this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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That's not the least of what makes me unhappy about the Google search experience lately. The thing I don't like is how much it sucks. Like, really really sucks. It was the paradigm of mind-boggling usefulness at one point. Now it's an ad server with occasionally marginally relevant results.
I haven't been able to find anything good on there in years. Everything is some company claiming to have a fix and it's just stupid crap that isn't helpful. 'Here's 10 tips to fix your issue that are worthless.'
I'm in the process of repairing my entry way guard rail. I did a Google search for marking banister placement with curved railing. Google's attempt to be useful was to to search for "baluster" instead of "banister". It's a complete fucking joke.
And forbid searching for vehicle tire size suggestions if you've ever done a single search bikes. Finding recommended tire size for 17x8 wheels is fuck all impossible. After the first 10 links I start getting links to Bicycle shops in the UK. While I'm located in the US.
Also is it just me, or did search engines (not just Google) suddenly start disregarding quotation marks a year or so ago? I've been adding quotes to tell the stupid thing "no, I really did mean that weird word you think is a typo" and lately it just fucking auto-incorrects it anyway!
Yea I have this problem as well. Brackets, quotes, nothing forces the search engine to ONLY return that specific term.
It's awful and it's sad. I remember when I could find everything on there and now it's just all garbage. I'd be pretty annoyed getting links outside the US when that's where you live. Sure wish it was like it used to be.
How to fix your tech problem:
The biggest problem is that if you want to find info on a particular subject matter, be it something niche or not, there’s no dedicated place to find discussions on it unless you already know of specific forums where you can mine for info. That’s the real value that Reddit brought to the table.
If you know exactly what you want and the perfect key words you can usually get it to show up on the first page as long as you’re willing to scroll. Compared to its peak of “have a vague idea and we’ll find it” it’s really sad
I've found that bad addons, spyware, and adware can immensely affect your Google results. Which is... Really alarming, but.... Its true.
This is not to say a lot of seo hasn't absolutely ruined search. Because it has.