5 ms·

I've definitely noticed that I"ve had to add "wiki" to my search results to see Wikpedia articles to certain subjects I'm searching for whereas in previous year

by colmvp 6y ago

I've definitely noticed that I"ve had to add "wiki" to my search results to see Wikpedia articles to certain subjects I'm searching for whereas in previous years, Wikipedia was almost always the number one result. I feel like I'm back in the 90s when Yahoo went from a pretty good search engine to mediocre with ads and stuff, and I marveled at the clean simplicity of Google. Now, I'm finding Google shows a bunch of articles from dubious sources and whereas DDG will pull Wikipedia articles closer to the top.

realusername 6y ago
I've been noticing it for a while, the search quality gets worse and worse every year. For me, the red line was the Panda update in 2011. That update completely destroyed the search quality by bringing dubious quality news articles and ecommerce websites on the top of search, it never really recovered since then.
- MiroF 6y ago
  At this point, I basically have to append "reddit" to every search if I want to get quality answers.
  - realusername 6y ago
    That's exactly what I've been doing almost unconsciously, I'm adding "wiki" or "reddit" at the end of every query except for programming ones. The only time I'm using the search as intended is for programming error queries where it's way too niche for Google to append low quality news farms / ecommerce websites. That's the only type of query I still get good results.
    - JaRail 6y ago
      Even programming questions. If it's something considered popular, you get awful results. Take javascript, I always append "mdn" when I'm trying to look up a language/api detail. Otherwise I'd be sifting through the top ten garbage Q&A or tutorial sites. In the glory days, Page Rank would return reference material first since it was so heavily referenced. But clearly that no longer works in the real world of SEO optimization.
      - spideymans 6y ago
        Finding good Angular content is damn near impossible on Google, with the immense amount of regurgitated blog spam trying to sell templates via blog posts disguised as guides/tutorials.
  - encom 6y ago
    What? Reddit.com is essentially unusable since the update a few years(?) ago.
    - lwh 6y ago
      old.reddit.com still works
      - delecti 6y ago
        You can also permanently turn off the new look while you're logged in.
    - lewapkon 6y ago
      Don't you think 'essentially unusable' is quite an overstatement?
    - jeromegv 6y ago
      I love how people totally ignore the million of daily users based on their personal experience. If it was essentialy unusable, there wouldn’t be millions of people on it.
      - stock_toaster 6y ago
        Yeah, it's the age old "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded".
    - chowderhead 6y ago
      Open your browser dev tools and put this in the console: document.cookie = "redesign_optout=true; domain=.reddit.com; path=/; expires=Tue, 01 Jan 2030 00:00:00 GMT"; document.cookie = "listingsignupbar_dismiss=1; domain=.reddit.com; path=/; expires=Tue, 01 Jan 2030 00:00:00 GMT"; This reverts to old reddit without having an account, and without using old.reddit.com
    - glenstein 6y ago
      True. But you can still use old.reddit.com. The content is still there, it's just not accessible. So my process has been to search for 'keyword + reddit', click the best search result, then manually type in 'old' in place of 'www' in the url.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - nostromo 6y ago
