If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it? • Hacker News Board

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#191

Post by not2b » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:12 AM UTC

glenstein wrote: post #179

asiachick wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google loses if people stop using it. Google has every incentive to downrank them.

Google has incentives to degrade the quality of search results for the benefit of its profitability, up to the extent that is able to without turning away too many users. I think it's more like that rather than an either/or.

They have competition: if we get to the point where Bing/DuckDuckGo results are clearly better, people will start moving, and that will hurt their revenue badly.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#192

Post by crobertsbmw » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:26 AM UTC

I use DuckDuckGo and it seems like it’s gotten worse on the last couple months. Whenever I search for programming questions I expect staovetflow to be on top bit lately I’ve been getting geeksforweeks blog or some BS showing at the top of the search results every time. I don’t get it. It’s not just google…

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#193

Post by malwarebytess » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:29 AM UTC

I wonder what googlers think about discussions like this? It doesn't seem like a rare opinion among techies that Google search has been declining in usefulness. Honestly, Google obfuscates the internet instead of making it accessible.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#194

Post by rr808 » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:31 AM UTC

I use Bing. I dont know why everyone complains it finds anything I want, though I guess I dont really need anything too complicated. I like to encourage competition, the points are handy too.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#195

Post by FpUser » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:31 AM UTC

Not sure about everyone but for my searches Google always gives me way better results that the competitors. So while I dislike google as a company I still do use their search and youtube for the lack of true alternative. Rest of their stuff I successfully avoid.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#196

Post by userbinator » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:31 AM UTC

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #101

mountainriver wrote: post #78

The “google search sucks” rhetoric is getting a bit old. It works really really well and is free. I rarely ever have issues with it. I think it’s just getting trendy to dog on

Only on HN. Virtually none of the "problems" described on HN at the intersection of tech and society are seen as problems out in the real world.

I know quite a few highly-non-technical people who have been talking about how Google's results are frequently omitting words from their queries for a few years now.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#197

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:32 AM UTC

compiler-guy wrote: post #76

The web itself sucks more and more, and Google results reflect that. Much good discussion migrated to siloed locations like facebook groups. There are thousands of pages of technical content that are barely redone versions of each other. Each SEO'd to within an inch of its life. These are quite similar to the dozens of identical off-brand products one finds on amazon. I would love to see Google results get better. Bu…

[deleted]

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#198

Post by hyperpallium2 » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:36 AM UTC

It's trivial to switch search engines, so Google invests in PR to make it stickier. All those cool google projects that are constantly in the news? The ROI is PR.

It also made massive capital investment in server farms, for fast results, especially google suggest. A way of converting profit into economic moat.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#199

Post by _yoqn » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:38 AM UTC

lmg643 wrote: post #163

kauguste281 wrote: post #65

Google sucks compared to Google from years ago. It's still vastly superior to the modern alternatives. It doesn't help that almost all alternatives out there are just Bing with different window dressing, so going through alternatives is just annoying as they have all the same holes in the search results. Another big issue is that everybody just tries to copy Google. I don't need Google in less good, I want to see som…

Brave search is fantastic, haven't noticed a difference since moving

I'm going to second that. Since switching off Google a couple years ago I have had fewer and fewer "failed" searches which required me to go back to Google to try the search.

The more people who use Brave Search (they own their own index), the better it will become. And right now I'd say it's orders of magnitude better than DDG and the others.

Re: If Google sucks then why is everyone still using it?

#200

Post by _yoqn » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 2:39 AM UTC

elevaet wrote: post #114

thereare5lights wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google sucks compared to Google from years ago. Came here to write exactly that Why are we still using it? There's nothing better out there.

I've been starting to use kagi for search. I'm still using google by default, but when I get a screen full of ads and clickbait articles I turn to kagi and it's almost always better.

Maybe you should try an opposite approach. When kagi gives you useless results switch to Google.