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Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing instead because of how horrible google results are. On most searches, especially with my phone, the resu

Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing instead because of how horrible google results are. On most searches, especially with my phone, the results are almost all sponsored and rarely what I'm actually looking for. Google search has gone from being one of the best to being ask jeeves at it's worst.

getlawgdon 3y ago
Same. Done with Google search. In addition to the results having become useless, it's Google's frenetic sprint away from the "don't be evil" ethos, which turns out to have only been in Incognito mode all along.
nicbou 3y ago
Even when the results are not sponsored, they're all generic answers from generic domains. I'm traveling at the moment and it's impossible to find anything written by someone in a 1000 km of the city I'm visiting. How to use public transit? What to see and do? How to get an airport transfer? Here are machine-generated answers from myairporttransfers.com and copywritten posts from cheapairteavels.com.
i_love_cookies 3y ago
[dead]
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing I’ve been thrilled with Kagi. It’s the first time in over a decade that searching became fun again. The Quick Answer feature (Kagi’s LLM) filters through SEO better than Copilot, and the results are noticeably higher quality than ad-based engines. At $5/month for 300 searches, it’s cheap to try out (both for experience and if you actually notice the search limit).
- EA-3167 3y ago
  Same, I finally gave up and tried it after Google just stopped being remotely useful, and DDG is just a reskinned bing. A week on Kagi and I signed up for an annual plan, and never looked back.
- reddalo 3y ago
  The main problem with Kagi is that it's a paid service with no free tier. I get their reasons for this, and it totally makes sense -- but that's also a big problem for their growth. I know very few people who would pay for a search engine.
  - subpixel 3y ago
    I wouldn’t have paid for ad-free YouTube until the alternative became unbearable. So too with lousy search results.
  - bratwurst3000 3y ago
    I use kagi for better results few times a week and it’s always free.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > that's also a big problem for their growth I agree, but it’s a good early filter for conversion. The difference in quality, for me and everyone I’ve gifted a month to, is stark enough to make paying for search for the first time worth it. Given the absolute cost (for the cheapest tier, paid annually, less than $50) it’s a psychological hurdle more than a financial one for most Americans. Also, drawing those eyeballs from the ad-driven engines has a disproportionate effect on their marginal ad prices (in the long run). So if you need a sense of vengeance to get you over the hill, there you go.
    - hedora 3y ago
      Regarding ad margins: If kagi saturates the market of people that can afford to spend $50/year for a decent search engine, then Google ads will only reach people that cannot. This would greatly reduce the value of their ad inventory (far more than the percent market share they’d lose).
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - mrweasel 3y ago
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  Oddly as a Kagi user, it does have a fault. It actually sucks at finding the low cost product. Want the cheapest esp32 c3... google is a better place to start. I can quickly find the "price to beat" and go deeper elsewhere.
  - hedora 3y ago
    Google and Kagi give the same top hit for “cheapest esp32 c3” for me ($2.50, ali express). If I add a ? to the end of the query, Kagi additionally suggests an $11 reference board and a redit forum on the topic.
    - zer00eyz 3y ago
      Did I know that without clicking? Who has the 2nd best price because shipping is part of cost... Yes, the "cheapest" keyword incidentally gets me the answer in this case, but does it in every one? Product spam has its upside when you're looking for product spam.
- notpachet 3y ago
  > At $5/month for 300 searches Wow, that's a lower search count than I would have thought. I am pretty sure I'd blow through that in a day or two...
  - pants2 3y ago
    I blew through it in three days and then happily signed up for the $10/unlimited plan!
  - kelnos 3y ago
    You'd think so, and maybe that is indeed true for you. But I expected I would use several tens of searches per day, likely with some peaks over 100, but in the past 19 days I've only averaged ~15 per day, for a total of 291. The 300/mo plan wouldn't work for me either, but I don't blow past it as far as I would have expected.
a_wild_dandan 3y ago
I use an LLM for 80% of my queries now. Fighting Google isn't worthwhile, unless I need a trusted source.
- stevage 3y ago
  What do you use?
  - bkandel 3y ago
