> Eventually, Google figured out how to create a real moat, by using click data to improve search result ranking. Even though Microsoft is willing to spend bill

> Eventually, Google figured out how to create a real moat, by using click data to improve search result ranking. Even though Microsoft is willing to spend billions of dollars on Bing, they don't have access to Google's user data, and aren't quite able to match Google's search quality. I was nodding along until I got to this. Google had, past tense, excellent search results. Now they are at best, a solid mid-tier search product that I often find myself abandoning in favor of either DDG or even Bing on occasion. IME, Bing shines in one particular area, which is location/near me type searches. It's peerless in this space in particular and IMO they should be leaning into it more in their marketing. Google can get me the best seller of gizmos on the Internet, but if I want to go to a store and get something that day, Bing is better at that. Meanwhile Google is steadily trending downwards in very nerdy niche searches, which is a shame because it used to be quite good at them. You specify terms in your quotes or block with minuses, but these are treated as "suggestions" now, that are overridden if Google's mystery algorithm decides that you don't actually know what you need despite directly expressing it to the bloody thing, especially if their "correction" means they can direct you to buy something even if you don't want to actually buy anything. And, even when you want to buy things... perfect example: I wanted a small set of drawers for a particularly tight alcove in my desk that's otherwise wasted space. I spent some time on Amazon for awhile but amazon's search is even worse than google's, so I googled "closet drawer cabinet -fabric" and the -fabric bit is quite important because I was getting frustrated getting page after page of hits on Amazon that were shitty little fabric drawer setups. I wanted shitty particle board, thank you very much. And Google, in it's infinite brilliance, returned, I shit you not, a full page of shopping advertisements that were all fabric drawers. Google is still my first go, out of habit more than anything at this point, but increasingly I find their search tool lacking and I know I'm far from alone in that.