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I think the problem is not Google specific rather the internet has grown far too large with too much of crap floating around. Google, in my opinion has done the

I think the problem is not Google specific rather the internet has grown far too large with too much of crap floating around. Google, in my opinion has done the best job of getting relevant information followed by Reddit. While OpenAI etc. is pretty good (so does Google Gemini) what is OpenAI like interfaces prevent me from doing is to segue from a focused topic to related areas to discover knowledge on the periphery, which is the most important aspect of learning in my opinion which chatbots today are not able to do that well. HN historically has lot of G haters. Which is fine, but I feel a lot of criticism is not really reasonable.

vincent_s 2y ago
Yes, there's undoubtedly too much low-quality content on the internet. But my post isn't mere criticism of Google. It's an attempt to explain and understand how Google's approach has changed over time. In the past, Google would index nearly everything they could find, then filter content through ranking algorithms. They would downrank what they considered junk, but with enough query refinement, you could still find it. This approach also allowed you to find sites that Google might have incorrectly categorized as low-quality but were actually what you were looking for. Now, the situation is different. Google isn't just doing its filtering at the ranking stage, but at the indexing stage. This means you can refine your query endlessly, but you'll never find content that isn't in the index to begin with.
- aiauthoritydev 2y ago
  Thanks for the clarification. I doubt if this is a new thing though and both options are not mutually exclusive. Google probably now has enough signals to detect a vast majority of pages to be not worthy of even crawling. I would be surprised if they figured this out in 2024 and not in 2014. Chances are these pages are absolute garbage.
  - ipaddr 2y ago
    It's more like your personal blog doesn't get included and is replaced with tiktok, instagram and others. Your blog isn't absolute garbage anymore than some random tiktok video. You are likely to find more garbage now because content comes from large entities.
    - aiauthoritydev 2y ago
      That is your assumption and grossly oversimplification. But I do see the point of not indexing vast majority of internet traffic that is low value. PS. Google does not benefit at all promoting Instagram or Tiktok. They benefit from simpler an independent content lot more. Clearly it would be other way around. I have seen Pinterest simply disappear from Google recently to give you an example.
JohnFen 2y ago
> Which is fine, but I feel a lot of criticism is not really reasonable. My criticism of Google search is unrelated to my feelings about Google itself. My criticism of Google search is that it gives me truly awful results from my queries. That's objectively true, as demonstrated by the fact that other search engines (even ones that use Google in the background) are better at that.

vincent_s 2y ago

Yes, there's undoubtedly too much low-quality content on the internet. But my post isn't mere criticism of Google. It's an attempt to explain and understand how Google's approach has changed over time. In the past, Google would index nearly everything they could find, then filter content through ranking algorithms. They would downrank what they considered junk, but with enough query refinement, you could still find it. This approach also allowed you to find sites that Google might have incorrectly categorized as low-quality but were actually what you were looking for. Now, the situation is different. Google isn't just doing its filtering at the ranking stage, but at the indexing stage. This means you can refine your query endlessly, but you'll never find content that isn't in the index to begin with.

aiauthoritydev 2y ago
Thanks for the clarification. I doubt if this is a new thing though and both options are not mutually exclusive. Google probably now has enough signals to detect a vast majority of pages to be not worthy of even crawling. I would be surprised if they figured this out in 2024 and not in 2014. Chances are these pages are absolute garbage.
- ipaddr 2y ago
  It's more like your personal blog doesn't get included and is replaced with tiktok, instagram and others. Your blog isn't absolute garbage anymore than some random tiktok video. You are likely to find more garbage now because content comes from large entities.
  - aiauthoritydev 2y ago
    That is your assumption and grossly oversimplification. But I do see the point of not indexing vast majority of internet traffic that is low value. PS. Google does not benefit at all promoting Instagram or Tiktok. They benefit from simpler an independent content lot more. Clearly it would be other way around. I have seen Pinterest simply disappear from Google recently to give you an example.

JohnFen 2y ago

> Which is fine, but I feel a lot of criticism is not really reasonable. My criticism of Google search is unrelated to my feelings about Google itself. My criticism of Google search is that it gives me truly awful results from my queries. That's objectively true, as demonstrated by the fact that other search engines (even ones that use Google in the background) are better at that.