Has search gotten worse?

[jimsterlingspronoun]

no, if youre as old ax me, youre remember when the 1000 search results were nothing but price comparison site links

 

[The Real SVP]

Used to be I could find plenty of data on what I wanted pretty easily. Now I can't.

This has become bad enough that I have gone back to cold calling and emailing people who might know what I want to find out, or can give me pointers to where to look. Which has lead to a lot of awkward conversations, but also strengthened my believe that opening the Internet to everybody was a mistake. And to me owing a date to a young Airman, if she ever gets deployed close to me, for calling me back over a week later after she finally got ahold of the person who could answer my question.

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

no, if youre as old ax me, youre remember when the 1000 search results were nothing but price comparison site links

I think the unspoken part of the poll is "in the past 10-15 years". Given a big enough time scale everything is better, but it's not helpful to compare 90s internet to 2020 internet. They're completely dissimilar in just about every way.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

no, if youre as old ax me, youre remember when the 1000 search results were nothing but price comparison site links

Well, yeah, no shit search results used to suck a long time ago too. The arguement here is that search engines used to be shitty and unreliable, then in the 2000's we went into a sort of Golden Era around the time broadband became the norm, then sadly in recent years the technology got shitty again. Actually, I wouldn't necessarily say it's shitty now, but rather lobotomized. Early internet was like a baby just learning, then it reached peak maturity in the 2000's, and now it's just a lifeless husk of itself.

 

[XMassAllYearRound]

Now that you mention it, yes, I've noticed I've had to rely on placing everything between "" quotes to get the results that I'm looking for with the engines showing rubbish most of the time while performing searches to trouble shoot very specific issues.

While this has been an issue with Google for a while duckduckgo had gotten better until about half a year ago (Oddly enough coinciding with the beginning of the campaign of a certain political candidate), after which I've had to alternate between DDG and Google to get what I'm looking for.

 

[Bongocat]

Now that you mention it, yes, I've noticed I've had to rely on placing everything between "" quotes to get the results that I'm looking for with the engines showing rubbish most of the time while performing searches to trouble shoot very specific issues.

While this has been an issue with Google for a while duckduckgo had gotten better until about half a year ago (Oddly enough coinciding with the beginning of the campaign of a certain political candidate), after which I've had to alternate between DDG and Google to get what I'm looking for.

Pretty much everything you can blame on DDG you can blame on their backend (Oath, I think?) which is ran by Yahoo. Believe it or not, they still exist.

Also one thing that annoys the shit out of me is that when I'm looking for a funny image or whatever with keywords, nowdays in google I always have to type in "meme" regardless of what it is. I feel like i need to take a shower afterwards.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Searching for tech issues and errors is a nightmare now. You get a ton of shitty spam results and unhelpful guides that are pumped up due to SEO. I heard a lot of these are content farmed by indians writing articles for a few pennies. I end up resorting to narrowing results by sites I know have discussion boards.

There always seem to be a "ProblemFixerPro" as the top result for almost every common issue you have. First, there's a guide, pajeet writing on how to fix it manually and that shit is outdated and doesn't work, then how ProblemFixerPro can do it for you! I mostly notice it looking around for specific video issues/questions and there's always a site that promises to fix that with their inept outdated guide OR paid for software. Always at the top of google, even googling ffmpeg things they pop up with their broken guide as a way to shill their software.

 

[RinguPingu745]

Been having the same problem and it feels like it's getting worse. I use a lot of older programs for work related things, and sometimes I need to find a solution to an obscure problem I might be having. I used to be able to easily find solutions to my issues, but now I get hits from sites that have nothing to do with what I am searching for. It's really inconvenient and makes my life harder. Google fucking sucks.

 

[Bongocat]

First, there's a guide, pajeet writing on how to fix it manually and that shit is outdated and doesn't work

>go to youtube to fix problem
>click on video
>[BRRRRWUUUBWUUUBWUUB DUBSTEP SCREECHING WITH 4K ANIMATED INTRO]
>240p video cuts in with loud static headset noise
>Unintelligible Indian accent at 10% volume
Hallo, dis is de pajeet u-tube channal, today wer go-ing to show how to remove the system 32

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

>go to youtube to fix problem
>click on video
>[BRRRRWUUUBWUUUBWUUB DUBSTEP SCREECHING WITH 4K ANIMATED INTRO]
>240p video cuts in with loud static headset noise
>Unintelligible Indian accent at 10% volume
Hallo, dis is de pajeet u-tube channal, today wer go-ing to show how to remove the system 32

I only go for russian typing slowly in notepad.

What I'm saying could probably be replicated by taking any normal process name in taskmanager and google it, you will fprobably find targeted software to fix it, all in pajeet.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Search engines have obviously degraded, but the search function on most of the websites I use have started to get really fucking bad for the exact same reasons.

Take Amazon for example. Trying to find anything on there has become an ordeal because it never gives me the stuff I want. A while back I was looking for resistance bands, the kind that you can use for multiple kinds of exercise. The problem was I was getting results for the kinds of bands that have loops on the end where you put your legs in, and even the ones that looked like what I wanted weren't when I looked closer at the page. And video games? Forget it. Even if I type in the exact game and console, Amazon will bury the exact one I want. Some days the search works okay, but sometimes the search function spits out everything except what I'm looking for. Ebay's better, but that's mainly because the search is on a seller-by-seller basis which allows it to be narrowed down. YouTube's search is downright pitiful; unless you have the exact title, you won't find shit. And even if you do, there's a chance the video's gonna be buried by the algorithm so it might not show up.

Whatever cancer the search engines have contracted is slowly spreading to other websites, and it's starting to piss me off.

 

[Bongocat]

Search engines have obviously degraded, but the search function on most of the websites I use have started to get really fucking bad for the exact same reasons.

Take Amazon for example. Trying to find anything on there has become an ordeal because it never gives me the stuff I want. A while back I was looking for resistance bands, the kind that you can use for multiple kinds of exercise. The problem was I was getting results for the kinds of bands that have loops on the end where you put your legs in, and even the ones that looked like what I wanted weren't when I looked closer at the page. And video games? Forget it. Even if I type in the exact game and console, Amazon will bury the exact one I want. Some days the search works okay, but sometimes the search function spits out everything except what I'm looking for. Ebay's better, but that's mainly because the search is on a seller-by-seller basis which allows it to be narrowed down. YouTube's search is downright pitiful; unless you have the exact title, you won't find shit. And even if you do, there's a chance the video's gonna be buried by the algorithm so it might not show up.

Whatever cancer the search engines have contracted is slowly spreading to other websites, and it's starting to piss me off.

the real tech redpill is that everything uses the same backends now. That's why when AWS goes down it takes literally half the internet with it. That's happened several times now.

 

[Totally Awesome]

Search engines have obviously degraded, but the search function on most of the websites I use have started to get really fucking bad for the exact same reasons.

Take Amazon for example. Trying to find anything on there has become an ordeal because it never gives me the stuff I want. A while back I was looking for resistance bands, the kind that you can use for multiple kinds of exercise. The problem was I was getting results for the kinds of bands that have loops on the end where you put your legs in, and even the ones that looked like what I wanted weren't when I looked closer at the page. And video games? Forget it. Even if I type in the exact game and console, Amazon will bury the exact one I want. Some days the search works okay, but sometimes the search function spits out everything except what I'm looking for. Ebay's better, but that's mainly because the search is on a seller-by-seller basis which allows it to be narrowed down. YouTube's search is downright pitiful; unless you have the exact title, you won't find shit. And even if you do, there's a chance the video's gonna be buried by the algorithm so it might not show up.

Whatever cancer the search engines have contracted is slowly spreading to other websites, and it's starting to piss me off.

The problem with Amazon is that it wants to show expensive "sponsored" items and hides the cheapest of what I want. Along with delayed shipping, I no longer prefer Amazon.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

>go to youtube to fix problem
>click on video
>[BRRRRWUUUBWUUUBWUUB DUBSTEP SCREECHING WITH 4K ANIMATED INTRO]
>240p video cuts in with loud static headset noise
>Unintelligible Indian accent at 10% volume
Hallo, dis is de pajeet u-tube channal, today wer go-ing to show how to remove the system 32

Oh god, the sad part is I know exactly what you're talking about. I always check the ratings and upload date, because often times the video has tons of downvotes and if it was uploaded a few years ago, the information is outdated. The comments often point this out too by saying "Um, this doesn't work with the newest Windows 10 update anymore."

 

[Sperghetti]

I might be the only person who didn't know this, but apparently Google releases core algorithm updates several times a year. Their last "update" was Dec. 3rd. So yes, they're constantly in the process of screwing with results and making shit worse.

Check out the "Focus on Content" Section:

Spoiler: What Google Cares About

Content and quality questions​

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
• Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
• Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Expertise questions​

• Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page?
• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions​

• Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?
• Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

In other words, Google seems to care more about whether or not their results show particular kinds of websites than they do about whether or not those results actually show a page that contains what the user was looking for.

