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In my opinion the google search has been getting steadily worse for some time but I've noticed over the last couple of months it's now truly terrible, with at best a 50/50 chance of getting the result I'm looking for if I'm inputting a query, just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

JWBS wrote:
In my opinion the google search has been getting steadily worse for some time but I've noticed over the last couple of months it's now truly terrible, with at best a 50/50 chance of getting the result I'm looking for if I'm inputting a query, just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

It's a well-known problem. It's probably going to get worse much quicker, image search has been suffering from a glut of pinterest-related stuff for quite some time, and now it's getting flooded with nonsensical AI output for seemingly random constellations of search terms. Also, at least in the EU, you notice a lot of politically-motivated or legally mandated delisting and search manipulation going on, which is quite apparent once you search for 'blocked' terms on alternative or censorship-free engines. Of course it's understandable to block specific hate sites and illegal stuff, but once a search engine is compromised in that way you basically can never trust it again because you have no way of knowing what else they're withholding.

So between their comercially-motivated pushing of paying customers, poltical/legal shenanigan and factors that are mostly outside their control like e.g. the AI stuff, google is losing quality fast, and approaches zero value for some things already.

There's always an arms race going on between searchbots and spambots. Spam bots have been gaining ground for a couple years now and it's probably going to get worse when they harness the new chatbot tech.

Plus all the other things Tsagualsa mentioned.

My Google results can be all over the shop, as I use it fairly often for professional purposes, which involves looking up all sorts.

I’ve learned to pin results I’m going to rely on, because I’ve found, most frustratingly, some just don’t come up again, despite using the same search keywords etc.

Ads

Ads everywhere

Frankly, google, microschrott and certain other companies should've been broken up a long time ago.

Alas
we get google
and ads

and malware ads.

It’s when bad faith actors (such as needless claims management companies) pay to be top of search results, giving the illusion they’re a necessary part of things, and not opportunistic parasites who don’t do anything most folk can’t do for themselves.

Though now they’re regulated they’re going extinct. In a complete surprise to absolutely no-one.

I thought I'd seen less injury claims ads around!


That said the worst big search right now is youtube. You get 3 or 4 results that use your actual search terms, but only from recent videos or major hits of the past. Then you get 4 or so sponsored search results that don't really have much to do with what you wanted; then you get suggested search results then back to more that use some of your search terms.

With the whole thing weighted to modern/recent videos. Partly content creators might be to blame as they need their recent stuff promoted above all else to generate income for themsleves and also youtube


The are also other things too - eg how the search algorithm is now defining how websites and content are made. Shock titles, catchy phrases, short articles, drama, insults etc.. All these things are hot terms and things that it looks for. So because it looks for them and often promotes them more; more creators are focusing in in that kind of content, which in turn makes the algorithm favour it even more etc...


It will be interesting looking back to see the point at which search engines stopped being used as a tool and started being a defining element in how the internet and websites and information is exchanged and if we ever flip back the other way.

Another aspect is that Google grew massive on its search engine dominance. However if it gets more and more less desirable there's a chance that their dominance could be lost. Of course they've got vast resources so they can likely out-market and price out competition in a big way. However we could see a time where Google gets a or some serious competition in the general market; not just specialists

Agreed that YT is much worse. There are channels that I don't want to see content from that you can apparently block but when I search stuff those channels still come up. Combined with the masses of unskippable ads, random subbing to channels I've never watched, and unsubbing from ones I do, it's becoming far less worth the effort.

I get a kick out of how bad YouTube is - I keep getting ads and channel suggestions for the opposite of what I'm looking for. I.e. - I want to see something from Fox News because I want to see or hear it from the horses mouth, not from their competitors playing a 2 second clip and telling me what their context is - and I will get 5-7 videos from commentators before I can see the actual Fox interview or segment. Then I get ads for MSNBC or CNN. I stopped watching CNN when they moved Donny Lemon to mornings and gave up on the channel. Now I just stick to local news now since their demographic is limited to my neighbors and the political slant is lessened. That and I'm more interested in hearing about how many people who visit Disney are stabbed on their dream vacation. The big thieves just know that if they rob tourists nobody cares because they won't return to testify against them.

Google's image and video search is especially useless in my opionion. Haven't had too many issues with normal, text-based search.

And Google Scholar is still light years better for finding academic sources than the search system that the library of my university uses. That one rarely finds a publication unless you enter the precise title (and somethyme not even then).

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Google's image and video search is especially useless in my opionion. Haven't had too many issues with normal, text-based search.

And Google Scholar is still light years better for finding academic sources than the search system that the library of my university uses. That one rarely finds a publication unless you enter the precise title (and somethyme not even then).

A lot of universities have shockingly bad OPACs (online public access catalog). Partly its the cost (particularly for access to databases of online journals), especially if they're not part of a consortium, but whenever I have to go to a university library website for work (which happens regularly) I basically have to cross my fingers and hope. Even some of the big name 'Ivy League' universities are running library websites from the 90s and have terrible catalog records. Its backwards and wretched.


Google I rarely have any trouble with. I'm never really going that far afield with my searches, but when I put in some random topic (etymology of the word 'pork' was my most recent random ask, and that was at work and with private browsing on, so no search history), the results are on topic and not ads.. Not sure what else I'd need.

Unless I need some something specific I'm having trouble locating I rarely use it. Generally speaking DuckDuckGo is plenty good enough.

Always happens when a group gains an effective dominance of its sphere of influence. The competition which would normally keep the stupid in check isn't there.