    I use the Azure GPT-4 offering. It's not always 100% correct, but for technical questions in areas I'm not very familiar with, it's close enough. I can get much more done in a given amount of time than I would have been able to reading docs and SO. I know lots of people will point to examples where it's wrong, but I'd suggest trying it out yourself. If you're not intentionally trying to trip it up, it really works quite well.
- web3-is-a-scam 3y ago
  How do you know when your LLM is bullshitting you
  - nicbou 3y ago
    The top 5 results (at least in the travel category) are written by copywriters across the ocean. It feels like a machine-generated average of the internet is not so bad.
  - bmurphy1976 3y ago
    You don't, but at least you have one answer you need to verify vs 100 listings of random garbage to wade through.
  - evilduck 3y ago
    How do you know when a Google result is bullshitting you, or if their pre-LLM AI summaries of results were bullshitting you?
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>Google search has become worthless for me. Ditto. My most recent example, I asked Google what the thickness of the Pixel 8 is including the camera visor, which was something not listed in the spec sheet since the official dimensions sneakily only list the thinnest point on the phone, not the thickest. And Google proudly and confidently gave me the answer at the top ... but it was the thickness without the visor, something I already knew since that's in the specs everywhere. I looked through the other results lower on the page and nada, no correct answer. So I asked Bing and it gave me the exact answer I was looking for at the top measured by some Android review site. And man is that phone a tick boy in that spot. You can probably put your weed in there. Sure, that's sample size=1 so probably not an accurate test, but still, to me it feels like Google sucks for anything but the easiest context searches where it works because it knows a lot of info about me like where I live and where I work so it can correctly deduct the context, but for other shit not related to me, it's like you're drowning in SEO junk.
- politelemon 3y ago
  FWIW I just tried "thickness of the Pixel 8 including the camera visor", and got a snippet from Google: > The actual dimensions of the Google Pixel 8 are apparently 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9mm, with the thickness rising to 12mm at the camera bar. And nothing on Bing.
  - mewpmewp2 3y ago
    In Bing I get nothing in the results, although I do get the written Copilot answer on the side: The Google Pixel 8, announced in October 2023, has the following dimensions: Height: 150.5 mm (5.93 inches) Width: 70.8 mm (2.79 inches) Depth: 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) However, if we include the thickness of the camera bump, the Pixel 8 measures approximately 12 mm3. The camera visor itself is notably thin compared to previous Pixel phones, but the overall thickness accounts for the camera bump and other components. In summary, the Pixel 8 is a sleek device with a slim profile, and its camera visor adds a touch of functionality without significantly increasing its overall thickness.
- Solvency 3y ago
gotbeans 3y ago
I second this. The quality of google search has reached a point that's only good to search things that can't be bought.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  ... and uncontroversial. Searches for "coronavirus" seem to be hard-coded, or interfered with. I get pages and pages of Covid-19 results, but that's not what I searched for. I even get a wikipedia link to its covid-19 page, but no wikipedia link to its coronavirus page within the first several pages of results.
plumeria 3y ago
Something as basic as: "2,5 cm to mm" won't show up the unit conversion widget if it's not formatted as "2.5 cm to mm", at least for me. WolframAlpha also fails at this query. However, ChatGPT understands it and gives the right answer.
fortran77 3y ago
I use Bing, too. People are suprised when I recommend it, but for most general searches, it's quite a bit better.
yazzku 3y ago
In general, I find the same is true for all mainstream search engines, including DDG and Bing. You can't even search for things to buy anymore, ironically; it'll just dump you into Amazon or some "top 10" shitpost on CNN fake news or Forbes, much like the trash pit of websites shown in the header image of this article. Like others, I also find myself searching on Reddit or HN directly. What the point of a search engine is at that point, I don't know.
- nicbou 3y ago
  It's infuriating that any qualifier you use is ignored. "Lightest laptop" will just return random lists of 10 laptops. No mention of weight.
quatrefoil 3y ago
> Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing instead because of how horrible google results are. Although Bing is generally OK at dealing with general queries, it's far, far worse at surfacing niche content, no? My non-commercial, hobby homepage fares reasonably OK on Google (although some queries are dominated by SEO spam). But on Bing, it ranks below a good number of spam websites, including ones that simply copied my content and serve it with ads...
seventytwo 3y ago
I subscribe to Kagi, and it’s great.