    It really is unfortunate. I loved how Google used to find high quality discussions on all sorts of niche topics (tech, gardening, science, diy...) on sites like MetaFilter and Reddit. Now those queries seem to lead to mostly videos, low quality sites, and shopping sites.
- dawnerd 6y ago
  Yeah but panda also killed ehow which, despite also killing all my stock value, was a huge win for anyone that hated seeing seo spam in every search. Unfortunately it seems the problem is back, especially with Pinterest, Sfgate, the spruce, etc.
  - Twixes 6y ago
    Pinterest is a horror, there are Google searches where half the results visible at first are Pinterest links with various TLDs (pinterest.com, .fr, .de etc.)
doublesCs 6y ago
If you have Firefox I would suggest that you go on Wikipedia.org, right-click the search box, click "Add keyword to this search", and pick a keyword. This makes it faster to find information that you know is on Wikipedia.
- clairity 6y ago
  yah, keywords are such a great but probably underutilized feature of firefox. i set up 'wiki' and a bunch of others when i started using firefox over a decade ago. i still use most today, although i've pointedly replaced google with duckduckgo ('g') long ago as well.
- boogies 6y ago
  This, but also, when you're stuck on Chromium, change the default search to DuckDuckGo or Searx and use !w or !wp to search Wikipedia (and !s !sp if you want Google results for some reason, and !g or !go if you want Google results with a filter bubble).
  - boogies 6y ago
    Addendum: sorry to imply you can't also use keywords there, thanks to oefhra for reminding me you can https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23478553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23478553
- ma2rten 6y ago
  In chrome you can type en.wikipedia.org and hit tab. For me it will autocomplete if you just type en.
  - delecti 6y ago
    The default is the whole domain (and it also works with other sites, like "amazon.com query"), but you can also change the keyword for it. For several years I've had "wp" as the keyword for wikipedia searches, and it works in both Firefox and Chrome. I just type "wp whatever my query is", no tab needed, and it will take me directly to the result.
theandrewbailey 6y ago
If DDG is your default search, use the Wikipedia searchbang[0]. !w X will directly search Wikipedia for X. [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
- _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
  Even easier, if Firefox is your browser, you can add a search keyword 'w' for Wikipedia and type: w X to directly search Wikipedia for X.
unethical_ban 6y ago
Use duckduckgo and type "!w blah" to go straight to the article for blah.
pickdenis 6y ago
> Now, I'm finding Google shows a bunch of articles from dubious sources and whereas DDG will pull Wikipedia articles closer to the top. In my (limited) experience, I dislike using DDG because it gets confused by less important words in the search query. For example, for "who coined the term faux pas" Google simply gives a bunch of links to webpages that define and elucidate the term "faux pas". DDG, however, gives a wide variety of results, many being totally irrelevant. The first article is on parapraxis, the second is the wiki article for microaggression (?). http://archive.is/jv0qd http://archive.is/jv0qd (notice how DDG bolds the phrase "coined the term" in the first link, thinking that this is the relevant part of the query). It's stuff like this that will prevent DDG from catching on with the general population who have been spoiled by Google.
danuker 6y ago
Is Google breaking the "Attribution" requirement of CC-BY-SA? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

