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What's with big tech companies changing all searches to be fuzzy? FB Marketplace is now like this too. It's impossible to search for anything, it gives unrelate

What's with big tech companies changing all searches to be fuzzy? FB Marketplace is now like this too. It's impossible to search for anything, it gives unrelated results at least half the time.

felooboolooomba 2mo ago
Desparation. Desparation to get more clicks to get more ad revenue. Those who lived to see the rise and fall of Excite and AltaVista search engines know it's exactly the same thing happening. Even Google search is spewing out hot garbage a lot of the time. Prabhakar Raghavan's internal sabotage of the engine that started 2019 never seemed to have stopped, it just got worse.
creamynebula 2mo ago
If you have to search several times you see more ads. (I know you probably have adblocker tho)
- lovich 2mo ago
  In case anyone thinks this is conspiracy minded, several emails were leaked that proved this was actually happening in 2019 at google at least https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
kingleopold 2mo ago
they want you to spend even more TIME on that platfrom. With some increased time, they get more revenue? and the exec./manager gets comp. and bonus for it. Until we all quit, which we won't because, what is better than not accessing good information?
xdennis 2mo ago
> What's with big tech companies changing all searches to be fuzzy? Probably because it maximizes usage time, so more ads are served. If the user gets what he's looking for as the first result, he spends hardly any time on the site. If the site never delivers the right results, the user will stop using. Optimal enshitification happens when the user spends as much time as possible without forcing him to quit.
csomar 2mo ago
They are not fuzzy. They want to funnel you somewhere regardless of where you want to be funneled. Something similar (or worse) happens when I search for a hotel by NAME, Google maps displays the pricing for all hotels. Pure clean garbage.
- krackers 2mo ago
  Amazon is the best example of this. They can surely implement proper search or filtering, but it's not in their interest to do so.
snailmailman 2mo ago
The big one that annoys me is YouTube. There are exactly 3 results for any given search and then it reverts to an algorithmic feed based on your interests. This seems at least sometimes different now and for some results it gives exclusively shorts now which isn’t very helpful either. I’ve done searches for an exact video that I know the title of and have been unable to find it. The search is useless.
tavavex 2mo ago
Strict search - perfect, simple, boring. Gets you where you want. Easy to understand. Serves the user, but doesn't create value outside of making your website better (this is completely unacceptable in the modern world.) Fuzzy search - complex, incomprehensible. Gets the user where YOU want them. Lets you waste their time and bandwidth. More ad opportunities. Allows you to discourage searches you don't want. Dissuades annoying power users that are less likely to fall for your schemes. Near-useless, but creates a LOT of value out of nothing. Extremely frustrating to use, but think of the money. The perfect choice for any reasonable company in 2026.
duxup 2mo ago
Amazon Prime app, the search is now AI search, I’m looking for an exact title but I have to make extra clicks to so something simple.

What's with big tech companies changing all searches to be fuzzy? FB Marketplace is now like this too. It's impossible to search for anything, it gives unrelated results at least half the time.

felooboolooomba 2mo ago

Desparation. Desparation to get more clicks to get more ad revenue. Those who lived to see the rise and fall of Excite and AltaVista search engines know it's exactly the same thing happening. Even Google search is spewing out hot garbage a lot of the time. Prabhakar Raghavan's internal sabotage of the engine that started 2019 never seemed to have stopped, it just got worse.

creamynebula 2mo ago

If you have to search several times you see more ads. (I know you probably have adblocker tho)

lovich 2mo ago
In case anyone thinks this is conspiracy minded, several emails were leaked that proved this was actually happening in 2019 at google at least https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

kingleopold 2mo ago

they want you to spend even more TIME on that platfrom. With some increased time, they get more revenue? and the exec./manager gets comp. and bonus for it. Until we all quit, which we won't because, what is better than not accessing good information?

xdennis 2mo ago

> What's with big tech companies changing all searches to be fuzzy? Probably because it maximizes usage time, so more ads are served. If the user gets what he's looking for as the first result, he spends hardly any time on the site. If the site never delivers the right results, the user will stop using. Optimal enshitification happens when the user spends as much time as possible without forcing him to quit.

csomar 2mo ago

They are not fuzzy. They want to funnel you somewhere regardless of where you want to be funneled. Something similar (or worse) happens when I search for a hotel by NAME, Google maps displays the pricing for all hotels. Pure clean garbage.

krackers 2mo ago
Amazon is the best example of this. They can surely implement proper search or filtering, but it's not in their interest to do so.

snailmailman 2mo ago

The big one that annoys me is YouTube. There are exactly 3 results for any given search and then it reverts to an algorithmic feed based on your interests. This seems at least sometimes different now and for some results it gives exclusively shorts now which isn’t very helpful either. I’ve done searches for an exact video that I know the title of and have been unable to find it. The search is useless.

tavavex 2mo ago

Strict search - perfect, simple, boring. Gets you where you want. Easy to understand. Serves the user, but doesn't create value outside of making your website better (this is completely unacceptable in the modern world.) Fuzzy search - complex, incomprehensible. Gets the user where YOU want them. Lets you waste their time and bandwidth. More ad opportunities. Allows you to discourage searches you don't want. Dissuades annoying power users that are less likely to fall for your schemes. Near-useless, but creates a LOT of value out of nothing. Extremely frustrating to use, but think of the money. The perfect choice for any reasonable company in 2026.

duxup 2mo ago

Amazon Prime app, the search is now AI search, I’m looking for an exact title but I have to make extra clicks to so something simple.