I think there might be something else at work here: our rising expectations of how search engines should work. In years past, Google's results were measurably

I think there might be something else at work here: our rising expectations of how search engines should work. In years past, Google's results were measurably less relevant than they are today. In the time between "then" and "now", we're grown more accustomed to high quality, fast, relevant results. I think this makes it seem like small problems in search are bigger than they are. It would be great if there was a "Google of 2004" to test this side by side, but I don't think that is possible. :)