I switched to using startpage.com recently based on a comment I read on Lemmy and I’ve been generally pretty pleased with the results. Just one more google service I can stop relying on.
Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find
Submitted 10 months ago by jezebelley@leminal.space to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 10 months ago
scytale@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Just note that startpage uses google search results. It just proxies your queries so your searches are anonymous to google.
phoneymouse@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Startpage is owned by an ad company. Always been a bit sketched out by that.
whostosay@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Same, that’s why I only use Google now
Carighan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
So you use Google.
erranto@lemmy.world 10 months ago
As long as they keep getting money out of it. and with record numbers year over year. they have no incentive to change course. Google has a monopoly over search engine that affords them the unique position of not giving a dime about user satisfaction. the users are trapped anyway!
cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I used to be an enthusiastic gargler of Google’s balls but they enshittified just like everything else.
Tetractys@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Takes a big person to admit a change like that.
smorgishborg@toast.ooo 10 months ago
On a semi-related note, I used to know a friend that worked at a small tech company (won’t say whom, since the company’s still around and they still work there) that, if memory serves, worked directly with Google to provide clients higher search results for their services/webpages. While I know this isn’t the exact cause of the enshittification, it certainly helps.
Take this with a grain of salt though, I don’t remember exactly what they said, and that was quite some years ago.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
“Worked directly with Google” yeah, I don’t think they did. Google doesn’t need partners for adwords or SEO. They’re really the only game in town, and SEO companies are notorious for misrepresenting themselves as “subsidiaries of Google” in order to make sales.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Ecosia! I did try Kagi, and honestly did not understand the appeal.
Carighan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Ecosia is just Bing, and as the link shows Bing got shittier faster than Google and is producing worse results.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Goddamnit, we can’t win.
dirthawker0@lemmy.world 10 months ago
SEO, people trying to game SEO in a hundred different ways, and garbage scammy websites with no clear purpose have pretty much ruined search results. I remember the ancient days of Google when search brought you maybe 3 or 4 pages of results. This is why AI has become necessary, to winnow through the garbage and give you direct, and hopefully correct, answers.
TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They are great at sifting throught the garbage and giving you direct garbage.
dirthawker0@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’ve played with Bard a little, asking it for details in public-domain novels I’ve read, and 3/4 of the time it is just making shit up. But it’s great at solving quadratic equations.
Yoz@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Who gives a shit. I have been all search engines like startpage, swisscow, ecosia, brave etc Never noticed if google results were going to shits.
fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
This will shock you but… most search engines derive results either directly from google results or from a few other providers which generate results in very similar ways.
Yoz@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I know but I don’t care as I use all the search engines out there.
dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They need to come up with a better algorithm
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Oh, wow. Very insightful there.
RecursiveParadox@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Not related to the article, totally anecdotal, and n=1, but it seems Google Maps has really dropped the ball as well.
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.de 10 months ago
Cannot confirm.
I use google maps regularly, and it mostly works fine.
However, google search engine (and youtube recommendations) have gone on a steeply downhill rollercoaster ride. Nowadays, I have difficulty researching even the most basic topics on Google, because it is so clustered with ads that I cannot tell anymore whether any website is genuine or trying to scam me.
afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 10 months ago
YouTube ads for me has collapsed. I either get recommendations for things I already have and it makes no sense to get another one of or militant rightwing crap from Hillsdale “college”, or Epoch Times.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
As in? For me, Google search is a joke, but Google maps and mail at least still work reasonably well.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 10 months ago
How so? Genuinely curious.
cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Not related to anything but I showered this morning and my feet already smell of sweaty feet.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
I don’t get why it just doesn’t work in some browsers.
ericisshort@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The fact that it doesn’t work the same in every browser sounds a lot like anti-competitive fuckery.