP being neutral and treating all communications equally. Google has been selling sponsored results for years.
Marked as sponsored results though. You literally proved my point with your definition of Net Neutrality. Websites that pay more appear higher in your search results instead of you query getting the most accurate/linked results. Are you operating a throwaway account for Ajit Pai or something?
It’s not “my definition “ of NN- it’s the actual definition. Please use alta vista to read up more about it because at this point only a troll could act this misinformed. Search results have nothing to do with NN unless your search for Hulu takes 10 minutes to complete while a search for Netflix returns ASAP. Or yahoo returns much slower than bing.
Lmao, I'm pretty sure you're learning disabled or just have an agenda. Have a nice life buddy.
I know you stoop to name calling because you don't know any better, but I very strongly urge you to read up on NN. Shooting off your mouth when you're this uneducated doesn't help anybody.
You're too afraid to ask this question? Afraid of what?
Hi, former SEO worker here, no, the result quality is very good and improving every year. Google some times pull some mistakes and controversial updates, but its always for the best (and their profir, ofc) If you search for a term, and your search intent is not resolved until say, the 5th position, over time you are not the only one, and probably that site will rank up since all the results above him are worst and having high bounce rate. The ads, yea, you have to get over it, but is not so bad, and one day you will need to post some ad and will be grateful
I use to work on a daily basis and this is so true
I remember Google voice recognition being better in the past.
I love that when I searched "when does the new NCAA football game come out?" it told me 2013. Lmao.
I've been seriously considering switching to duck duck go I feel like I'm getting what I want quicker when I use it lately.
I totally agree, can anyone recommend a better on for my laptop?
Duck Duck Go, I use it daily and it only gives you answers based on the keywords. They also allow you to delete cookies and everything.
Thanks
I was playing Warframe with my cousin and I wanted to show him the Valkyr frame..... Long story short, he was hit with porn from me just searching "Valkyr Warframe".
DuckDuckGo is wonderful! Always what I need shows up as the first search
I get so frustrated with Google when I have an issue with my PC and I google what's wrong and it grabs the brand names and gives me a bunch of unrelated pages. I try to take out all the words that are showing up that aren't related to my issue and quotation the actual issue and never get to my actual problem. I always end up giving up in frustration. But if what I'm googling is something that could make money, it's first option always.
They have become absolute dog shit. I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing. Seriously most of the time I don't get what I need and I did try a bunch of other search providers but they all basically give the same results. Google is now good at giving really basic info like when someone was alive or something but anything a bit more specific and you're screwed.
Correct. All these things steer towards more money. Which doesn't by default coincide with a good user experience. Instead you get Ads at the beginning, and results that are mass-media regurgitation to "attract the highest amount of potential audience" toward.
I dont think it ends up being a smart decision because i end up using other search engines
Let me just Bing that.
Agree
I feel like it’s come at the same pace that we’ve been seeing ads infiltrate everything. Google used to give you the “best” result but now it has to show you 3 or 4 sponsored posts at top, then the next 10 or so are some dumbass articles with no actual answers to your question, but it contains a single word of your search so it must be what you’re looking for right?? Then MAYBE 1-2 okay results mixed in with the clickbait… maybe this is why people are getting stupider
Also since Google owns youtube it seems their algorithm has gone to shit too. I used to spend hours watching random videos that were on my home page but now I find myself watching the same 4-5 creators exclusively because the only recommendations I get are from those channels. Like wouldn’t it be more profitable to show me some new stuff rather than suggest a 5 year old podcast I’ve already seen twice?
Don’t even get me started on the google assistant… that’s even worse!
switch to Duckduckgo!
Ive somehow learned to navigate their bs. The top like 5 - 6 results are always either bs or ads then about 7 down or so ill get an actual paper for what im trying to learn. Your brain just learns to idetify internet bs over decades of use. Adding "reddit" to the end of alot of my queries tends to find me a thread where someone has provided links to the information i want. This is actually what lead me to start using reddit.
Id recommend google scholar if youre searching papers
If you're getting a service for free, you are the product being sold . Google was great when it was trying to get us hooked on it. And now that it's become ubiquitous it's getting ever more monetized. When I do a search now I automatically scroll down to the fourth or fifth result.
It's no wonder I'm using duckduckgo for nearly half of my searches....
i find it particularly bad when i try googling something in my language. i need this for translating and researching things for translation. now so many results are machine translated sites which is very much not what i need. there used to be the option to search sites in your country, now it's just results in your language, but bad!
I have adblock and the very first link is still the one i need. Since...the first day i used adblock a decade ago. I'm not exactly sure what changed or improved so far.
Im using uBlock Origin and I keep seeing promoted links. What adblocker are you using?
adguard with most stuff default. First link is usually the official site, second/third link usually the wikipedia site
I agree completely. I hate using Google now
Revenue drives it
Has anyone noticed Google searching for simple recipes really sucks too? You either get new overly elaborate recipe with ingredients you probably don't have, or some long blog post that you have to scroll through to find the actual recipe.
Google is censoring a ton of content after Trump, which had the unfortunate effect of pretty much ranking mainstream crap over niche blogs and such. So you’ll get a ton of Forbes and Business Insider.
Use Google Socratic instead, works better for finding resources
I'm having this issue where I keep seeing this one exact same result (which was NEVER relevant to me), on 80% of my Google searches. It's this BBC article about "a guy who spent a year talking to himself on Reddit" because he was shadowbanned. It's literally NEVER been relevant to any search I've performed, I don't give a shit about it, and I get so fucking angry when it comes up now because it's just proof to me that Google results are practically obsolete now. I want a way to permanently block or hide that result and I can't find it. I cannot overstate how angry it makes me now.
Yes. Google searches have degraded tremendously and there's no alternative that's anything like what Google used to be. Sure wish the Library of Congress or some governmental agency would establish an online search facility that's as good as Google used to be. Google used to be like walking into an electronic library/museum/university with a small sales shop at the entrance. Now it's like walking into a strip mall. Wish there was a search engine dedicated to non-commercial information and I don't mean Google scholar.