8 ms·
Unfortunately all these changes mean that it's now tougher to find old websites with specific information that you're looking for on Google nowadays, in general
by FreeFull 8y ago
Unfortunately all these changes mean that it's now tougher to find old websites with specific information that you're looking for on Google nowadays, in general. It feels like Google used to be much more useful for that ten years ago than it is now.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pmichaud 8y agoIt's much more adversarial than it was at the beginning.
- insulanus 8y agoThis may be a good thread to let people know about a hidden setting I found out about recently called Google Verbatim. I thought certain sites I used to search for had fallen off the Internet, but the change was how Google ranked its search results. Try the two searches below to see the difference: https://www.google.com/search?q=java+vm+language https://www.google.com/search?q=java+vm+language https://www.google.com/search?q=java+vm+language&tbs=li:1 https://www.google.com/search?q=java+vm+language&tbs=li:1 Enjoy!
- forapurpose 8y agoHow do we use it? Just append &tbs=li:1 ?
- cafxx 8y agoIn any search result page, click Tools > All results > Verbatim. That is also how you restrict e.g. the temporal range of results (Tools > Any Time > ...)
- brian-armstrong 8y agoYes! It is time for someone to disrupt Google. Please, we need a better search.
- djsumdog 8y agoWe really need good, alternative search. I miss Lycos, Hotbot, Yahoo and the days where if you didn't find someone in one place, you checked another. Searching for things took real work and you could find a lot of different rabbit holes. Today, rarely do we go past the 2nd page of results. About 1/3 of the time, I get frustrated with Duck Duck Go and add !g.
- bicubic 8y agoGoogle's purpose seems to have changed from helping people find the most useful information, to funelling people to information that Google wants them to find on a particular topic, whether its the most useful or not. Are we really still pretending like Goog/FB/etc. aren't effectively mass information control mechanisms first and foremost?
- tptacek 8y agoSemantic markup : Internet conspiracy theory :: fluoridated water : real world conspiracy theory.
- tylerl 8y agoHere's your monthly reminder that "relevance" is fundamentally subjective, and therefore all search and discovery services, both on the internet and offline, give you their opinion of what you'll find useful. How useful you actually find a given service to be is entirely a function of how closely you agree with that site operator's opinion.
- publicfig 8y agoI definitely think that's an incredibly legitimate concern and wouldn't want to dismiss it because it's such an important issue. It is also important to remember, though, that a lot of these changes are made in ways that (seemingly, at least) attempt to prevent sites from gaming the search algorithms. I have seen the quality of results I'd expect from a Google search go down, and I attribute that to quite a bit of factors, including Google's self interest. I also try and consider just the massive rise in general content available through the web, the further and further growth of it as a tool for manipulative information or propaganda, as well as its growth as a marketplace. I only mention these things because I think a lot of people, including myself, will tend to ignore a lot of the external factors that forced as well as allowed Google's search and results algorithms to be in the position they are in.
- neur000 8y agoWhat we can do in this day and age to find relevant information fast? Use another search engine? If yes which one?