Has search gotten worse?

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account

Is the quality of web search results getting worse?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1,238 94.6%

  • No

    Votes: 19 1.5%

  • IDK

    Votes: 52 4.0%
  • Total voters
    1,309
So in the birding world, if a person googles a bird's common name 95% of the time they're looking for that bird's All About Bird pages from Cornell Lab. More specifically, they're looking for the "sounds" page to listen to calls. Google use to know this, so naturally if you typed in "Common Grackle" or "Blackburnian Warbler" the first result was the page with all the calls and songs, followed by Wikipedia, followed by the Cornell page about the bird's life history, followed by various other hits. But around the time George Floyd got yeeted I noticed what looks like a concentrated effort to tank Cornell Lab and All About Birds. All of a sudden the page from the Audubon Field Guide- which might do the job depending on what you're looking at but is honestly isn't the best- is at the top and depending on the bird, Cornell might be very close to the bottom. Other bird people I've talked to have noticed this too, though strangely a few said they haven't experienced it at all. I suspect this might have something to do with Audubon being thoroughly woke and even hiring a rapist because he was black, while Cornell has been quietly trying to duck its head and has the audacity to *gasp* still call it McCown's Longspur.

No stone is too small to astroturf, even birds.
 
Rusty Crab said:
fandom
Click to expand...

Fandom recently "upgraded" the site so that comments don't show up unless you're using the latest browsers. Also pictures open to this stupid JavaScript gallery thing that only works in the latest browsers, so if you access the picture with JavaScript off, or in a new tab, or in an older browser, it just bounces back to the article. Why did they even do that anyway? It worked fine before.

(also it can be annoying how links to other fandom wikis about stuff like Marvel keep showing up)

Disgruntled Pupper said:
No stone is too small to astroturf, even birds.
Click to expand...

[honk honk]
 
Clicking on the "Shopping" tab for Google often nets some dumb results for generic, graphic t-shirts that will replace a certain word with whatever you want.

I was looking for a used game, and then I find ads for t-shirts that say things like, "This Girl Loves F-Zero GX" and "It's a F-Zero GX Thing. You Wouldn't Understand".
 
Agent Abe Caprine said:
Fandom links would be fine if the site wasn't riddled with autoplay videos. I'm going to the Megami Tensei wiki to look up stats so I can formulate a strategy, not watch some unrelated video. Now stop clogging the page up. Speaking of which, looking up Aya Nishitani on Google you get this.
View attachment 2244719
The page this leads to isn't a stub. Why is this nonsense clogging the description up?
Click to expand...
Oh for fuck's sake, I absolutely hate Googling something real quick on mobile and getting Fandom Wiki results, because the autoplay videos are a nightmare. At least on desktop I have the luxury of AdBlocker.
 
Ron Jeremy Stan Account said:
Oh for fuck's sake, I absolutely hate Googling something real quick on mobile and getting Fandom Wiki results, because the autoplay videos are a nightmare. At least on desktop I have the luxury of AdBlocker.
Click to expand...
I mostly browse it on mobile since alt+tabbing is too much effort while playing turn based RPGs. Even with Brave, the videos pop up. Tried blocking Javascript and it made the stats a pain to look at and look for. I now despise Mass Effect because that damn blue alien keeps popping up when I want a demonic dong's stats. Fandom is cockblocking me.
 
Rusty Crab said:
I have to force close the browser every time.
Click to expand...

I hate it when sites have messages asking you to disable ad blockers.

Even worse is when said message blocks the content (which can be bypassed by disabling JS).

Why do they think people use ad blockers in the first place?

(if I go on YT with uBlock it can show that 50-200+ things are blocked holy crap)
 
What I find hilarious that if I'm searching for a image for example that is oddly specific or anything along them lines. Unless I do it through Google Images, everything just comes back with random shit that sort of close to what I searched for. Duckduckgo, Bing, etc image searches are just so whack which is a real shame, as I try not to not use google as much as I can, as I'm sure they know plenty about me already.
 
Bingeamint said:
What I find hilarious that if I'm searching for a image for example that is oddly specific or anything along them lines. Unless I do it through Google Images, everything just comes back with random shit that sort of close to what I searched for. Duckduckgo, Bing, etc image searches are just so whack which is a real shame, as I try not to not use google as much as I can, as I'm sure they know plenty about me already.
Click to expand...
yeah there's not much competition for (non-reverse) image search unfortunately. Yandex is actually a formidable opponent, but of course, it has it's own issues
 
No Google, I had no fucking idea there's a musician who calls herself "Snail Mail" nor I fucking care, I just wanted to send an old fashioned letter.
 
TheRetardKing said:
Damn it, Google! I wanna make a Mii of Fred Flinstone for Miitopia, not find poorly-drawn DeviantArt pictures of his feet!
View attachment 2201859
Click to expand...
You know they tailor search to your history right? Maybe you wanna tell us why you're looking up feet?
ditto said:
They replaced it with DuckDuckGo, which is just Bing with extra steps.
Click to expand...
Bing-with-a-condom is still orders of magnitude better than Bing.
 
Dick Justice said:
Maybe you wanna tell us why you're looking up feet?
Click to expand...
Screenshot 2021-06-14 12.53.49 PM.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom