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The problem isn't just that the internet has become more SEO-oriented and encumbered with low-value clickbait websites -- it's also that Google doesn't listen t
by A_D_E_P_T 3y ago
The problem isn't just that the internet has become more SEO-oriented and encumbered with low-value clickbait websites -- it's also that Google doesn't listen to instructions the way it used to.
Google started slipping when it began assuming that it knows better than you do. For instance, when the exact search operator (" ") stopped working.
I'd take the Google of 2014 over the Google of 2023 without thinking twice, and I think that I'm not alone in this.
- intalentive 3y agoAgree. Also their results are often biased and I sometimes find myself going to Yandex.
- selimthegrim 3y agoI think Frank Zappa would chortle with irony that a Russian search engine returns his discographies uncensored in the here and now versus an American one.
- marginalia_nu 3y agoAll search engines are inherently biased, since they perform a ranking task (which is a value judgement). They all encode (possibly uncessfully) the values of their creator. This is why having multiple search engines is important, as diversity in search options is the closes you'll get to objectivity. (said the independent search engine creator with the same air of righteousness as when Plato argued philosophers should be kings)
- midhhhthrow 3y agoYes but they’re also politically biased. Not to mention, the enormous amount of web content that is effectively banned from seArch engine results due to low prestige
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoCongrats you are one step from re-inventing DogPile. Add AI and blockchain to pull in a ton of VC money.
- endisneigh 3y agoVerbatim search still exists. https://www.google.com/advanced_search https://www.google.com/advanced_search
- A_D_E_P_T 3y agoDo you use it often? It doesn't work the way it used to. I can't count the number of times I've searched for a technical term -- in quotes -- and got results back for a subtly (sometimes not so subtly) different term.
- endisneigh 3y agoyou have an example of this? using quotes is not the same as going to advanced search and saying use exact word or phrase. silly, yes I know.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nostrademons 3y agoQuotes is different than verbatim mode. Compare: [verbatim mode] https://www.google.com/search?q=unexpected+newline+in+composite+literal%3B+possibly+missing+comma+or+%7D&tbs=li:1 https://www.google.com/search?q=unexpected+newline+in+compos... [quotes] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22unexpected+newline+in+composite+literal%3B+possibly+missing+comma+or+%7D%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22unexpected+newline+in+com... The top two results are the same, but besides that verbatim mode seems way better to me.
- NegativeK 3y agoI don't even bother with quotes anymore. When I'm searching for something technical from the normal interface, I'm almost always going to Tools -> All results dropdown -> Verbatim.
- eastern 3y agoI see that I can specifically ask for results that are in the Flash .swf format. Very convenient.
- pascalxus 3y agoAbsolutely. i so often do a search and it presumes to think it knows what i want rather than giving me what I ask for, sometimes even when I'm being quite specific. I will say it does a great job for programming stuff but a lousy job whenever I'm researching economics topics.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoEven programming stuff it does a lousy job. I use R a lot. I plot with the base graphics package because it works fine. Finding R information that does not involve the tidyverse library is so damn difficult on google search. Its bests to just go straight to the documentation since stackoverflow and other sites are pretty worthless with pretty much all answers requiring ggplot or dpylr even if they can be implemented with zero dependencies with the base tooling. Same situation with python honestly. No I don’t want to use pandas, if I wanted better data wrangling I’d just wrangle in base R then import the wrangled data into python if need be instead of adding another dependency to my python code. Apparently this makes me a heretic based on google search results.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoMore of the web is also behind paywalls or is on platforms like tiktok, instagram, twitter, etc. Less to scrape and index.
- rtsil 3y agoMy most recent complaint is the disappearance of the pagination numbers. Since I know the top results are mostly useless spams on some searches, I used to go to page 4 or 5 to find the actual results. Now to achieve the same result I have to click and scroll 5 times.
- charcircuit 3y ago>For instance, when the exact search operator (" ") stopped working. It still works.
- Zambyte 3y agoIt works, but it does something different than it used to. It used to only include results that actually contained the exact phrase you put within quotes. That is no longer the case.
- crazygringo 3y agoNow you just check "verbatim search" in the tools menu. Works exactly how quotes used to.
- charcircuit 3y agoIt works the same and it never only contained the exact phrase as Google ignores punctuation.
- unlikelytomato 3y agoThis is not my experience. I search for exact phrases the same way I always have. Three to result does not contain the word I emphasized. This never happened before a few years ago. Now it happens daily.
- charcircuit 3y agoAre you sure the page doesn't contain it? It is not a simple as just visiting the page and searching for the thing you quoted as there may be punctuation between words or the text may be in the alt text of an image or somewhere else that is not obvious.
- unlikelytomato 3y agoI am quite sure. The kinds of words in question would not even really make sense for "SEO gaming" to come into play. Typically, it presents with trying to match a word vs a phrase(I don't ever try to match phrases). I try matching smaller and smaller fragments of the word and still... nothing. I remember this working back when it was common for pages on gray websites to stuff giant blobs of text with juicy keywords out of view with janky html. Yet, somehow those pages were ranked very low and results were good. There is a clear degradation in quality. Actually, it has happened with results that include hacker news discussions. I scrape through and expand EVERY comment on a 6 month old post and still find no partial or exact matches for my search keyword. It is very clear to me that Google has switched behavior. It used to flex on how awesome it was to bring you to an esoteric corner of the internet matching your exact query. Now, it tries to converge your queries into what it thinks you want(not what you asked for) and funnel you into large websites at the expense of utility.