Not had any problems myself

Just to comment on the „glut of pinterest-related stuff” - it is a result, not a cause, of google image search degradation. I’m a graphic designer by trade and have been using google for finding reference images and inspiration for years. Not anymore. Since about two years ago it is completely useless in that regard - hard cap on number of results, 3/4 of them have nothing to do with your query, and repeated searches give you 90% exact same results. Try searching something you are 100% certain there are milions of instances on the internet - you’ll still get those (nearly) same 500 results every time.

This is why most graphic designers moved over to pinterest, it grew and is now overrepresented in google.

And a word about AI thrash tsunami - it is just a taste of things to come. Even last fall, when MJ and SD just got attention, number of images generated per user was ten times larger than on instagram. We’re going to drown in samey imagery and no search engine is gonna save us.

What I hate about pinterest is the fact it's everyone's badly labeled personal scrapbook.

"feth" Google, use Startpage, Fight The Power!

I have not experienced a single issue.

However i am using 2 adblocks at all times, so that might help a good amount when it comes to making shure i dont see the junk of the web.

 Adeptekon wrote:
What I hate about pinterest is the fact it's everyone's badly labeled personal scrapbook.

Yeah, but excessive labelling is like catnip for search algorithms, especially for picture search, which leads to stuff with many labels or stuffed alt-texts coming up in a lot of searches with high confidence and good ranking.

nou wrote:

This is why most graphic designers moved over to pinterest, it grew and is now overrepresented in google.

Kinda funny (sad funny) that people are doing something similar with Reddit for random queries - if you're not already typing something like "Best free upscaling software Reddit" or whatever, then google is trying to autocomplete that phrase so the user might get the answer they need from reddit

So no magic bullet solutions the for this I take it. I'm going to have to start using multiple search engines I suppose. How tedious.

Not Online!!! wrote:
Ads

Ads everywhere

Frankly, google, microschrott and certain other companies should've been broken up a long time ago.

Alas
we get google
and ads

and malware ads.

Ads in my browser homepage, ads at the top of my inbox and coming soon ads in my Windows start screen.

And seriously when was the last time I bought ANYTHING from an online ad?

It’s less the ads that annoy me, as the total lack of advertising standards applied.

Promises of large, quick returns on investment. Clearly a scam, internet companies do nothing.

Report an ad because you know it to be selling knock-off versions of small business fancy goods. Using photos lifted from the genuine company’s own website? Nothing is done. No I’m not simping for GW on this one. https://www.theblackenedteeth.com/collections/lamps-1/products/the-skeleton-floor-lamp-black

Etsy Sellers are particularly vulnerable to this, and I do like my Etsy. It’s the best place to find kooky goods for my boudoir. So to see Chinese Knock-offs freely peddled online boils my piss.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s less the ads that annoy me, as the total lack of advertising standards applied.

Promises of large, quick returns on investment. Clearly a scam, internet companies do nothing.

Report an ad because you know it to be selling knock-off versions of small business fancy goods. Using photos lifted from the genuine company’s own website? Nothing is done. No I’m not simping for GW on this one. https://www.theblackenedteeth.com/collections/lamps-1/products/the-skeleton-floor-lamp-black

Etsy Sellers are particularly vulnerable to this, and I do like my Etsy. It’s the best place to find kooky goods for my boudoir. So to see Chinese Knock-offs freely peddled online boils my piss.

Frankly, that isn't even the most disturbing part, there are ads that are clearly malware and yet they distribute it.

Or mobile games blatantly ripping off old classic games like age 2, which at this point is basically a crime anyways.

It's as if QA doesn't exist for google at all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Ads in my browser homepage, ads at the top of my inbox and coming soon ads in my Windows start screen.

And seriously when was the last time I bought ANYTHING from an online ad?

Actually recently i had an ad for a shop that sells hobby material for cheaper, i guess that was usefull.

but that was 1 ad in i guess multiple 1000's of instances of gakky mobile games and amazon, and the get rich quick schemes that mad doc brought up...

Social Media is the worst for it. In the U.K. there are certain types of Investment you’re not allowed to promote to The Man In The Street.

Stuff like Contracts for Difference, Crypto etc. All high risk, usually unregulated, so if you lose out, your bum is out the window.

A regulated Financial Advisor can advise on them - but only to experienced investors, and within reason (so if you’re experienced, and have a total of £2m liquid assets, they can advise on CFD and Crypto type stuff, but still can’t say “invest the whole lot!!!!”, only a percentage).

Yet….FB? Crypto Adverts up the wazoo. Everywhere. Seems social media is arguing it’s exempt from advertising laws. That stems from a US Law (which I am not necessarily criticising) about the host not necessarily being responsible for content or something. It’s not my exact area of expertise.

But when you see people losing life savings, or being outright ripped off by scammers? It boils your piss every time you see it,

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Report an ad because you know it to be selling knock-off versions of small business fancy goods. Using photos lifted from the genuine company’s own website? Nothing is done. No I’m not simping for GW on this one. https://www.theblackenedteeth.com/collections/lamps-1/products/the-skeleton-floor-lamp-black

They seem to have the bones of a good idea with that product...

I may be treating myself to one end of June….for my Gothique Boudoir. Maybe my Parlour. Who knows.

I get a few port scans here and there and occasionally a few questionable browser connections while clicking here and there on dakka. Not quite sure on the port scans, but the browser connections were related to banners, though I think a couple of these were related to a user linked site and not necessarily the ads.

-

What I don't want to see is a search engine treating media with any kind of preference. I'm not talking about relevancy, but within the whole media establishment.

When it comes to corporate media, and or government subsidized media outlets that are widely sourced, national or globally.

The search engine shouldn't be giving any preferential treatment with those.

*shouldn't be*

For years, I've been searching [search term] + reddit

That's served me better than a basic google search, which turns up tons of useless results in its worsening algorithm.