i noticed the exact same thing..
it's almost impossible to google game dev programming things... IMPOSSIBLE to find good resources anymore, it almost as if old (and valuable) resources are not referenced anymore!
Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
401–410 of 515 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#402The results keep getting "refined" so as to suit the popular 80% of queries, while getting much worse for any technical or obscure queries. Forced synonyms and "people also searched for" are typically useless and almost infuriating. Once you get off the first or second page, the results get even worse-- with pages entirely unrelated to the query (e.g. not even containing the searched phrases). They are probably testi…
I've also completely switched over to DDG and I'm seeing similar things that infuriate me about Google. Most of all the fact that ignores my "literal" searches using double quotes. The documentation [0] says > Results for exact term [...]. If no results are found, we'll try to show related results. But very regularly it fails to find results I know exist in not so unpopular places. [0] https://help.duckduckgo.com/duc…
this always baffles me. If my search terms return zero hits, THAT is helpful and meaningful to know, when they change my search to enable hits, that isn't helpful, because it 99% of the time will not have the information I want, and frequently I won't know that they are ignoring search term, so I'll click through to half a dozen hits before I discover what theyve done. I got to the point that as soo as I clicked a link, the first thing I'd do on the landing page was command-f, and search for the most specific term in my google query. If it wasn't found, I'd instantly hit the back button and do the next hit.
This really got to me about 6 months ago, so I changed all my default searches on all my browsers and mobile to DDG, and haven't looked back. I tried DDG ~5 years ago, and there was no way it could have replaced google for me then, but when I did it 6 months ago, it didn't seem any worse, maybe a little better.
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#403The results keep getting "refined" so as to suit the popular 80% of queries, while getting much worse for any technical or obscure queries. Forced synonyms and "people also searched for" are typically useless and almost infuriating. Once you get off the first or second page, the results get even worse-- with pages entirely unrelated to the query (e.g. not even containing the searched phrases). They are probably testi…
This combined with the fact that programmers have went from highly specific names like "winamp" to just capitalizing a random english word to name their tool makes it very hard to find relevant information.
Word.
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want a curated search engine so badly. I feel like some enterprising developer could craft one specifically geared towards developers. Imagine a search that doesn't ignore operators like '?.' and where you can set persistent conditions on every single query without having to type it out. This would help prevent you from needing to type in the language you are searching for in every query. Oh, and the cherry on top…
I've considered taking a stab at it, but I didn't for likely the same reason no one else has: no idea how to monetize it. Sure you can run ads, but your conversion rates will likely stink because you'd be selecting for non-suckers.
I’d love to take a stab at it. I think there are ways to monetize it that don’t involve advertising (at least enough to cover salaries and infrastructure). The only reason I haven’t is I don’t have access to the initial capital.
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#405Agreed, google search became a PoS for tech users. I can't find anymore things I know exists - that means I won't ever be able to find new stuff there.
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#406Walled garden. It will converge as the great reset converges. It is like closing the fence around your cattle.
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a public repo on GitHub that just doesn't show up on Google. Search for "github drv8830pico" - it's literally not in any results.
Haha I just tried and guess what? Your comment was the only result. Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse? https://news.ycombinator.com › item 4 hours ago — But of course, it's still on GitHub. ... Search for "github drv8830pico" - it's literally not in any results. DuckDuckGo works fine, though.
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Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Thread" is a good keyword to include to find discussions, even though it's a bit overloaded. Eg. 'good cheap mountain bike' -> 10 results out of the first 10 are commercial spam and listicles. 'thread good cheap mountain bike' -> 5 human discussions on entry-level MBs, 1 link to a MB forum home page (not a specific thread), 2 commercial spam, 1 paywalled magazine article testing MBs, and 1 online shop product page f…
Until the spammers figure that one out. It would be nice if google had a keyword for this.
Like discussion? https://www.ghacks.net/2014/01/23/search-discussions-blogs-p...
I don't use them enough, but the replacements are interesting: they seem to mostly search for indicators of a forum (e.g the existence of a next page button).
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#409There was a very good thread on HN about this not long ago(1). Google search is getting worse because it is letting companies like Pinterest game it. Instead of fixing the spam they are instead encouraging companies to spend more and more time on SEO and coming up with their own shenanigans like better ranking for using AMP (defunct now). People who generally make great content (think a researcher or a great software…
I don't understand this narrative that Google is making the search results get worse or "letting" companies game it. Search result ranking is adversarial! If the results are worse than they once were, that just means that Google is less far ahead in the arms race than they used to be
Re: Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse?
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha I just tried and guess what? Your comment was the only result. Ask HN: Has Google search become quantitatively worse? https://news.ycombinator.com › item 4 hours ago — But of course, it's still on GitHub. ... Search for "github drv8830pico" - it's literally not in any results. DuckDuckGo works fine, though.
Yeah, this comment chain pretty sums up my experience. Google has become AltaVista.
AV respected your querries if I remember correctly.