by colmvp 6y ago

realusername 6y ago

I've been noticing it for a while, the search quality gets worse and worse every year. For me, the red line was the Panda update in 2011. That update completely destroyed the search quality by bringing dubious quality news articles and ecommerce websites on the top of search, it never really recovered since then.

MiroF 6y ago
At this point, I basically have to append "reddit" to every search if I want to get quality answers.
- realusername 6y ago
  That's exactly what I've been doing almost unconsciously, I'm adding "wiki" or "reddit" at the end of every query except for programming ones. The only time I'm using the search as intended is for programming error queries where it's way too niche for Google to append low quality news farms / ecommerce websites. That's the only type of query I still get good results.
  - JaRail 6y ago
    Even programming questions. If it's something considered popular, you get awful results. Take javascript, I always append "mdn" when I'm trying to look up a language/api detail. Otherwise I'd be sifting through the top ten garbage Q&A or tutorial sites. In the glory days, Page Rank would return reference material first since it was so heavily referenced. But clearly that no longer works in the real world of SEO optimization.
    - spideymans 6y ago
      Finding good Angular content is damn near impossible on Google, with the immense amount of regurgitated blog spam trying to sell templates via blog posts disguised as guides/tutorials.
- encom 6y ago
  What? Reddit.com is essentially unusable since the update a few years(?) ago.
  - lwh 6y ago
    old.reddit.com still works
    - delecti 6y ago
      You can also permanently turn off the new look while you're logged in.
  - lewapkon 6y ago
    Don't you think 'essentially unusable' is quite an overstatement?
  - jeromegv 6y ago
    I love how people totally ignore the million of daily users based on their personal experience. If it was essentialy unusable, there wouldn’t be millions of people on it.
    - stock_toaster 6y ago
      Yeah, it's the age old "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded".
  - chowderhead 6y ago
    Open your browser dev tools and put this in the console: document.cookie = "redesign_optout=true; domain=.reddit.com; path=/; expires=Tue, 01 Jan 2030 00:00:00 GMT"; document.cookie = "listingsignupbar_dismiss=1; domain=.reddit.com; path=/; expires=Tue, 01 Jan 2030 00:00:00 GMT"; This reverts to old reddit without having an account, and without using old.reddit.com
  - glenstein 6y ago
    True. But you can still use old.reddit.com. The content is still there, it's just not accessible. So my process has been to search for 'keyword + reddit', click the best search result, then manually type in 'old' in place of 'www' in the url.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nostromo 6y ago
  It really is unfortunate. I loved how Google used to find high quality discussions on all sorts of niche topics (tech, gardening, science, diy...) on sites like MetaFilter and Reddit. Now those queries seem to lead to mostly videos, low quality sites, and shopping sites.
dawnerd 6y ago
Yeah but panda also killed ehow which, despite also killing all my stock value, was a huge win for anyone that hated seeing seo spam in every search. Unfortunately it seems the problem is back, especially with Pinterest, Sfgate, the spruce, etc.
- Twixes 6y ago
  Pinterest is a horror, there are Google searches where half the results visible at first are Pinterest links with various TLDs (pinterest.com, .fr, .de etc.)

doublesCs 6y ago

If you have Firefox I would suggest that you go on Wikipedia.org, right-click the search box, click "Add keyword to this search", and pick a keyword. This makes it faster to find information that you know is on Wikipedia.

clairity 6y ago
yah, keywords are such a great but probably underutilized feature of firefox. i set up 'wiki' and a bunch of others when i started using firefox over a decade ago. i still use most today, although i've pointedly replaced google with duckduckgo ('g') long ago as well.
boogies 6y ago
This, but also, when you're stuck on Chromium, change the default search to DuckDuckGo or Searx and use !w or !wp to search Wikipedia (and !s !sp if you want Google results for some reason, and !g or !go if you want Google results with a filter bubble).
- boogies 6y ago
  Addendum: sorry to imply you can't also use keywords there, thanks to oefhra for reminding me you can https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23478553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23478553
ma2rten 6y ago
In chrome you can type en.wikipedia.org and hit tab. For me it will autocomplete if you just type en.
- delecti 6y ago
  The default is the whole domain (and it also works with other sites, like "amazon.com query"), but you can also change the keyword for it. For several years I've had "wp" as the keyword for wikipedia searches, and it works in both Firefox and Chrome. I just type "wp whatever my query is", no tab needed, and it will take me directly to the result.

theandrewbailey 6y ago

If DDG is your default search, use the Wikipedia searchbang[0]. !w X will directly search Wikipedia for X. [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang

_emacsomancer_ 6y ago
Even easier, if Firefox is your browser, you can add a search keyword 'w' for Wikipedia and type: w X to directly search Wikipedia for X.

unethical_ban 6y ago

Use duckduckgo and type "!w blah" to go straight to the article for blah.

pickdenis 6y ago

> Now, I'm finding Google shows a bunch of articles from dubious sources and whereas DDG will pull Wikipedia articles closer to the top. In my (limited) experience, I dislike using DDG because it gets confused by less important words in the search query. For example, for "who coined the term faux pas" Google simply gives a bunch of links to webpages that define and elucidate the term "faux pas". DDG, however, gives a wide variety of results, many being totally irrelevant. The first article is on parapraxis, the second is the wiki article for microaggression (?). http://archive.is/jv0qd http://archive.is/jv0qd (notice how DDG bolds the phrase "coined the term" in the first link, thinking that this is the relevant part of the query). It's stuff like this that will prevent DDG from catching on with the general population who have been spoiled by Google.

danuker 6y ago

Is Google breaking the "Attribution" requirement of CC-BY-SA? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights