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It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

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Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#281

Post by jeena »

degenerate wrote: post #13

This author is in his own little bubble and doesn't understand the vast amount of blog-repost spam that google has to deal with. The way their algorithm most likely deals with this is a mixture of domain rank + tenure... how long has this copy of this article existed on this domain, and can we be sure this is the original copy? The author says the article was removed in 2006 (" [...] posts, were not accessible anymor…

I tested it with an article on my own website from 2003.

I first posted it on

http://jeenaparadies.de/artikel/webdesign

then I had a 301 redirect there for a couple of years to

http://jeenaparadies.net/artikel/webdesign

until I stopped paying for the .de domain. About 5 years ago I made another 301 redirect to

http://paradies.jeena.net/artikel/webdesign

which is still in place. DDG finds it but not Google and actually neither does Bing.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#282

Post by dx034 »

JohnFen wrote: post #156
Liquix wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally and perhaps unrelated - has anyone else noticed a decrease in the accuracy and general quality of Google search over the past 2-4 months? They've had to have been utilizing ML to 'improve' searches for some time now, but the quality of the results has decreased suddenly and inexplicably (for me).

> Anecdotally and perhaps unrelated - has anyone else noticed a decrease in the accuracy and general quality of Google search over the past 2-4 months Yes. Not just over the past 2-4 months, but over the past five years or so. It's become so bad that Google is no longer the most useful search engine for me.

I noticed the same but only on an absolute level. Compared to Bing, DDG & Co, Google is still by far the best search engine.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#283

Post by dx034 »

jimnotgym wrote: post #190
arbol wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you recommend instead?

DuckDuckGo.com is my daily driver.

I love the concept of DDG and have it as my standard but still use Google (via !g) for about 30-50% of my queries. Simple queries work well in DDG (which is basically Bing) but more complicated queries only really work in Google.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#284

Post by dx034 »

kyrra wrote: post #90
founderling wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is an example: http://www.gnoosic.com/discussion/metallica__5.html No matter how you search for the content on Google, nothing comes up: https://www.google.com/search?q="Metallica+only+played+2+son... DuckDuckGo has it: https://duckduckgo.com/?q="Metallica+only+played+2+songs+fro... I checked the wayback machine and the content has constantly been on that url for over 10 years. This is the first example of an ol…

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.gnoosic.com+Metal... Looks like only page 6 is indexed for some reason. The site owner would be able to check the webmaster tools on Google to see why.

Search console isn't really helpful in many cases. Unless there's an error, it'll probably say "crawled but not indexed", which gives you no idea why they didn't include it.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#285

Post by dx034 »

icebraining wrote: post #132
founderling wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is an example: http://www.gnoosic.com/discussion/metallica__5.html No matter how you search for the content on Google, nothing comes up: https://www.google.com/search?q="Metallica+only+played+2+son... DuckDuckGo has it: https://duckduckgo.com/?q="Metallica+only+played+2+songs+fro... I checked the wayback machine and the content has constantly been on that url for over 10 years. This is the first example of an ol…

From what I can tell, there's no links anywhere on the site to that particular page, you have to know the exact term and search it: http://www.gnoosic.com/discussion/ How is Google supposed to find that out?!

That's a good point. Googlebot probably wouldn't try out combinations in the search box, so unless the site owner provides a sitemap Google wouldn't know about entries.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#286

Post by dx034 »

misterman0 wrote: post #107
founderling wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the articles premise is that Google axed all content older then 5 years or so. But that it gradually discards old unique content. Which goes against the original mission of Google to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible". A "bug" could be an option, but I don't expect that to be the reason. It's too easy to find examples of forgotten content. And I don't think a bug of th…

>> Googles core business Which core business are you referring to?

Search. They still form a major part of their business. Through direct ad revenues but also to redirect traffic to other Google products (e.g. Maps, Youtube).

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#287

Post by CloudNetworking »

Just yesterday I was thinking to myself that the results I was getting from Google where more artificial (paid, SEO, etc) and less organic than before.

That means I am getting less and less value out of my Google searches these days, but only from certain topics like e.g. recipes / food searches. Coding and technical searches tend to return high quality results, but that may be because StackOverflow exists...

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#288

Post by jimjimjim »

kickscondor wrote: post #17

While it's become impossible to browse the wider Web with Google, it's getting a bit easier elsewhere. A few helpful search engines: * https://millionshort.com/ * https://wiby.me/ * https://pinboard.in/search/ A recent movement to build personal Yahoo!-style directories: * https://href.cool/ (my own project) * https://indieseek.xyz/ * https://districts.neocities.org/ * https://the.dailywebthing.com/ The above resourc…

Thank you for the links. I've been toying with the idea of building a yahoo, seeing your post has rekindled my interest in it again.

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#289

Post by [deleted] »

alecdibble wrote: post #144
Pxtl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think your "3-6 years ago" and "forgetting the old web" are incompatible. I've noticed the same - Google seems to gravitate to results from 2014ish, even when newer information is available, or when I'm searching about an event from far before that time.

I thought I was going crazy with this 2014ish search result dynamic. I almost always have to use date filters to find recent information. Especially when trying to research products, reviews, types of products, etc.

[deleted]

Re: It seems that Google is forgetting the old web

#290

Post by bshacklett »

dx034 wrote: post #283
jimnotgym wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DuckDuckGo.com is my daily driver.

I love the concept of DDG and have it as my standard but still use Google (via !g) for about 30-50% of my queries. Simple queries work well in DDG (which is basically Bing) but more complicated queries only really work in Google.

Sadly I've been finding the same result. Exact searches on Google are often frustrating, but lately they've been all but impossible on DDG. It seems that all search engines (including those backing DDG) are getting on the ML train and assuming they know what I'm looking for better than I do.

I understand this being default behavior, but there really needs to be a way to disable it.

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