Google executives acknowledged this month they need to do a better job surfacing user-generated content after the recent Reddit blackouts.
Google search is a pain from a year ago.
When searching for something on Google, you should include terms like “Reddit”, “superuser”, “Stack Overflow”, etc., to get better results. Because if you don’t include them, the first page of Google looks like a bot-generated page. Of course, Google are ‘not quite happy’.
This means they realize that whole search is so useless that people have to rely on reddit for actually finding something useful.
Yet, we rely on Google to search reddit because their search function is useless lol
I remember the art of crafting the perfect google search query and knowing you’d eventually find that obscure bit of info. Now I have to quote nearly everything in my query and if a single result in the first 100 results is tangentially related, I’m grateful.
I’ve noticed this too, and I want to say it was only noticeable in the last year or two — but it seems to have gotten even worse over the last couple of weeks. Even when I quote something or -exclude a term it is still giving me what it thinks I actually wanted.
I remember being good at google-fu, and then thinking my google-fu was failing me.
No, it was the Google that failed me.
Google should just buy Reddit so they can shut them down six months later.
Months? You mean weeks.
Are you saying they were going to… regReddit?
First they will rename it few times, Reddit+, RedditOut, RedditWave then merge it will Google Groups wait for a year and then pull the plug.
It would be cheaper for google to just buy reddit, remove the adds and open the api’s again.
Having relevent search results is priceless.
remove the adds
lol, this is google we’re talking about
Reddit.com appears on KilledByGoogle.com next year.
Knowing google they would buy it, release a big roadmap of plans for the website and then shut it down the next day.
It’s going to be interesting watching the downfall of Google.
Google’s got a bit of a problem: THE search engine, THE place people have gone to find information for two generations now…can’t find shit. And it’s about half its own fault.
I’ll put right around half of the blame on “platformization.” Your Facebooks and your Twitters are, for the most part, deep web. Google doesn’t get to search Facebook; you have to sign into a Facebook account to see much of what’s there. Twitter is slightly more open…but not really.
The other half of the problem is Google’s own making; the surface web is a twisted, pus-leaking cancerous abomination of its former self, riddled with absolute useless nonsense vomited up by computers for the express purpose of convincing Google to show it to searchers, with no intention of being useful in any way. So the surface web is effectively bullshit and online shopping.
That leaves Reddit. A for-profit platform on the surface web. Even before this whole fiasco, folks were making grumbling noises that they’ve gotten in the habit of appending “reddit” to google search strings because a. that’s where all the actual answers are and b. Reddit’s own search feature has never actually worked. So some of Reddit goes private for a few days and suddenly Google doesn’t work so well.
So what are we keeping them around for?
I still think it’s absolutely insane that Google just willingly runs ads to so many illegitimate and deliberately harmful sites too.
If you search for any software and click one of the first few links (the ads), you’ll almost always end up on a scam site. What a useful search engine…
I downloaded a virus in high school computer lab. I was looking to download Chrome, and Google pushed a scam Chrome link to the top. I still have no idea how or why it happened.
Whats bothering me the most about it is that Reddit is still a valuable source of information for so many things, can’t get around a boss fight in a certain older videogame? Yep, there are about 10 threads about it on reddit from years ago.
The amount information on there is big enough that often times many of the top useful search results are in reddit, I hope Lemmy can fill the gap, at least partially but I’m aware that it could years and that’s only if the fediverse picks up well enough.
Are you having trouble with Bigman in Metal Kojima Acid 5? Check our guide for more info! Subscribe to receive notifications on the best tips for Metal Kojima Acid 5!
If you’re like every other player this Christmas season, you’ve been playing the hell out of Metal Kojima Acid 5. But, many players have found themselves stuck on this boss. Just before the big, well-executed reveal that Ludicrous Reptile is an adopted clone, Bigman comes after you for a climactic showdown. Read past this ad, thinly disguised as article content, to find out more about this killer boss!
To defeat Bigman, keep hitting him with your strongest weapons until his HP reaches zero.
Thanks for reading our guide on Metal Kojima Acid 5! For more tips, go literally anywhere else!
That’s way too straight forward for Kojima. You need at least 3 more hours of cutscenes.
It’s so accurate it hurts me
Google search has been pretty weak for awhile now. I/O spoke a lot of big talk about bring generative AI into search, but from my part of the world it still seems the same.
Ai isn’t going to fix the first page being all ads, that’s a business decision.
If they wanted to return actual content they could do that without AI.
I didn’t realize how important Reddit was to get quality results from Google. Without Reddit almost the whole 1st page is just SEO optimized sites. It’s just ironic that alternate search engines are better than Google now.
If AI art is just ripping off IRL artists than it’s safe to assume chat GPT’s training was >50% reddit & Wikipedia content.
Startpage still seem to give me good search results despite using Google index itself. I guess a lack filter bubble have its own benefits.
