oshyMay 11, 2025
You noticed how google search became unusably shit a few years ago?
Turns out that was on purpose
Show threadWillow Brook 💜

@ocean I need to understand what people are searching for and why the first page doesn't help them.
Cuz the only time I can't find something is because I don't really expect to find anything. Either cuz it's a very niche question or earlier when I tried to get a pdf/ebook of Harold and the Purple Crayon (still copyrighted I think, no straightforward download).

Like I believe people are having a hard time. I just can't tell from my experience.

May 11, 2025 at 8:03pmWeb
Show threadBenjamin BraatzMay 11, 2025

@Paradox @ocean Same! I *can* somehow tell it getting less good over the years – some paid results to ignore here, some only seldomly helpful AI result there, … – but all in all it is still useful enough for me to this day. Do I include enough keywords in my searches? Do I only research topics that are not *that* prone to bad results? Don't know. 🤷‍♂️

(It's not always on the first page, though. I tend to ignore quite a lot of results based on the preview.)

Show threadUrban HermitMay 12, 2025
@HeptaSean @Paradox @ocean I use a search engine in two ways: 1.) basic information like how to spell a word (auto correct on my phone is crap now - ef Google). For that even the Google AI answer is good enough. Or, 2.) Very specific information on a specific thing that is uncommon. For that Google is crap and ignores specific words in your search so it can produce more common results that it has sold more advertising for. Now even if I use quotes results still favor the 'common' answer.
Show threadWillow Brook 💜May 12, 2025
@Urban_Hermit
I think my confusion stems from the idea that, to blame Google for such shortcomings, is to think that the information exists somewhere and to fail to find it the way you always have.
If I'm searching up something obscure and don't get good results, I consider that normal. Maybe it doesn't exist, or maybe I'm not asking the question right. Smarter people than me have struggled to dig up very obscure info.
Show threadUrban HermitMay 12, 2025
@HeptaSean @Paradox @ocean Example: I was very sick recently and it is very obvious, for the second time in a year, that my sinuses got packed with thin mucus AFTER I tried to use acetaminophen to break the fever and clear the headache. It made my cold 500x worse and 3x longer. It was literally dangerous in how bad it affected my breathing and sleep, but I can't find information about this because results are drowned out with mundane information.
Show threadWillow Brook 💜May 12, 2025
@Urban_Hermit
There are many pages discussing that, although personally I'd reach for an antihistamine first. I'm not sure why some recommend Tylenol, and I'm sorry that happened to you.
Show threadLisPiMay 11, 2025
@Paradox @ocean Even just looking for straightforward cooking instructions leads to LLM vomit being the first few results on Google.

(It's somewhat better if one searches for recipes in other languages than English.)

Not exactly what I'd consider niche.
Show threadWillow Brook 💜May 11, 2025
@lispi314
Llm is always the first thing tried. You can ignore it.
Show threadLisPiMay 11, 2025
@Paradox It seriously covers multiple pages at this point on the worst search-engines.

Any topic that /isn't/ particularly niche suffers from it more.
Show threadBenjamin BraatzMay 11, 2025
@lispi314 You are not only talking about the snippet from *Google's* LLM at the top of the search results, but also about the other results? Haven't had *that* many obviously LLM-generated, but perhaps my interests are just niche enough. @Paradox
Show threadLisPiMay 11, 2025
@HeptaSean @Paradox Not the snippet, no. Pages on other domains linked by the search engine results.

There's a certain... meandering meaninglessness to the text with a bunch of huge empty spaces on those sites (thanks adblockers) that's typical.

Oh sure, the meaningless nonsense also used to get written-up by humans before but I don't consider spam to be worth more when written by humans instead of autogenerated.
Show threadBenjamin BraatzMay 11, 2025

@lispi314 I usually search programming, Linux, politics, and science stuff and then strongly prefer sites I know – Wikipedia, StackOverflow, universities, well-known publications, …. That works quite well even without adblocker and is not overrun by LLM-generated garbage up to now.

But I just tested searching "Steak Medium Rare" and you might be right with the language thing. Google's AI summary isn't even that bad as far as I can tell. The first few German articles I get are ad-infested, but the content is at least quite informative. There, of course, is the Wikipedia article on “Doneness”.

But the first English article is just *awful*. Even more ad-infested than the German ones. And it just promises that it *will* tell me how to cook a steak, but *never* actually starts. @Paradox

Show threadBenjamin BraatzMay 11, 2025
@Paradox By the way: Never heard of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” before, but https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Harold+and+the+Purple+Crayon%22+PDF results in a PDF with a Hindi translation (including the English original, but black and white without purple) and a PDF with a version with additional graphic explanations for people with disabilities on the first search result page. … which probably is as good as it gets for a work still under copyright.
Bevor Sie zur Google Suche weitergehen

Show threadWillow Brook 💜May 11, 2025

@HeptaSean
It's an old kid's book about a boy that explores the world while drawing it all with his crayon.

Thanks. ^_^