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I concur on the looking up technical errors bit directing you to auto-generated sites! I was recently trying to troubleshoot a very basic error message for Li

I concur on the looking up technical errors bit directing you to auto-generated sites! I was recently trying to troubleshoot a very basic error message for Linux and was getting results and webpages that would list the error message in the title in some way, but then give instructions on "First, open up device manager", "Click Win+R to open windows command prompt", etc. Lots of untrustworthy ads. Different URLs, almost line-for-line identical webpages. This was something like the top four search results (that weren't sponsored ads).

WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
I usually look for these hallmarks: 1) if this is from the project's own site, it's good. 2) if it looks like an archive of the project's mailing list, it's good. 3) if it looks like an internet forum, it might be good, or it might be just another poor soul asking the same question. 4) if it's on StackExchange, it's like on the forum, except your chances are slightly better. Karma must flow. 5) if it's on Reddit, it's like on the forum, except your chances of getting an answer are worse. 6) if it's a blog of some geek, sometimes it can be better than 1) and 2), or you might just get a straight answer. 7) in any other case it's most likely a SEO farm. Run. If I have a linux problem these days, google usually gives me the relevant piece of source code on Github from which the error message originates. Like, you're a big boy now, go figure it out yourself. It seems we're back to the early 2000s, when search engines not so much specialized in topics, but leaned heavily towards one type of content or the other. Holy hell, maybe one day Reddit's own search will be good enough so google can be ditched for good!