The google scraping bot gets past the pay walls in many cases
Can I change my mobile browser to use the same user agent?
Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
21–30 of 221 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#22Thanks to this cursed god forsaken parasite "Pinterest" I just completely stopped using google's image search option. I'm using bing/ddg now and it feels soooo good compared to how awful google search experience became
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#23I think the utility of generic search engines is coming to an end. Services like Google, Bing and DDG are numbered in usefulness.
Instead, I am guessing (maybe hoping) that we see a return of the moderated directories, like Yahoo or DMOZ of old. A 2.0 spin on these directories, with lessons learned from all the years.
Imagine that you just go to StackOverflow and search there directly for your answer. Want a funny laugh, go to your favorite comedy website (like facebook.com) and search directly. Want some news, go to CNN or Fox (depending on your persuasion) and fill your echo chamber.
Not kidding. I think search as we know it is dead. And there is a new paradigm just sitting out there ready for the next generation to make.
A directory of well known lists of websites with specialty search engines available on each.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#24If you can get a beta invite for https://kagi.com get it. Not only are their defaults really good you also have the option to customize your searches by blacklisting, creating groups with sites like stackoverflow, github, hackernews etc for a dev search and so much more. It feels like google in the 00s with better customization.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#25I recently stopped using google and switched my default to DuckDuckGo. So far I haven't needed to go back to google for anything.
Me too. DDG is still not as good on certain searches, but most of the time it's perfectly adequate.
You are correct. I tried DDG before but it just isn’t good enough. I have been trying the new you.com search engine for a couple of months and it is really good, more so if you are in tech and your searches are work related.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#26If you can get a beta invite for https://kagi.com get it. Not only are their defaults really good you also have the option to customize your searches by blacklisting, creating groups with sites like stackoverflow, github, hackernews etc for a dev search and so much more. It feels like google in the 00s with better customization.
Tried getting one. Told me to fill up a survey. Closed.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#27I think the utility of generic search engines is coming to an end. Services like Google, Bing and DDG are numbered in usefulness. Instead, I am guessing (maybe hoping) that we see a return of the moderated directories, like Yahoo or DMOZ of old. A 2.0 spin on these directories, with lessons learned from all the years. Imagine that you just go to StackOverflow and search there directly for your answer. Want a funny la…
I've been coming to a similar conclusion.
Increasingly I've had to use `site:` syntax with DDG, but DDG has clearly become significantly worse in recent months. This was confirmed by others in another HN thread recently. Even if I use the site-syntax or use quotes to specify exact match (which DDG used to honor), I'll often get nonsense results whereas Yandex somehow manages to find results that aren't on DDG or Google.
And yeah, I've been having to use search engines on specific sites like Wikipedia because I know there's gonna be less shenanigans.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm living in the past. Do normies actually use search engines anymore?
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#28For those who aren't aware: Google is a lesser-known competitor of the recommended search engine DuckDuckGo.
You can Duck for 'google' to find out more about it.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#29I'm p sure my ad-blocker removes these results all.
I dont use google that often but never ever without ad-blocker. Whats the point of a page full or ads when I hardly ever search for anything I want to buy.
Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
#30Google should just outright delist these sites, they are incredibly annoying and worthless
Why would they? Few will stop using Google over that problem, and who's to say they aren't getting paid to keep Pinterest in the results?