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Articles like this miss the point. You need to talk to normies. Like actual normies. Ones that aren't on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, who don't comment on anyth

Articles like this miss the point. You need to talk to normies. Like actual normies. Ones that aren't on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, who don't comment on anything online. You know, the majority of actual people. If you search for a physical business, Google is amazing. If you search for anything physically around you, again, amazing. Maps? Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. This is what normal people use Google for. To find things in the real world. Also, asking people who do SEO as a career about Google is pointless. They're literally the enemy of good, organic search results. Asking random internet users is equally pointless, everyone hates everything on the internet. Go on the street and ask some random person walking by which search engine is the best... People don't use Google because they're entrapped, but because it's the most useful for the normal things that normal people do.

typeofhuman 2y ago
Maps search needs improvement. Try searching "popcorn". I'm looking for a popcorn store, not every grocery and convenience store selling popcorn. There's like a sphere of specificity that would be cool to zoom in and out of. Not sure how that would look...
- Gigachad 2y ago
  You searched popcorn and got listings for stores that sell popcorn and somehow that's an issue with Google Maps?
- dismalaf 2y ago
  I've literally never seen a popcorn store in my life. I definitely can't test this because I'm 100% certain there's no popcorn store in my town. Even if they do exist somewhere it seems like something very faddish that won't exist for long. For me, convenience or grocery store would definitely be the right answer lol.
  - add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
    There are novelty gift shops that sell many varieties of a specific kind of food. It's niche, but perennial. A grocery store would not suffice if you were looking for a fancy popcorn gift. I'd say this is one of those things that a human would understand while an AI would be confidently wrong, but
    - typeofhuman 2y ago
      Thank you.
      - semking 2y ago
        You guys are so crazy. I've got the popcorn ready for the next completely unrelated topic. Let's talk about the love life of sardines, shall we?
- mycall 2y ago
  Worked fine for me in San Francisco.
  - semking 2y ago
    Finally, someone doxxing themselves! :D Seriously, thank you for sharing your location. Different states/countries/languages = different user experiences.
- massysett 2y ago
  I searched “popcorn” and it pulled multiple popcorn stores, none of which I knew existed.
massysett 2y ago
Google for me replaces the yellow pages that existed when I was a kid, or Computer Shopper. It’s much better than those ever were. Some other things aren’t bad where trusted sources provide them at no charge, such as the UK NHS on health issues. Google promotes that stuff. I think people expect Google to give them The Truth on other things. That’s expecting too much. Quality content is expensive to produce. People don’t spend time creating it so Google and web surfers can read it for free. Those days boomed 20 years ago but they’re over.
alistairSH 2y ago
Real example of a crap AI response from the other day… “What is the axle to crown measurement for a Fox StepCast 34 120mm fork?” Answer: “120mm” plus a few garbage sentences about fork travel. Which is absolutely not the same as a fork’s axle to crown measurement. The real answer is readily available online. I just wanted a direct link to a site with the data.
- dismalaf 2y ago
  I just did that exact search, it provided the real answer. It's obviously improved since you searched for it. Although I would definitely agree that rolling out AI search results has been premature. Positive is that you can scroll past them. Same goes for the AI Google assistant. The "old" Google assistant can do more and is better.
  - semking 2y ago
    Yes, the models tailored for search are constantly improving —which is why I encourage everyone to take screenshots when something funny pops up! I sincerely admire your positive mindset! Positive that you can scroll past AI results? For me, that's like saying your mirror reflects a distorted image, but the good thing is you can decide not to look at it...
  - alistairSH 2y ago
    Huh, that’s been updated in the last 2-3 weeks. But point still stands, lots of garbage results to the point I wouldn’t trust the correct answer on anything.
userbinator 2y ago
I've heard the normies increasingly complaining about the quality of search results from Google within the past few years. Go on the street and ask some random person walking by which search engine is the best Google can still be the best, while continuing to decline.
- semking 2y ago
  Yes, it is like starting with a 180 IQ and going down to 150. You still seem bright to external observers, but deep down inside, you know you are a n00b.
kiwijamo 2y ago
> If you search for a physical business, Google is amazing. If you search for anything physically around you, again, amazing. Maps? Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. This is what normal people use Google for. To find things in the real world. Strangely, in my experience, searches like these are exactly what DuckDuckGo excels at. Whenever I set up a new PC and accidentally use Google (given it is the default search for Firefox/Google) I am always struck by how bad Google search is at finding the things I want. The first search I do is usually shocking enough to make me go into settings and flip the settings to DuckDuckGo -- and I redo the search and find what I want at number 1 of the DuckDuckGo results. I suspect it is more a case of people sticking with what they know, not realizing there are better options out there. Google has a halo effect from what I can see -- even when they're not the best option out there people will still use their services. Another possibility is people find it easier to just use one company for everything so they'll use Google for search, mail, photos, drive, docs, etc as they all work well together and avoids having to go to different places for the various services Google provide under one roof. But Google search is definitely not the most useful for normal people. It's just the default and works well enough. If people find what they want at number 10 in the results then that's probably good enough even if there is a better engine that has the best result at number 1.
csomar 2y ago
> If you search for anything physically around you, again, amazing. Maps? Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. I must be using it wrong then. 1 out of 5 times when I search for a particular place (with its full name) Google maps will make different suggestions even though the particular place am looking at exists there. Try looking up a hotel if you are in an area where Google has prices/monetization. You type the name of the hotel and it shows you every hotel out there with the prices.
- semking 2y ago
  Plot twist: poisoning local results is one of the easiest things to do. So yeah. Great until not good. And again, the problem is simple: a lack of safeguards. If you let randoms abuse the system, someone always will at some point.
  - csomar 2y ago
    Poisoning the local results is part of it, but the ones I described are poisoning by monetization. I've nothing against monetization but it has to be reasonable otherwise the product is just one huge ad.
mitthrowaway2 2y ago
> Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. Hmm, this is usually where it fails hardest for me. Maybe it works if your country is the US?
- semking 2y ago
  Good point, I've already asked people which country they were searching from and what languages they used to search online. Please guys, add COUNTY/LANGUAGE(S) when you are giving positive/negative feedback.

