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Which is the core issue, Google has likely gotten better for the average user, but worse for above average users; say this as an above average searcher that has
by O__________O 4y ago
Which is the core issue, Google has likely gotten better for the average user, but worse for above average users; say this as an above average searcher that has helped average users search for years.
To my knowledge Google neither publishes search quality reports, nor acknowledges that there’s a gap between their search quality for average users and above average users. In my experience even their “Search Quality Raters” (contractors paid to evaluate search quality) are rarely above average searchers, they are just good at evaluating what they evaluate.
- postalrat 4y agoI can see how things have gotten better for the average user. All searches seem to lead to ads and questionable generated reviews and content.
- O__________O 4y agoAverage user either likely: does not care, values ADs, understands ADs pay the bills, does not care enough to understand ad blockers, cannot tell search quality has changed, is unable to tell real reviews from fake, etc. If you care, in my opinion, you’re not an average user, since if the average user cared, so would Google.
- postalrat 4y agoAverage users do care. How do you think google got to be so popular?
- O__________O 4y agoWhy Google became popular is way to complex a topic for a thread like this, but no, average user at this point does not with any meaningful cadence look for other search engines to use and likely started using Google not because they compared it to others, but because someone told them to use it. If you’re doing more than five searches a day, you’re not average.
- godshatter 4y agoTo add to this, most non-tech people I know just type their search in the URL bar and it goes wherever it goes, usually to google. They even do this with actual urls, without the .com or whatever at the end and just click on the google search result for the link they wanted to go to. As someone who has meticulously hand-crafted search queries since the altavista days of the web, it still stuns me when I see it. We haven't done a very good job of explaining how the web or browsers work to the general public, let alone the landscape of search engine companies.
- postalrat 4y agoMost non-tech people I know start typing and use the autocomplete of their previous visit.