In a way, I get it. I remember the era where websites would add paragraphs of completely unrelated words and phrases in their header just so they'd show up in as many search results as possible. But they've gone so far with this shit that it now just favors pages that are extremely wordy, but ultimately irrelevant to what I'm looking for, which leads to shit like recipe blogs making you scroll through an irrelevant life story to try and hunt down the gazpacho recipe hidden somewhere within it.

Also, can I just gripe about how Google won't index websites that haven't shelled out extra money for an SSL certificate? Doesn't matter if the site is coded entirely in HTML and CSS that would have been perfectly functional in 2001, and doesn't have any javascript, cookies, or trackers anywhere, it still needs to be verified as being "secure" or else Google pretends it doesn't exist.

 

[Dick Justice]

There always seem to be a "ProblemFixerPro" as the top result for almost every common issue you have. First, there's a guide, pajeet writing on how to fix it manually and that shit is outdated and doesn't work, then how ProblemFixerPro can do it for you! I mostly notice it looking around for specific video issues/questions and there's always a site that promises to fix that with their inept outdated guide OR paid for software. Always at the top of google, even googling ffmpeg things they pop up with their broken guide as a way to shill their software.

Oh god, the sad part is I know exactly what you're talking about. I always check the ratings and upload date, because often times the video has tons of downvotes and if it was uploaded a few years ago, the information is outdated. The comments often point this out too by saying "Um, this doesn't work with the newest Windows 10 update anymore."

That must be a windows thing. My pajeets just have a blog page that says "enter this needful command" and half the time it works and the other half it only works on ubuntu.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

But they've gone so far with this shit that it now just favors pages that are extremely wordy, but ultimately irrelevant to what I'm looking for, which leads to shit like recipe blogs making you scroll through an irrelevant life story to try and hunt down the gazpacho recipe hidden somewhere within it.

Today I tried to add new photos to my Tinder profile, but it kept giving me error messages instead of uploading them. I Googled "I can't upload new photos to Tinder Android 2021", and most of the results were Reddit posts from 2014-2017...except ONE tech article from a few weeks ago about this particular bug. So, I opened the article, and felt like such a Boomer because I had no idea how to read it. The page was full of ads, irreverent information, and worst of all, articles-within-the-article. As in, after the first few paragraphs, the article randomly paused and began a completely different article about some other Android issue, with the first paragraph of text clipped with "read more", before going back to the original article I was trying to read. Also in between each paragraph was a link and summary to a completely different article too (a lot of news sites do this in general). The majority of the actual article was just fluff about how Tinder is an online dating app, blah blah blah, and then in the last sentence of the final paragraph they explain the bug fix. Spoiler, the bug fix didn't actually work.

Holy shit, how the fuck is anyone supposed to be able to read anything? It was like watching a TV screen with a dozen shows playing on screen at once.

 

[Bongocat]

Today I tried to add new photos to my Tinder profile, but it kept giving me error messages instead of uploading them. I Googled "I can't upload new photos to Tinder Android 2021", and most of the results were Reddit posts from 2014-2017...except ONE tech article from a few weeks ago about this particular bug. So, I opened the article, and felt like such a Boomer because I had no idea how to read it. The page was full of ads, irreverent information, and worst of all, articles-within-the-article. As in, after the first few paragraphs, the article randomly paused and began a completely different article about some other Android issue, with the first paragraph of text clipped with "read more", before going back to the original article I was trying to read. Also in between each paragraph was a link and summary to a completely different article too (a lot of news sites do this in general). The majority of the actual article was just fluff about how Tinder is an online dating app, blah blah blah, and then in the last sentence of the final paragraph they explain the big fix. Spoiler, the bug fix didn't actually work.

Holy shit, how the fuck is anyone supposed to be able to read anything? It was like watching a TV screen with a dozen shows playing on screen at once.

Every time I try a new browser, the first thing I do is check if it can survive opening Web MD

 

[melty]

I thought this was interesting, this guy talks about how Google killed all traffic to his website in 2020. I found a link to his blog on the "dead internet" thread.

Good, Cheap and Fast Was 'The Best Shopping Site Around'

Good, Cheap and Fast was the most ideologically pure thing that I've ever created. Then, Google killed it.

www.johnwdefeo.com

 

[Bongocat]

I thought this was interesting, this guy talks about how Google killed all traffic to his website in 2020. I found a link to his blog on the "dead internet" thread.

Good, Cheap and Fast Was 'The Best Shopping Site Around'

Good, Cheap and Fast was the most ideologically pure thing that I've ever created. Then, Google killed it.

www.johnwdefeo.com

Yep, his story is not unique. Applied on a mass scale, it's little wonder why google's results have become abysmal for getting a variety of results.

One has to wonder though if normies will ever ask the question "Hey, did there used to be more than 12 websites on the Internet?"