getlawgdon 3y ago

Same. Done with Google search. In addition to the results having become useless, it's Google's frenetic sprint away from the "don't be evil" ethos, which turns out to have only been in Incognito mode all along.

nicbou 3y ago

Even when the results are not sponsored, they're all generic answers from generic domains. I'm traveling at the moment and it's impossible to find anything written by someone in a 1000 km of the city I'm visiting. How to use public transit? What to see and do? How to get an airport transfer? Here are machine-generated answers from myairporttransfers.com and copywritten posts from cheapairteavels.com.

i_love_cookies 3y ago

[dead]

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing I’ve been thrilled with Kagi. It’s the first time in over a decade that searching became fun again. The Quick Answer feature (Kagi’s LLM) filters through SEO better than Copilot, and the results are noticeably higher quality than ad-based engines. At $5/month for 300 searches, it’s cheap to try out (both for experience and if you actually notice the search limit).

EA-3167 3y ago
Same, I finally gave up and tried it after Google just stopped being remotely useful, and DDG is just a reskinned bing. A week on Kagi and I signed up for an annual plan, and never looked back.
reddalo 3y ago
The main problem with Kagi is that it's a paid service with no free tier. I get their reasons for this, and it totally makes sense -- but that's also a big problem for their growth. I know very few people who would pay for a search engine.
- subpixel 3y ago
  I wouldn’t have paid for ad-free YouTube until the alternative became unbearable. So too with lousy search results.
- bratwurst3000 3y ago
  I use kagi for better results few times a week and it’s always free.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > that's also a big problem for their growth I agree, but it’s a good early filter for conversion. The difference in quality, for me and everyone I’ve gifted a month to, is stark enough to make paying for search for the first time worth it. Given the absolute cost (for the cheapest tier, paid annually, less than $50) it’s a psychological hurdle more than a financial one for most Americans. Also, drawing those eyeballs from the ad-driven engines has a disproportionate effect on their marginal ad prices (in the long run). So if you need a sense of vengeance to get you over the hill, there you go.
  - hedora 3y ago
    Regarding ad margins: If kagi saturates the market of people that can afford to spend $50/year for a decent search engine, then Google ads will only reach people that cannot. This would greatly reduce the value of their ad inventory (far more than the percent market share they’d lose).
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- mrweasel 3y ago
zer00eyz 3y ago
Oddly as a Kagi user, it does have a fault. It actually sucks at finding the low cost product. Want the cheapest esp32 c3... google is a better place to start. I can quickly find the "price to beat" and go deeper elsewhere.
- hedora 3y ago
  Google and Kagi give the same top hit for “cheapest esp32 c3” for me ($2.50, ali express). If I add a ? to the end of the query, Kagi additionally suggests an $11 reference board and a redit forum on the topic.
  - zer00eyz 3y ago
    Did I know that without clicking? Who has the 2nd best price because shipping is part of cost... Yes, the "cheapest" keyword incidentally gets me the answer in this case, but does it in every one? Product spam has its upside when you're looking for product spam.
notpachet 3y ago
> At $5/month for 300 searches Wow, that's a lower search count than I would have thought. I am pretty sure I'd blow through that in a day or two...
- pants2 3y ago
  I blew through it in three days and then happily signed up for the $10/unlimited plan!
- kelnos 3y ago
  You'd think so, and maybe that is indeed true for you. But I expected I would use several tens of searches per day, likely with some peaks over 100, but in the past 19 days I've only averaged ~15 per day, for a total of 291. The 300/mo plan wouldn't work for me either, but I don't blow past it as far as I would have expected.

a_wild_dandan 3y ago

I use an LLM for 80% of my queries now. Fighting Google isn't worthwhile, unless I need a trusted source.

stevage 3y ago
What do you use?
- bkandel 3y ago
  I use the Azure GPT-4 offering. It's not always 100% correct, but for technical questions in areas I'm not very familiar with, it's close enough. I can get much more done in a given amount of time than I would have been able to reading docs and SO. I know lots of people will point to examples where it's wrong, but I'd suggest trying it out yourself. If you're not intentionally trying to trip it up, it really works quite well.
web3-is-a-scam 3y ago
How do you know when your LLM is bullshitting you
- nicbou 3y ago
  The top 5 results (at least in the travel category) are written by copywriters across the ocean. It feels like a machine-generated average of the internet is not so bad.
- bmurphy1976 3y ago
  You don't, but at least you have one answer you need to verify vs 100 listings of random garbage to wade through.
- evilduck 3y ago
  How do you know when a Google result is bullshitting you, or if their pre-LLM AI summaries of results were bullshitting you?

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>Google search has become worthless for me. Ditto. My most recent example, I asked Google what the thickness of the Pixel 8 is including the camera visor, which was something not listed in the spec sheet since the official dimensions sneakily only list the thinnest point on the phone, not the thickest. And Google proudly and confidently gave me the answer at the top ... but it was the thickness without the visor, something I already knew since that's in the specs everywhere. I looked through the other results lower on the page and nada, no correct answer. So I asked Bing and it gave me the exact answer I was looking for at the top measured by some Android review site. And man is that phone a tick boy in that spot. You can probably put your weed in there. Sure, that's sample size=1 so probably not an accurate test, but still, to me it feels like Google sucks for anything but the easiest context searches where it works because it knows a lot of info about me like where I live and where I work so it can correctly deduct the context, but for other shit not related to me, it's like you're drowning in SEO junk.

politelemon 3y ago
FWIW I just tried "thickness of the Pixel 8 including the camera visor", and got a snippet from Google: > The actual dimensions of the Google Pixel 8 are apparently 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9mm, with the thickness rising to 12mm at the camera bar. And nothing on Bing.
- mewpmewp2 3y ago
  In Bing I get nothing in the results, although I do get the written Copilot answer on the side: The Google Pixel 8, announced in October 2023, has the following dimensions: Height: 150.5 mm (5.93 inches) Width: 70.8 mm (2.79 inches) Depth: 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) However, if we include the thickness of the camera bump, the Pixel 8 measures approximately 12 mm3. The camera visor itself is notably thin compared to previous Pixel phones, but the overall thickness accounts for the camera bump and other components. In summary, the Pixel 8 is a sleek device with a slim profile, and its camera visor adds a touch of functionality without significantly increasing its overall thickness.
Solvency 3y ago

gotbeans 3y ago

I second this. The quality of google search has reached a point that's only good to search things that can't be bought.

Scoundreller 3y ago
... and uncontroversial. Searches for "coronavirus" seem to be hard-coded, or interfered with. I get pages and pages of Covid-19 results, but that's not what I searched for. I even get a wikipedia link to its covid-19 page, but no wikipedia link to its coronavirus page within the first several pages of results.

plumeria 3y ago

Something as basic as: "2,5 cm to mm" won't show up the unit conversion widget if it's not formatted as "2.5 cm to mm", at least for me. WolframAlpha also fails at this query. However, ChatGPT understands it and gives the right answer.

fortran77 3y ago

I use Bing, too. People are suprised when I recommend it, but for most general searches, it's quite a bit better.

yazzku 3y ago

In general, I find the same is true for all mainstream search engines, including DDG and Bing. You can't even search for things to buy anymore, ironically; it'll just dump you into Amazon or some "top 10" shitpost on CNN fake news or Forbes, much like the trash pit of websites shown in the header image of this article. Like others, I also find myself searching on Reddit or HN directly. What the point of a search engine is at that point, I don't know.

nicbou 3y ago
It's infuriating that any qualifier you use is ignored. "Lightest laptop" will just return random lists of 10 laptops. No mention of weight.

quatrefoil 3y ago

> Google search has become worthless for me. I use bing instead because of how horrible google results are. Although Bing is generally OK at dealing with general queries, it's far, far worse at surfacing niche content, no? My non-commercial, hobby homepage fares reasonably OK on Google (although some queries are dominated by SEO spam). But on Bing, it ranks below a good number of spam websites, including ones that simply copied my content and serve it with ads...

seventytwo 3y ago

I subscribe to Kagi, and it’s great.