@ianbetteridge @pluralistic “the bigger problem is that Google no longer feels complete. I used to be able to weed out the junk by writing more specific queries. Now, such queries—as well as searches for phrases that I know exist on the Web—commonly turn up nothing.” right on.
@interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic
I noticed four or five years ago that Google was no longer a "search engine" https://blog.bierfaristo.com/content/bit-rot-and-search-engines
@stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic Twenty years ago, I used Google to identify the members of the wealthy country club that was blocking construction of a light rail line on a public right of way that runs through its golf course. Most useful source was scores of amateur golf tournaments that identified players by country club. Google doesn't find you anything remotely like that any more.
@BenRossTransit @stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic That is an amazing story and very on point. Thank you.
@GerardMacDonell @stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic There's more to this story. I then looked up these people's campaign contributions and found a lot of them giving the same amount to the same anti-rail candidate the same day. Added the others who made that contributions to my list. Then googled the individuals. 1/2
@GerardMacDonell @stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic For one guy, the 5th or 6th snippet was "[Name] conspired with the leader of a criminal organization..." I said to myself, what conspiracy blog is this, but I need to check. Made sure my anti-virus was on & clicked. Took me to website of DC Bar Association discipline committee, which confirmed his suspension from the bar owing to the large number of widows & orphans who'd lost their life savings from his crimes. 2/2
@BenRossTransit @stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic I guess the point is you would now be directed to 10 sponsored sites, eh?
@stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic YESSSS. Well put. My results from Google have never been worse.
@stevendbrewer
I noticed this direction after the destruction of proper queries in 2012.
Following 2016, it's become increasingly useful to find only what's NOT easily found elsewhere such as on forums...
@thibi @stevendbrewer @interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic just like I need to know what happened in my city. Check the local subreddit first now...
@interfluidity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic I wonder if there’s any real or good alternatives out there. Bing has its own issues, and DuckDuckGo has been used by those who push conspiracy theories to justify their warped beliefs and claims.
@eonity @ianbetteridge @pluralistic my understanding is there’s really only google and bing (maybe soon apple search will break from its “siri” ghetto). i think (could be mistaken!) duck duck, neeva, etc mostly outsource core indexing to bing, so what bing doesn’t see or refuses to surface to those sites will be omitted.
To be fair, Google seems to have fixed the problem I was complaining about.
@interfluidity
So it's not just me, then.
I had analogous experience back when Google took over the search market. With e.g. AltaVista I could get really narrow results using boolean queries & find answers really fast. With Google I'd get tens of thousands of results, & spend hours looking for the one thing I needed.
(I taught internet literacy in '96 & 'more results is not necessarily better' was always a challenge.)