4 ms·

When Did Google Search Become Useless?

17 points by stikit 2y ago

eviks 2y ago
It didn't? The fact that it doesn't conform to the author's strong ideological biases does not useless make. Nor does scrolling a bit to get to your results
- kbelder 2y ago
  Right. It's still arguably not significantly worse than Alta Vista or Ask Jeeves.
  - ectospheno 2y ago
    I think people are just doing a poor job of explaining how depressing it is that the bar has fallen so low. When you hear people try to say nice things about Google it sounds a lot like Stockholm syndrome.
- z3ncyberpunk 2y ago
  That would be YOU'RE bias. Google search has most definitely gotten both more biased, and worse in terms of the quality, number, and diversity of search results over the past 5 years.
r721 2y ago
https://adfontesmedia.com/federalist-bias-and-reliability/ https://adfontesmedia.com/federalist-bias-and-reliability/
- z3ncyberpunk 2y ago
  This is trash. Bellingcat is a CIA cutout. NPR and BBC are most certainly not neutrally biased or factual.
8fingerlouie 2y ago
The question is if Google became useless, or the amount of useless information it indexes somehow has skyrocketed ? There seems to be a ton of mostly AI generated content out there (or simply keyword based), designed to grab your clicks.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > The question is if Google became useless, yes they did. Google controls what they show to the user.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  Given that I find that Google search doesn't often surface what I'm looking for but a couple of other search engines do, my bet is that it has more to do with Google's implementation than the internet in general.
stikit 2y ago
This article is no different than the dozens of articles that have been posted about the dystopia that Google search results have become. instead of being distracted by the shiny object of a few political examples and a source that some might feel conflicts with their priors, maybe consider speaking to its obvious conclusion that Google is no longer reliable or useful when doing even the simplest of searches.
more_corn 2y ago
I think we can point to specific choices and policies that made it suck. That’s probably more useful information since it can serve as a warning to others. I’ll start by reframing the question here: “Which specific choices did Google make that ended up ruining a previously stellar product?” (Subtext being, what can we all learn NOT to do when we’re in similar positions facing similar choices)

17 points by stikit 2y ago

It didn't? The fact that it doesn't conform to the author's strong ideological biases does not useless make. Nor does scrolling a bit to get to your results

kbelder 2y ago
Right. It's still arguably not significantly worse than Alta Vista or Ask Jeeves.
- ectospheno 2y ago
  I think people are just doing a poor job of explaining how depressing it is that the bar has fallen so low. When you hear people try to say nice things about Google it sounds a lot like Stockholm syndrome.
z3ncyberpunk 2y ago
That would be YOU'RE bias. Google search has most definitely gotten both more biased, and worse in terms of the quality, number, and diversity of search results over the past 5 years.

r721 2y ago

https://adfontesmedia.com/federalist-bias-and-reliability/ https://adfontesmedia.com/federalist-bias-and-reliability/

z3ncyberpunk 2y ago
This is trash. Bellingcat is a CIA cutout. NPR and BBC are most certainly not neutrally biased or factual.

8fingerlouie 2y ago

The question is if Google became useless, or the amount of useless information it indexes somehow has skyrocketed ? There seems to be a ton of mostly AI generated content out there (or simply keyword based), designed to grab your clicks.

hulitu 2y ago
> The question is if Google became useless, yes they did. Google controls what they show to the user.
JohnFen 2y ago
Given that I find that Google search doesn't often surface what I'm looking for but a couple of other search engines do, my bet is that it has more to do with Google's implementation than the internet in general.

stikit 2y ago

This article is no different than the dozens of articles that have been posted about the dystopia that Google search results have become. instead of being distracted by the shiny object of a few political examples and a source that some might feel conflicts with their priors, maybe consider speaking to its obvious conclusion that Google is no longer reliable or useful when doing even the simplest of searches.

more_corn 2y ago

I think we can point to specific choices and policies that made it suck. That’s probably more useful information since it can serve as a warning to others. I’ll start by reframing the question here: “Which specific choices did Google make that ended up ruining a previously stellar product?” (Subtext being, what can we all learn NOT to do when we’re in similar positions facing similar choices)