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Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

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Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#91

Post by the_only_law »

meowtimemania wrote: post #80
literallyaduck wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to image search and type in "white people" without quotes. Now repeat the search but with "black people" without quotes. Try the same for "white couple" without quotes. Try the same for "black couple" without quotes. Do you have any insight to this phenomenon?

I just did the 4 searches you suggested but didn’t see anything note worthy. What did I miss?

Nothing that can’t be easily explained, of course, anyone coming with a reasonable explanation is being downvoted by the “critical thinkers” of HN who can only instead provide low effort quips.

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#92

Post by IAmEveryone »

ramoz wrote: post #25

When I search “tim lee food blogger age” Google actually shows results with “age” striked out (so it shows top results as if age wasn’t part of the queried string). Trying to think why/how it’d conclude that age wasn’t necessary for good results.

It no longer does this because now your comment is the only result for the query. Before, it could not find a single result, said as much, and gave you the wikipedia page that included the age. What's wrong with that, again?

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#93

Post by Semaphor »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #34

This article from HN a while back was great: How SEO is Gentrifying the internet. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/12/how-seo-is-gentrifyin... I just tried to find this article on google by searching "Can cats eat blueberries bad search results" (Can Cats eat blueberries is very relevant to the article) and it showed up on the first page of results, albeit at the end. On Bing I wasn't able to find it

Hah, I love that DDG, Bing and Google all return some article about cats being able to eat blueberries, while Kagi delivers your article at the first position :D

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#94

Post by bryanrasmussen »

literallyaduck wrote: post #72
AlbertCory wrote: post #14

I've been gone from G for 4 1/2 years now. When I was there, the weekly meetings often featured "search quality" measurements that were rigorous in their objectivity (I thought). They bent over backwards to be non-self-deluding. I distinctly remember Udi Manber saying "if the web is slow, it's our fault" (actually, the speech was that everything is "our fault"), meaning, really, "take responsibility for problems and…

Go to image search and type in "white people" without quotes. Now repeat the search but with "black people" without quotes. Try the same for "white couple" without quotes. Try the same for "black couple" without quotes. Do you have any insight to this phenomenon?

well for the first white people I can see that the first two images of black persons has the words white people in it, specifically "Opinion: white people know racism..." (haven't clicked to see rest) and "Why I'm no longer talking to White..." where the next word is people, it's a Guardian article so that explains high ranking I guess - what is your point?

on edit: grammatical correction

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#95

Post by foobiekr »

AlbertCory wrote: post #14

I've been gone from G for 4 1/2 years now. When I was there, the weekly meetings often featured "search quality" measurements that were rigorous in their objectivity (I thought). They bent over backwards to be non-self-deluding. I distinctly remember Udi Manber saying "if the web is slow, it's our fault" (actually, the speech was that everything is "our fault"), meaning, really, "take responsibility for problems and…

But slow/fast isn't quality. What were the rigorous measurements? Latency of results to click? User clicked above the fold?

I have wondered about this now for several years, because from my point of view Google search has steadily degraded since around 2010. The specific degradation isn't that it returns nothing, or irrelevant pages, but that it returns mostly _recent_ content, and returns very little _older_ content which is still assuredly on the web.

I can see how Google's approach will work for the average search query - after all, the average query is probably about something happening now - but that doesn't equate to _quality_.

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#96

Post by philistine »

pseudalopex wrote: post #60
umeshunni wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the broader theme that these outrage bait posts miss is that the web itself is rotting / deteriorating. Most interesting content isn't on the web anymore and is definitely not in text. Content that would be have been on an open web forum 10 years ago, are now hidden behind various data silos/walled gardens - whether it's Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter or Discord. Each of these walled gardens have…

You're right walled gardens and video make search harder than it used to be. That doesn't make discussing the problem outrage bait.

Considering Google basically owns online video, they should be ashamed they haven't been able to give incredible Google Search results inside videos.

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#97

Post by gbh444g »

kingcharles wrote: post #86
literallyaduck wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to image search and type in "white people" without quotes. Now repeat the search but with "black people" without quotes. Try the same for "white couple" without quotes. Try the same for "black couple" without quotes. Do you have any insight to this phenomenon?

tl;ds: white people -> images of mostly blacks black people -> images of mostly blacks white couple -> mostly white couples with a decent percentage of mixed ethnicity couples black couple -> black couples

Try green people, blue people, yellow people. Even 'transparent people' returns relevant results.

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#98

Post by kelnos »

whakim wrote: post #87
JimDabell wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems weird to me that Google would take "search quality" seriously for 15+ years (including nearly a decade as one of the biggest companies in the world) and then suddenly stop. Is anybody claiming that it’s sudden? Everybody I’ve seen complain about Google search results has seemed to think that it’s been getting slowly worse over a long period of time.

> Is anybody claiming that it’s sudden? I mean, there are two ex-Googlers in this thread claiming firsthand that search quality was considered sacrosanct as of a few years ago, so it seems like it'd have to have been sudden if indeed it has happened at all.

Four and a half years is quite enough time for search results to get worse that I wouldn't call it "sudden".

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#99

Post by seattle_spring »

twofornone wrote: post #18

Incidentally, I noticed very recently (in the last month or so) that searches in google maps (at least on mobile) are also starting to return completely irrelevant results. Something is seriously wrong at google.

This drives me nuts when I'm trying to navigate somewhere, no pun intended. For example, I'll tell it I want to go to a trailhead for a lake but it will switch it to the literal middle of the lake itself.

Re: Is Google Search Deteriorating? Measuring Google's Search Quality in 2022

#100

Post by photochemsyn »

kebman wrote: post #90

If you search for anything political on Google, you'll notice that the results are clearly slanted in one direction, towards the opinion of a handful of pre-approved news outlets. This leads me to seek alternatives whenever I need neutral sources, for instance Yahoo search.

I wonder if they're getting cash kickbacks from established corporate media outlets for pushing their material to the top of the search results. That would actually be less creepy than if its being done as some kind of information manipulation program.

It's high time Google and other search engines were forced to expose the inner workings of their ranking algorithms to the public, particularly now that they have near-monopoly power in the sector. People should also be able to adjust the dials on the algorithm themselves.

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