You noticed how google search became unusably shit a few years ago

[jackemled@furry.engineer]

@shadowfals @prisixia @ocean @Stellar Maybe I'm not seeing it because I'm in a very conservative area & constantly hearing about threats to city & state libraries in other places. In my home town too our libraries weren't great & never got anything digital besides one desktop computer meant for accessing one state research paper library & nothing else. I haven't been home for a few years so I'm unsure how they're doing now, but I doubt any books about gender or sexuality are still there with the local politics. Libraries will always be important resources, but books are fundamentally fragile devices that can't be easily duplicated & distributed out of control like digital information.

[jackemled@furry.engineer]

@shadowfals @prisixia @ocean @Stellar It's more like the present & my worries for the very near future. The Library of Alexandria was burned by the Romans, & I don't see why it can't happen again to any library, especially since it has happened again numerous times.

[tidux@mastodon.sdf.org]

@ocean Indian CEOs. Every time.

[idoclosecuts@mstdn.ca]

@ocean On my quick scroll through the replies, I don’t see anyone mention this article; Zitron tells the whole story;

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Wanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. UPDATE: Prabhakar has now been deposed as head of search, read here for more details. This is the story

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At (www.wheresyoured.at)

[ginaintheburg@mastodon.world]

@ocean

No surprise there.

And that is why I keep DuckDuckGo at the ready. I can't tell you how many times I've found what I need there after coming up empty handed with Google.

[hallunke23@troet.cafe]

I've noticed this, too.

Sometimes, I'm getting Google results that don't even mention my search term.

Your post convinced me to move away from Google, but I still need to find a new search engine.

#google @ocean

[bufalo1973@tuiter.rocks]

@ocean I didn't know. I've been using Qwant for years.

[chaft@meow.social]

@ocean it backfires because I've since moved to other engines and ai

[aryamiller@mastodon.social]

@realestninja @ocean thanks

[farnkraut@digitalcourage.social]

@ocean @calisti I hate this timeline I just want a decent search. I don’t find alternatives (most often relying on Google or bing results) to be all that better. Pls someone capable do something

[gladso@mastodon.social]

@ocean I have avoided using Google search for years, simply because it turned to shit.

[alper@sfba.social]

@virtualbri @ocean how all drug dealers work.

[pthane@toot.wales]

@ocean
I have a horrible feeling that business schools will be using this as an example of a successful strategy. It's like suggesting aircraft manufacturers ignore safety concerns because every one that falls out of the sky is a business opportunity. Oh.

[idoclosecuts@mstdn.ca]

@ocean have you read this article?

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Wanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. UPDATE: Prabhakar has now been deposed as head of search, read here for more details. This is the story

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At (www.wheresyoured.at)

[tasket@infosec.exchange]

@adavid @ocean The actual article quoted is here: https://journalrecord.com/2025/02/20/is-google-making-search-worse-to-sell-more-ads/

[mjdxp@labyrinth.zone]

@ocean and now they can more easily force us to engage with the stupid chatbot because it's the only one getting the good results

[ari@fedi.arimelody.space]

@ocean i've heard people asserting this for years but it's nice to have an actual court document validating what we already believed :]

[leo@60228.dev]

@mjdxp@labyrinth.zone i will note that this is kind of distant extrapolation from the actual court documents that the original author went on social media to flatly deny

[rainbowpink@snug.moe]

@ocean no one at google is free from sin

[spdrnl@sigmoid.social]

@ocean Yes, and it was noticeable. I stopped using Google for that reason. The amount of work that I had to do became tiring; it was noticeable in a day. All the weeding.