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

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

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  • heptasean@social.tchncs.deH heptasean@social.tchncs.de

    @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.

    paradox@raru.reP This user is from outside of this forum
    paradox@raru.reP This user is from outside of this forum
    paradox@raru.re
    wrote on last edited by
    #32

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

    Thanks. ^_^

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    • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

      dorothywillson@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
      dorothywillson@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
      dorothywillson@mastodon.social
      wrote on last edited by
      #33

      @ocean right

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

        cassolotl@toot.walesC This user is from outside of this forum
        cassolotl@toot.walesC This user is from outside of this forum
        cassolotl@toot.wales
        wrote on last edited by
        #34

        @ocean Source: https://journalrecord.com/2025/02/20/is-google-making-search-worse-to-sell-more-ads/

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        • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

          mdione@en.osm.townM This user is from outside of this forum
          mdione@en.osm.townM This user is from outside of this forum
          mdione@en.osm.town
          wrote on last edited by
          #35

          @ocean where is this coming from? What's the source?

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          • mikal@sfba.socialM mikal@sfba.social

            @ocean
            Ha! Knew it!
            Not long ago I pointed out to someone that in a way, worse search results meant more time scrolling and ergo more ad impressions, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if they quit bothering to improve.

            Fuckers. I'd assumed a sort of passive acceptance and laziness had led to degraded quality, but the fact that it was actually designed that way means there should be a "recall" of their product and they need to compensate me for all the wasted time before I finally gave up and went to DDG (which, IMO, has dropped significantly in quality since I started using it 🤔 ).

            Thing is, look at ANY online business that makes money off of ad impressions and there is an immediately obvious incentive to find ways to increase your scrolling time on the site. Not all are scummy grifters, of course, but when the incentive is there, someone is going to take advantage of it.

            anne_delong@musician.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
            anne_delong@musician.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
            anne_delong@musician.social
            wrote on last edited by
            #36

            @Mikal @ocean

            Well, as with other companies, competition and product reviews are needed to link good service to profits. So maybe consumers should change up their search engines.

            Here's an article from PC Magazine that compares them:

            Just a moment...

            favicon

            (www.pcmag.com)

            #searchengines

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

              cosmocatalano@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
              cosmocatalano@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
              cosmocatalano@mastodon.social
              wrote on last edited by
              #37

              @ocean this big issue here is that everyone else's search is still worse

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              • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                jesterchen@social.tchncs.deJ This user is from outside of this forum
                jesterchen@social.tchncs.deJ This user is from outside of this forum
                jesterchen@social.tchncs.de
                wrote on last edited by
                #38

                @ocean Nein!

                Doch.

                Oh...

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                • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                  amazing_helenab@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
                  amazing_helenab@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
                  amazing_helenab@mastodon.social
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #39

                  @ocean 😡

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                  • itamarst@hachyderm.ioI itamarst@hachyderm.io

                    @ocean As predicted by Brin and Page: "we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers." (The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, 1998 - http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html)

                    khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                    khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                    khleedril@cyberplace.social
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #40

                    @itamarst @ocean That was back when Google pledged, and did, no evil. Since then they've told us they are going to be evil.

                    itamarst@hachyderm.ioI 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                      peteriskrisjanis@toot.lvP This user is from outside of this forum
                      peteriskrisjanis@toot.lvP This user is from outside of this forum
                      peteriskrisjanis@toot.lv
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #41

                      @ocean this is why they have heavily invested in trump 2.0. It just makes cynical business sense.

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                      • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                        m0xee@nosh0b10.m0xee.netM This user is from outside of this forum
                        m0xee@nosh0b10.m0xee.netM This user is from outside of this forum
                        m0xee@nosh0b10.m0xee.net
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #42
                        @ocean@raru.re
                        I wonder if they utilised the same strategy for Google Translate? Because it's equally unusable now — I recall early machine-assisted translation systems from the nineties doing much better job that what Google Translate does now. At times it's hard to figure out what is the meaning of the resulting text even if you speak both languages and know what the usual pitfalls are.
                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                          punishmenthurts@autistics.lifeP This user is from outside of this forum
                          punishmenthurts@autistics.lifeP This user is from outside of this forum
                          punishmenthurts@autistics.life
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #43

                          @ocean
                          .
                          what about when we don't need, "competition," for a pile of crap and just stop using it since it doesn't work?
                          .
                          Is "market share," a joke here? Everybody turns their computers off, because they're fucking useless but they're still winning, "market share?"

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                          • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                            kuba@toot.kuba-orlik.nameK This user is from outside of this forum
                            kuba@toot.kuba-orlik.nameK This user is from outside of this forum
                            kuba@toot.kuba-orlik.name
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #44

                            @ocean f*cking google. Do you have the url to where that quote is from?

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                            • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                              nom@mk.spook.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
                              nom@mk.spook.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
                              nom@mk.spook.social
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #45

                              @ocean@raru.re Can you believe "Buick" was once an innovative company. Then GM bought them. Oh well.

                              Not that I care much about network software, coz nearly all of it pretty much sucks. But anywayz think of all the companies Google has ruined. If there was a great idea in there- it'd likely get lost.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                                elsactivitypub@goto.freakstic.frE This user is from outside of this forum
                                elsactivitypub@goto.freakstic.frE This user is from outside of this forum
                                elsactivitypub@goto.freakstic.fr
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #46

                                @ocean so Google search results are bad intentionally

                                ok, annoying but why not

                                but then how is DDG even worse 😭

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                                  jackracc@furry.engineerJ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  jackracc@furry.engineerJ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  jackracc@furry.engineer
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #47

                                  @ocean Wendell of Level1Techs spoke about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vMKm44ypFY

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                                    jcolag@mastodon.socialJ This user is from outside of this forum
                                    jcolag@mastodon.socialJ This user is from outside of this forum
                                    jcolag@mastodon.social
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #48

                                    @ocean Even better, if you go back to the PageRank paper, they call it out in the appendix, pointing out that advertising definitionally means that you want to provide worse search results to get people to look at the result page again.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                                      lep0le@piaille.frL This user is from outside of this forum
                                      lep0le@piaille.frL This user is from outside of this forum
                                      lep0le@piaille.fr
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #49

                                      @ocean
                                      Now it's possible to move... Duckduckgo gives pretty good results

                                      1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • furby@towns.gayF This user is from outside of this forum
                                        furby@towns.gayF This user is from outside of this forum
                                        furby@towns.gay
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #50

                                        @ocean what is the origin of this?

                                        nullnowhere@sakurajima.socialN 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • ocean@raru.reO ocean@raru.re

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

                                          teeceegee@mastodon.nzT This user is from outside of this forum
                                          teeceegee@mastodon.nzT This user is from outside of this forum
                                          teeceegee@mastodon.nz
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #51

                                          @ocean This strategy was pushed by the cretin that Google hired, after he completely tanked Yahoo's search engine.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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