In contrast to all the other comments here, Google has worked perfectly fine for me in the past, and still continues to give me the results I want. I have uBlock Origin to avoid sponsored results and live in the EU, so maybe that helps. So far I haven't felt the need to switch search engines because Google works perfectly fine.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Now that every website has a search function, Google has slowly turned into "I'll show you to the website and let them take it from there". It's absolute dog shit. I think the AI has already taken over, and it's progressing really slowly so we aren't aware of the change. It's already too late to pull the plug, the AI knows we're all driven by greed for attention and occasionally money, and it turns out those are both easily created and distributed in the modern age of the Internet, and very very unregulated.
I stopped using Google as my primary search engine all together. I now just use bing or duck duck go. Google is the last place I try searching.
I was just talking to some people about this. I use to be the guy who researched everything now I feel stupid AF because finding what I'm looking for feels impossible at times. Hell there's times where I search something and Google even says "there's nothing to find".
append reddit and if that still brings up garbage like reddit says... Articles
Use site:reddit.com it'll only show from reddit.com and nothing else.
Yea, turns out that without competition companies are lazy as fuck.
Google search was so legendary when it came out, it was able to find me perfect results when I would even type in almost gibberish, it somehow predicted what I actually meant. Over time the results were worse and worse, then nothing but products would show in the results a few years ago. Buy this, buy what,etc. no more research, just trash products in the search results. Google greed killed itself.
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What I will find interesting since it seems I find better content on stuff like lemmy. I wonder if we will go back to the model of webrings and human aggregated with a mix of user generated links search like yahoo used to be to combat the AI wasteland that is current search. With a web of trust model.
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I live in central Canada.
I am reading the comments, and I am noticing that other people's experiences are very different than mine.
For me, Google Search has reached the point where it will not even give me results for my search terms. I say this without an iota of hyperbole.
It's so coincidental that this conversation comes up, but I actually sat there yesterday agog, looking at my desktop Firefox browser window... Scrolling through the entire search results page and realizing that not a single thing was even close to what I searched
It is noteworthy because I have been observing a steady decline, but it was the very first time I could make use of literally nothing that they gave back. In an unsettling way, the gravity of it hit me emotionally right there.
imo deserved for being a Saskatchewaner. Can't be helped
Don't associate ME with those banjo-pickin' inbreds.
edit: I had referred to the people of Saskatchewan as a bunch of banjo-pickin’ inbreds. I was wrong to make such a statement, and I’d like to apologize. The vast majority of the people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.
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I recently tried switching to DDG for my browsers default searches... Instead of Google. It's wasted so much time.
The others are significantly worse. Even using very specific search terms for threads and content I've already gone to.
Bing was nice for porn for a while... Not so much anymore.
Not significantly because I'm always stupid specific with my searches, but I do notice that roughly every 5 results they put something in that has nothing to do with what I searched.
Yeah, the first measurements are rolling in and not looking great: https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_search_results_spam/
Basically, imagine someone built a machine that made it trivial to generate an infinite number of realistic-looking articles (=LLMs). And there's a monetary incentive to do so (=ad money).
So, I have to imagine, all search engines are absolutely being blasted with spam content, and they have to filter out realistic-looking articles to make their search results worthwhile at all, but as a result, some real search results will also get filtered out or ranked badly.
Huh. I hate advertising and think it's brainwashing that harms our minds, increases consumerism and causes massive environmental damage and biases all content and news production.
Affiliate links are just another form of advertising.
So the solution is very easy, outlaw affiliate links. Or advertising in general. Amazon and others should no longer be allowed to offer affiliate systems. Or remove any page with affiliate page or linking to pages with affiliate pages from search results.
You can't create rules and structures that prioritize profit and expect positive results.
Rip INTERWEBZ 2023 just preserve it how it was before it got sick
YouTube as well https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3dSkkEr-wk
This has been so annoying. I look up a video on disk provisioning and get a video of a goose wearing a tiny sun hat that I favorited in 2018. And then get the disk provisioning video three levels down...
I don't mean this mean I'm genuinely curious. Do you not use the front page or only really occasionally use lemmy world?
I'm just so curious how you don't see this every day on the feeds. Again I'm not meaning this like, GO USE A SEARCH ENGINE! it's just that this is such a prevalent topic here, and lemmy is so niche, how you've avoided an answer up until this post?!
He probably googled it and got an LLM telling him Google search is still amazing and it's all his imagination
Don’t miss this article (Lemmy discussion) from an air purifier review site for an in-depth look at how trusted publishers have been downsizing, then outsourcing generation of affiliate listicles. Drowns out sites who actually buy & test products.
alt-text: Google results for “best air purifiers "dotdash meredith"” showing People, Better Homes & Gardens, and a dozen other brands showing up, all reusing the same low-quality content
I only really use NYT Wirecutter for any kind of site that tests and reviews products.
They list their methodology regarding how they choose which ones to test, who is testing, how the test is being conducted, what the results are based on, etc etc
Is it the best one? No idea, give me your recs because I’d love to have multiple sites to go to. If I can’t find anything on Wirecutter, I’ll break down and see if Reddit has anything good.
Truly shameful how useless so many once great tools now are, and it’s all in the name of greed.
Edit: Just finished the article you linked - great read, thanks. Looks like Wirecutter is still good along with Tech Gear Lab and of course the site that wrote the article, HouseFresh.
I have 3 sites to try now! :)
General - Wirecutter
Tech - rtings
General incl. cars - Consumer Reports
Air purifiers apparently - House Fresh
Elsewhere there’s so much fraud I’ve been tempted towards crazy. Like, start a company where I personally meet people who want to review stuff and scan their IDs and take their SSNs before publishing any of their experiences/recommendations. Try to suss out if they have family connections to any products, any possible financial compensation…
For restaurants I’ve wanted to sit outside locations and ask diners who are leaving “ay this any good btw?”, given that’s hard to fake.
It blows my mind we haven’t solved review fraud!
alt-text: shoutout the local library for free Consumer Reports access; screenshot of their laptop comparison table with no ads, no SEO spam, no BS
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The entire internet has drastically declined for me.