Mastodawn

You noticed how google search became unusably shit a few years ago?
Turns out that was on purpose

@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.

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Benjamin Braatz May 11

@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.)

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Urban Hermit

@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.

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Willow Brook 💜May 12

@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.

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Urban Hermit May 12

@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.

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Willow Brook 💜May 12

@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.