typeofhuman 2y ago

Maps search needs improvement. Try searching "popcorn". I'm looking for a popcorn store, not every grocery and convenience store selling popcorn. There's like a sphere of specificity that would be cool to zoom in and out of. Not sure how that would look...

Gigachad 2y ago
You searched popcorn and got listings for stores that sell popcorn and somehow that's an issue with Google Maps?
dismalaf 2y ago
I've literally never seen a popcorn store in my life. I definitely can't test this because I'm 100% certain there's no popcorn store in my town. Even if they do exist somewhere it seems like something very faddish that won't exist for long. For me, convenience or grocery store would definitely be the right answer lol.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
  There are novelty gift shops that sell many varieties of a specific kind of food. It's niche, but perennial. A grocery store would not suffice if you were looking for a fancy popcorn gift. I'd say this is one of those things that a human would understand while an AI would be confidently wrong, but
  - typeofhuman 2y ago
    Thank you.
    - semking 2y ago
      You guys are so crazy. I've got the popcorn ready for the next completely unrelated topic. Let's talk about the love life of sardines, shall we?
mycall 2y ago
Worked fine for me in San Francisco.
- semking 2y ago
  Finally, someone doxxing themselves! :D Seriously, thank you for sharing your location. Different states/countries/languages = different user experiences.
massysett 2y ago
I searched “popcorn” and it pulled multiple popcorn stores, none of which I knew existed.

