Google Search is now wretched

[Agema]

Has anyone else noticed this?

Google Search has become awful. These days I do a Google Search, and even after I've got past the obfuscation of AI summaries, advertised content and pointless additional Google searches ("People also ask..." - no they probably don't) what it gives us as consumers is increasingly shit. There are organisations evidently fantastic at gaming the Google search - I can't see any other reason low rent web news junk like Forbes keeps popping up high in the rankings, and Google seems incapable of or unwilling to bother doing anything about it.

I know Google got worse because it wanted more advertising revenue so gimped its own product so that customers had to spend more time searching. But I wonder whether Google isn't deliberately running down Google Search so it can push users into using the AI summary.

I've been trying out other search engines recently, and I can't help but feel that the main reason most people are still using Google Search is inertia because they got used to it. I don't think it does a significantly better job than its competitors any more, plus with the downside that as a user we have to put up with a lot of shit to get through to the actual search output.

 

[Chimpzy]

Only now? Without appending your search with site:reddit.com, Google has been pretty shit for searching anything but the most general information for years now. As you said, gaming the algorithm aka SEO. Or just giving you ads instead of what you searched. And that was before the AI slop. Bing was, for a while at least, significantly better at giving you relevant search results, but now that MS has gone all in on AI, it's become almost as bad as Google, in some ways worse.

I tend to use Duck Duck Go now, but even that is dabbling in AI garbage.

Enshittification marches ever on.

 

[Agema]

I tend to use Duck Duck Go now, but even that is dabbling in AI garbage.

Yeah, I'm mostly using that now.

Realistically, I don't know if a search engine can get away without any AI in the current market, because there will be customers who expect it. However, I don't mind because DDG's AI is opt-in: it's not forcing us to see it, and especially not as the first and most prominent thing on the page (that they reserve for their paid ad content, and I accept that as a price to pay for a free search).

Also, DDG is vastly less invasive in terms of tracking you and storing information on you. I've noticed that Google seems to delight in throwing a lot of shit your way unless you sign in - because of course, signing in saves Google so much effort when it comes to snooping on you.

I've heard Kagi recommended if you want a subscription service, but I think you'd need about $10 a month for a decent package.

 

[Satinavian]

Yes, it got worse.

It is not that bad for me as most pf the stuff i search for is not products but it has been noticable.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I tend to use Duck Duck Go now, but even that is dabbling in AI garbage.

I tried DuckDuckGo but it is worse than Google in finding stuff if you actually know how to search. Doing a very specific search with quotes and even using Japanese kanji, I can find the relevant like 4 results with Google whereas that search turns up nothing in DuckDuckGo.

 

[Bedinsis]

On my cellphone I use Ecosia.

 

[Gergar12]

I use my own trusted websites and Reddit. Also ChatGPT. However, the search is pretty good if you know what you're doing, like googling medical journal articles.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Yes, definitely worse than it was 10 years ago. I try to use Duck Duck Go, but generally that's even worse at finding what I want to find.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I've been using Brave search for the past year or two. I tried a lot of alternative search engines and Brave has struck a decent balance of usefulness. Its image search is still kind of meh though, so if I need to image search I still use Google. Otherwise it's done the job well enough I think

 

[laggyteabag]

I Googled an address the other day, only to find that the Google Maps shortcut had disappeared.

But at least I had an option for "Short Videos"! Of course that produced literally zero results.

So helpful! Thanks AI and pushes for "engagement"

 

[Summerstorm]

I Googled an address the other day, only to find that the Google Maps shortcut had disappeared.

But at least I had an option for "Short Videos"! Of course that produced literally zero results.

So helpful! Thanks AI and pushes for "engagement"

As far as i remember - at least here in europe/germany - it was was court ordered for Alphabet to not directly link google searches to use and promote google maps? You know to combat dependency / monopoly. Maybe same for you guys over there?

 

[Gergar12]

Looks at Bing...

Also no.