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Anybody else noticed how bad Google search is at search nowadays? YouTube search too. Both of these search engines used to be incredible at turning up results w

Anybody else noticed how bad Google search is at search nowadays? YouTube search too. Both of these search engines used to be incredible at turning up results when provided with even the most obscure search terms, but now all of the top results are from main stream media news sites. In their quest to control the spread of misinformation they have neutered their core product. I miss the good old days :(

WhyNotHugo 7y ago
I moved to DuckDuckGo years ago. I did it mostly out of interest on their stance on privacy, but stayed and never moved out because of how much better their search results are.
- ramblerman 7y ago
  ddg works pretty well, but for obscure things it's even worse.
raxxorrax 7y ago
It is ridiculously commercialized. If you search for a topic and there is a commercially available product that happens to have the same name, good luck finding relevant info. Or what is new and even worse, if there is a news article about a certain topic, Google will heavily drive the traffic their way, regardless of the quality of the article. There are few topics left where search results aren't just shit.
capableweb 7y ago
I'm not sure "their quest to control the spread of misinformation" is the reason behind this, as the search quality got lower and lower before the whole panic around misinformation started. My guess would be that Google is tailoring their search engine to ~80% of the queries and optimizing for those, so when you're searching for the 20%, it's really bad. But when within 80%, it works great. I remember back in the day when you had to know how to search in order to find things. Some people were better than others and different search engines had different tricks. Nowadays it seems like trying to optimize your search query makes it worse, and most engines just deal with generalized queries.
rotidodol 7y ago
nowadays mainstream media spreading fake news
matheusmoreira 7y ago
Whenever I search Google for something, the top links are either ads or SEO'd results I don't care about. In both cases, rich companies paid money in order to put those results there. Any information that rises to the top because of money instead of relevance or merit is highly suspect at best due to the conflict of interest. Why would I want to listen to a company sell me its own product? It's safe to assume everything they say is lies.
boomboomsubban 7y ago
Though I'm sure Google holds a share of the blame, from my perspective abuse of search engine optimization led to this issue. There was a period when seemingly everything I searched had some obviously low quality product taking up the first page. I agree that the current state overvalues crappy media articles, but I'm not sure how much of it is Google's decision or richer organizations learning SEO themselves.
bjourne 7y ago
Yeah, you're not the first to notice that. It is very apparent when you search on YouTube for a politicians name and especially if that politician has been involved in a scandal. For American politicians, American mainstream media outlets such as Washington Post, CBS, ABC, Fox News and CNN dominate the search results on the first few pages. Same thing with other countries politicians so for British politicians you get videos from BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian and so on. This happens even as those videos are not the most watched, most highly rated or most recent. Independent media outlets that live on YouTube's advertising revenue are completely furious about it but powerless to do anything about it. I don't think it makes the public better informed either. The most powerful propaganda tool is not misinformation but misdirection. Positive news gets boosted and negative news gets suppressed. Essentially that is happening when YouTube boosts mainstream media. One actors view is boosted and all dissenting views are suppressed.
- cooljacob204 7y ago
  This is what happens when Google forces Amp and other similar metrics in their rankings. Only companies with a sizable IT department can keep up.
  - bjourne 7y ago
    What is Amp? My feeling is that YouTube has special rules which favor these tv networks. I'm noticing the same trend in YouTube results for my own country's political news, albeit on a smaller scale. The major broadcasters videos seems boosted somehow.

WhyNotHugo 7y ago

I moved to DuckDuckGo years ago. I did it mostly out of interest on their stance on privacy, but stayed and never moved out because of how much better their search results are.

ramblerman 7y ago
ddg works pretty well, but for obscure things it's even worse.

raxxorrax 7y ago

It is ridiculously commercialized. If you search for a topic and there is a commercially available product that happens to have the same name, good luck finding relevant info. Or what is new and even worse, if there is a news article about a certain topic, Google will heavily drive the traffic their way, regardless of the quality of the article. There are few topics left where search results aren't just shit.

capableweb 7y ago

I'm not sure "their quest to control the spread of misinformation" is the reason behind this, as the search quality got lower and lower before the whole panic around misinformation started. My guess would be that Google is tailoring their search engine to ~80% of the queries and optimizing for those, so when you're searching for the 20%, it's really bad. But when within 80%, it works great. I remember back in the day when you had to know how to search in order to find things. Some people were better than others and different search engines had different tricks. Nowadays it seems like trying to optimize your search query makes it worse, and most engines just deal with generalized queries.

rotidodol 7y ago

nowadays mainstream media spreading fake news

matheusmoreira 7y ago

Whenever I search Google for something, the top links are either ads or SEO'd results I don't care about. In both cases, rich companies paid money in order to put those results there. Any information that rises to the top because of money instead of relevance or merit is highly suspect at best due to the conflict of interest. Why would I want to listen to a company sell me its own product? It's safe to assume everything they say is lies.

boomboomsubban 7y ago

Though I'm sure Google holds a share of the blame, from my perspective abuse of search engine optimization led to this issue. There was a period when seemingly everything I searched had some obviously low quality product taking up the first page. I agree that the current state overvalues crappy media articles, but I'm not sure how much of it is Google's decision or richer organizations learning SEO themselves.

bjourne 7y ago

Yeah, you're not the first to notice that. It is very apparent when you search on YouTube for a politicians name and especially if that politician has been involved in a scandal. For American politicians, American mainstream media outlets such as Washington Post, CBS, ABC, Fox News and CNN dominate the search results on the first few pages. Same thing with other countries politicians so for British politicians you get videos from BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian and so on. This happens even as those videos are not the most watched, most highly rated or most recent. Independent media outlets that live on YouTube's advertising revenue are completely furious about it but powerless to do anything about it. I don't think it makes the public better informed either. The most powerful propaganda tool is not misinformation but misdirection. Positive news gets boosted and negative news gets suppressed. Essentially that is happening when YouTube boosts mainstream media. One actors view is boosted and all dissenting views are suppressed.

cooljacob204 7y ago
This is what happens when Google forces Amp and other similar metrics in their rankings. Only companies with a sizable IT department can keep up.
- bjourne 7y ago
  What is Amp? My feeling is that YouTube has special rules which favor these tv networks. I'm noticing the same trend in YouTube results for my own country's political news, albeit on a smaller scale. The major broadcasters videos seems boosted somehow.