massysett 2y ago

Google for me replaces the yellow pages that existed when I was a kid, or Computer Shopper. It’s much better than those ever were. Some other things aren’t bad where trusted sources provide them at no charge, such as the UK NHS on health issues. Google promotes that stuff. I think people expect Google to give them The Truth on other things. That’s expecting too much. Quality content is expensive to produce. People don’t spend time creating it so Google and web surfers can read it for free. Those days boomed 20 years ago but they’re over.

alistairSH 2y ago

Real example of a crap AI response from the other day… “What is the axle to crown measurement for a Fox StepCast 34 120mm fork?” Answer: “120mm” plus a few garbage sentences about fork travel. Which is absolutely not the same as a fork’s axle to crown measurement. The real answer is readily available online. I just wanted a direct link to a site with the data.

dismalaf 2y ago
I just did that exact search, it provided the real answer. It's obviously improved since you searched for it. Although I would definitely agree that rolling out AI search results has been premature. Positive is that you can scroll past them. Same goes for the AI Google assistant. The "old" Google assistant can do more and is better.
- semking 2y ago
  Yes, the models tailored for search are constantly improving —which is why I encourage everyone to take screenshots when something funny pops up! I sincerely admire your positive mindset! Positive that you can scroll past AI results? For me, that's like saying your mirror reflects a distorted image, but the good thing is you can decide not to look at it...
- alistairSH 2y ago
  Huh, that’s been updated in the last 2-3 weeks. But point still stands, lots of garbage results to the point I wouldn’t trust the correct answer on anything.

userbinator 2y ago

I've heard the normies increasingly complaining about the quality of search results from Google within the past few years. Go on the street and ask some random person walking by which search engine is the best Google can still be the best, while continuing to decline.

semking 2y ago
Yes, it is like starting with a 180 IQ and going down to 150. You still seem bright to external observers, but deep down inside, you know you are a n00b.

kiwijamo 2y ago

> If you search for a physical business, Google is amazing. If you search for anything physically around you, again, amazing. Maps? Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. This is what normal people use Google for. To find things in the real world. Strangely, in my experience, searches like these are exactly what DuckDuckGo excels at. Whenever I set up a new PC and accidentally use Google (given it is the default search for Firefox/Google) I am always struck by how bad Google search is at finding the things I want. The first search I do is usually shocking enough to make me go into settings and flip the settings to DuckDuckGo -- and I redo the search and find what I want at number 1 of the DuckDuckGo results. I suspect it is more a case of people sticking with what they know, not realizing there are better options out there. Google has a halo effect from what I can see -- even when they're not the best option out there people will still use their services. Another possibility is people find it easier to just use one company for everything so they'll use Google for search, mail, photos, drive, docs, etc as they all work well together and avoids having to go to different places for the various services Google provide under one roof. But Google search is definitely not the most useful for normal people. It's just the default and works well enough. If people find what they want at number 10 in the results then that's probably good enough even if there is a better engine that has the best result at number 1.

csomar 2y ago

> If you search for anything physically around you, again, amazing. Maps? Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. I must be using it wrong then. 1 out of 5 times when I search for a particular place (with its full name) Google maps will make different suggestions even though the particular place am looking at exists there. Try looking up a hotel if you are in an area where Google has prices/monetization. You type the name of the hotel and it shows you every hotel out there with the prices.

semking 2y ago
Plot twist: poisoning local results is one of the easiest things to do. So yeah. Great until not good. And again, the problem is simple: a lack of safeguards. If you let randoms abuse the system, someone always will at some point.
- csomar 2y ago
  Poisoning the local results is part of it, but the ones I described are poisoning by monetization. I've nothing against monetization but it has to be reasonable otherwise the product is just one huge ad.

mitthrowaway2 2y ago

> Find an online vendor for a certain product in your country? Google wins. Hmm, this is usually where it fails hardest for me. Maybe it works if your country is the US?

semking 2y ago
Good point, I've already asked people which country they were searching from and what languages they used to search online. Please guys, add COUNTY/LANGUAGE(S) when you are giving positive/negative feedback.