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Yes. Most of my searches fail. No matter how I formulate my queries, Google shows me mostly unrelated results, and seems to ignore a big part of the internet.
by nicbou 4y ago
Yes. Most of my searches fail. No matter how I formulate my queries, Google shows me mostly unrelated results, and seems to ignore a big part of the internet.
For "is it just me?" searches, I manually search Twitter and Reddit.
For best product or service searches, I have simply given up. I only get Nepali restaurant recommendations from a Brit with a blog who spent 3 days there. Product recommendations are pure affiliate spam. Good luck finding critical reviews of anything.
For programming searches, I click the same few websites, and heavily filter the results with uBlacklist. In the end, it's usually stackoverflow and a few self-hosted programming blogs. For some reason w3schools keeps outranking MDN.
Software problem searches ("how to do X in Android") just lead to generic troubleshooting websites that sell software or malware.
I have an ad blocker of course. I was shocked to see what Google results look like without one. My website isn't the first result like I thought, but hidden below half a dozen ads.
I'm just tired of modern tech. It's just broken recommendation engines and coercive UIs.
- freediver 4y agoHave you considered using a paid search engine? It is a miracle what alignment of incentives can do for search quality.
- forgotmypw17 4y agoI always choose w3schools over MDN because: * w3school's examples are no-nonsense and much easier to understand, with simple working examples. MDN's pages typically read more like academic references. * w3schools typically choose compatibility over the most "modern" way to write something, and compatibility matters a lot to me. MDN basically ignores most browsers that are not in the dominant majority. * w3schools pages are simple and load faster and are less gimmicky. MDN has weird markup with multiple scrollable areas on the same page, which is completely inaccessible to me.
- 6510 4y agoI don't even have to disagree, it is irrelevant since the search results are personalized. How many thousands of times do I have to click MDN for the algo to organize it to the top?
- forgotmypw17 4y agoIn my experience, it never happens. I know it's supposed to in theory, but in reality I think the weight of personalization is very small most of the time. Where I do occasionally see the effects of this type of personalization is programming vs. non-programming content.
- 6510 4y agoIt's academic
- spaceman_2020 4y agoFor product reviews, I just use YouTube now. At least there I can be sure that the reviewer has actually used the product since its right there in the video.
- donmcronald 4y ago> Product recommendations are pure affiliate spam. Good luck finding critical reviews of anything. As YouTubers and modern influencers start acquiring enough capital to do what Linus Tech Tips is doing, the old web only review sites that rely search based traffic are dead IMO. The personal reputations of celebrity level influencers are the new trusted brands. If some of them get a foothold and don’t screw it up there’s an insane opportunity to oust major legacy brands from some markets. Everyone has sold out their brands for short term profits and we all know it.
- lozenge 4y agoIs Linus a place for trustworthy reviews? The Youtubers I know are Marques Brownlee, Mrwhosetheboss, Unbox Therapy, and they basically fawn over anything and are completely in the brands' pockets (access journalism). I see the same in the smart home gadgets space and cruise holidays space.
- donmcronald 4y ago> Is Linus a place for trustworthy reviews? They’ve shown off tidbits of objective tools and processes they’re going to use for testing. For example, they’re building a robot arm for keyboard testing. And yeah, I agree about the soft reviewers. Most of them will gush about overpriced lifestyle brands. It’s weird.
- comfypotato 4y agoRegarding your mention of product searches, I feel the need to point out “consumer reports”. They don’t review everything, but they’ve never let me down with what they have reviewed. They have an objective process that’s motivated by you $25.00 per year subscription. It’s neat how they’ll go out of their way to develop innovative tests for random items (3d printing parts to make the test possible, etc.). I have my own algorithm for parsing amazon results for everything else, and it halfway works. For the big ticket items, and some random stuff everybody needs, consumer reports is good. Any time that I can afford the number one item from a category, it’s never let me down.