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In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

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Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#151

Post by allenu »

Robotbeat wrote: post #67
allenu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to do that until I realized on Mac, I can just cmd-spacebar to do Spotlight search and type my equation in there.

I don’t have a Mac. Does Spotlight handle units as well as Google does? Also, doing the calculation in Google is handy because it’s easy to share in a modifiable way.

I don't know how well it handles units vs. Google but it does convert as you type, say "5inches" immediately shows it in cm but you can keep typing "5inches in m" and it'll do the math too.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#152

Post by resonantjacket5 »

sbierwagen wrote: post #137
BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

I was trying to remember the name of a song. Not an obscure song: "Toe Rag" by The Rifles, a modestly well known indie band. I even remembered a chunk of the lyrics! But I got nothing. Here's let's cheat, and copy and paste exactly two lines from the song. https://www.google.com/search?q=See+them+more+than+my+friend... I don't know what other people see, but I just get SEO garbage listicles. Nothing even remotely rel…

if you use double quotes you only need "See them more than my" lyrics. Though if you do "see them more" you get "Further Than the Stars" song instead.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#153

Post by kikokikokiko »

tompagenet2 wrote: post #133
monkeybutton wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO Google Image search has gone down hill significantly too. Getting full pages of pinterest results was bad enough but now on my phone you have to scroll past multiple screens worth of Google Shopping ads or images tagged with the "Product" icon before you see any actual, organic photos of the thing you're looking for.

I know this sounds implausible, but I find Bing image search so much better than Google.

Not just for images. Bing seems to be a lot more closer to what Google search used to be a few years ago. Anything related to torrents or streams is pretty much impossible to find on Google. Any news not spouted from mainstream sources, gone from Google. My default search deck nowadays is a mix of Bing and DuckDuckGo.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#154

Post by samvher »

gonehome wrote: post #63
BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

When I search Google now I mostly get spam. “Product vs. Product” -> list of spam websites that just show them side by side with ads. “Product Review” -> same as above, spam. “Product referral code” -> sites with spam and no codes. Interesting web content is in Reddit (and youtube), Google exists as a tool to search Reddit since the “new” Reddit site is awful. Programming questions are mostly stack overflow, but occa…

I haven't heard of Axios before - how would you characterize it? Looking at the website I can't quite tell if it's an aggregator or how they generate content, and if there is any particular leaning to what they host.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#155

Post by [deleted] »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #111

About a decade ago or so, I remember complaining about Google's search result quality having already declined then. Specifically, I think my complaint was that the search results were a lot higher quality in the mid-2000s, and then from then on, the search results ended up becoming progressively more sanitized and crafted. So, I mean, we're way, way past Google's heyday. It's not even close. But it's interesting to m…

[deleted]

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#157

Post by axaxs »

Shared404 wrote: post #94
axaxs wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed with everything above. If I ever X vs Y in google, I append site:reddit.com I'm not a huge fan of Reddit, but it's about the largest forum. I really miss Forum search in Google.

> I really miss Forum search in Google. You may find this useful: https://boardreader.com/

This is awesome, how did I not know it existed. Thank you!

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#158

Post by tablespoon »

gxx wrote: post #93
BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

For me Google "verbatim" is the best way to get focussed results although it's too bad it doesn't allow date ranges. Bing search with appropriate use of guotes, + and - operators and date ranges usually beats non-verbatim Google search, and it can sometimes be better than Google verbatim.

> For me Google "verbatim" is the best way to get focussed results although it's too bad it doesn't allow date ranges.

One word of caution: I use verbatim mode and I regularly (but not always) get Wikipedia clones as my top result. It must be skipping some of their anti-spam filtering.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#159

Post by zip1234 »

typon wrote: post #124
gonehome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I search Google now I mostly get spam. “Product vs. Product” -> list of spam websites that just show them side by side with ads. “Product Review” -> same as above, spam. “Product referral code” -> sites with spam and no codes. Interesting web content is in Reddit (and youtube), Google exists as a tool to search Reddit since the “new” Reddit site is awful. Programming questions are mostly stack overflow, but occa…

For pretty much any product or review related search I just do " reddit" and then scour the somewhat up voted posts for information. Have to deal with tons of dead links though for any post older than a couple of years. The Web really seems like it's an awful place. The original dream of hyper links is really dead. It's all about jumping from walled garden to walled garden through tricks and luck.

and reddit has gotten much less useful with all their push for login and using their app...

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#160

Post by kikokikokiko »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #150
monkeybutton wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO Google Image search has gone down hill significantly too. Getting full pages of pinterest results was bad enough but now on my phone you have to scroll past multiple screens worth of Google Shopping ads or images tagged with the "Product" icon before you see any actual, organic photos of the thing you're looking for.

For my money, yandex.com now has the best search results. Beware though, yandex allows NSFW by default. You have to enable safe/family search. This is the opposite of Google and Bing, so it could get you in trouble at work. Those crazy Russians.

So, they just show you what you are looking for :-) I remember the days when Google would not try to protect me from "dangerous" sites and images.
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