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Google Search Is Dying

dkb.io

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Re: Google Search Is Dying

#591

Ive been experimenting with Kagi lately. It seems very promising. The results have been fairly reliable at all types of queries except the ones where I straight up ask google a question. Anyone else tried it? https://kagi.com/

I use kagi exclusively now and have since I was invited a few weeks ago. I've tried to think of about a usecase where I need Google like shopping but even then kagis result are better and Googles are irrelevant after the first few results.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#592

Some really good thoughts here. I'll summarize the ones that hit me: - "Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust." This is it for me exactly. I search for the following kinds of things on Reddit exactly because results on other sites aren't trustworthy: Reviews are secretl…

I too have found myself searching more in Reddit. Not to throw shade on Reddit, but even if I find exactly what I’m looking for in there, it’s depressing that it’s all bound up inside of another walled garden who will eventually have the same incentive as Google: squeeze every last advertising dollar out of the produc… I mean users. Like Google, it’s just a matter of time before they too lose their balance. A questio…

A factor in there has got to be 'who pays?' If it's hostile to advertisers, then there's got to be money to pay for the infrastructure from somewhere.

Maybe a tax on ISPs? I think I'd happily pay $10 extra per month for access to an ad-free interrnet. Maybe $20. But how many of the people that are already happy with the ads and poor google results would do so? Would it be sustainable?

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#593
Used to use reddit long ago but left due to the inherent (if subtle) censorship.

However, I've been using site:reddit.com in google searches for years after leaving reddit as a user, mostly when I want to find more realistic opinions about certain products or solutions and I want to filter out marketing. It's served me very well.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is the most annoying behavior because I really mean what I write. Tons of people don't, though. They type whatever unprocessed half-second thought they have into Google and expect Google to lead them to the water, even if they're tugging and trying to go in the completely wrong direction. Google has optimized for working 'most of the time' for 'the most people', and that means striving for fixing the complete…

Tons of people don't, though Do they? I see this stated all the time, with no references. They type whatever unprocessed half-second thought they have into Google and expect Google to lead them to the water Perhaps if Google didn't try to fix things for people, they would be more thoughtful with their searches. Take away the junk food, and people will resort to real food. The same way some cities limit parking at big…

> Take away the junk food, and people will resort to real food.

Many people already resort to real food, even with plenty of junk food around.

“Problem” is unfortunately, that it comes at a price, that many are simply not ready or able to pay.

Who should step in is a good question, and probably governments should make access to information a right and have high quality public service available (in this case a public web search engine). Public libraries used to fulfill this role for centuries.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#597
Reddit search can be hit or miss, but overall the content is higher quality than the numerous garbage quality articles that you will get for searching a broad term. You'll also often have access to a broad community and maybe wiki if you search a popular enough topic. Reddit really shines on niche topics though, like what capacitor do I need to replace in my 1996 CRT monitor. Often if there is any information to be had you'll get the best explanation through reddit, of course this doesn't apply for all things but it's good enough that I'm guilty of adding reddit to my google search terms more and more.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#598
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the "dead internet conspiracy" - I've worked in writing how-to articles for a fairly large "help" website. They paid very little attention to the quality of the articles. I was paid for each piece and thus had about 30 minutes to write an article and later integrate feedback from internal review. Otherwise the payment became too low. The most important factor was cramming SEO terms and links to keep people on t…

The other day I looked up the wordle answer (I know I know). The first result was a site where I had to scroll through about 19 paragraphs of SEO vomit to get to the answer. The page could literally have one word on it and serve it's purpose. If that isn't a sign that the the internet, or at least google search, is dead, I don't know what is.

For future instances where you give up trying to figure out the wordle, I built a site to make that easier: www.wordlespoiler.com

Word of warning: it has the answer to both today and tomorrows wordles.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - "Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust." Haha, the noobs. I use HN instead sunglasses cool face A bit more seriously: I fully agree with this. And if HN doesn't have what I'm looking for then I use Reddit as well. But if HN has some info on the topic with a few high…

When I'm looking into some project or piece of software I'm unfamiliar with, I really do search for HN posts on it. Fastest way to cut through (enough) of the biased material and get something genuine. Even hyped stuff usually has enough contrarian posts to give you an idea of where to look for the skeletons.

HN has now been around a while, is really popular, and is starting to catch the attention of ad/marketing companies now, though - how do you know what here is genuine?

Even the heuristic of "only trust accounts older than n years" isn't perfect, as eventually a few people will undoubtedly sell their old accounts on a dark web market for a little extra cash...

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#600

Some really good thoughts here. I'll summarize the ones that hit me: - "Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust." This is it for me exactly. I search for the following kinds of things on Reddit exactly because results on other sites aren't trustworthy: Reviews are secretl…

This fits well with my own worldview. I've been griping about Google results for years, and jumped for DuckDuckGo when it became usable. I'm sure that fifteen years from now, DuckDuckGo will be ad-infested crap and someone new will come along to replace it, just as Google replaced AltaVista.

Even DDG knows that it can't handle everything, and so it has its bang shortcuts. I've used the !reddit one, and I'd use !w (Wikipedia) except I do those from the Firefox search bar.

I've heard the "everything's a bot" theory before, but never saw a name put to it before. I'd have to guess that 99% of all SMTP traffic is spam at this point.

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