Modern search engines seem broken these days

[Bubble99]

Modern search engines are broken these days.

Is it just me or has other people notice that modern search engines are broken these days. It not just google but like of Bing, Yahoo, startpage and duckduckgo!!

Now days search engine seems to be less on Kay words and what you put in the search box but on what the software things you should see and not see. Using logic search like AND, NOT, OR ,ALL so on , don't seem to help much these days

Back in the 2000s I had no problem searching for stuff on the Internet and would get hundreds of web sites on it. Now to day you lucky to get 3 to 4 and every thing else is some thing very different from what you searching for.

And every year it is getting worse. Where 5 years ago Google was getting bad but is so bad today I hardly use google.

Bing seems to be best but no where like it was 10 to 15 years ago. Yahoo second and Google and duckduckgo 50 50.

What is going on today.

Why are modern search engines getting so bad every year.

 

[3SQ Machine]

promotions, paid algorithms, commercial interests, etc. It's not a search engine, it's an advertising engine. Different purpose. Unfortunately.

 

[eyoungren]

Couldn't tell you.

I strictly use Google. I gave up on other search engines a long time ago when only Google could find stuff for me.

Maybe your search parameters are so narrow and specific that you're causing your own problem?

 

[Bubble99]

I just want a search engine base on database search than AI search base on what the AI thinks you should see and not see.

I find it getting harder and harder to search for stuff on the internet every year. Before I had no problem.

I'm not sure what other members here what they use.

 

[ActionableMango]

Personally, I find search to get better and better over the years. Today you can even type in natural language questions like "that movie where the computer wants to launch nukes", and War Games will show up, which was exactly what I meant.

Can you give an example of what you are looking for, and the search text you used? Maybe someone can suggest an improvement.

 

[S.B.G]

I’ve been using DDG for several years and am happy with the results I get. At first I’d use DDG and if it didn’t give me what I wanted, then I’d bang it to Google to find what I needed.

I haven’t had to use the bang feature in a long time as DDG gets better all the time.

 

[Bubble99]

Google was base more on database search now it seems to be base more on AI search what you should see and not see.

Also google has been moving more to article search than some one that has server in some one home showing a web site.

There was time lots of blogs, message boards and no mans web site would come up in search now they filterer this out. And I have to use bing now for this.

It big shock when you open up big search and message boards, reddit and quora show up questions and answers and google now really filterer a lot of this out.

I think google things this could be false information so is showing more articles.

There was time the more you type in search box or using Boolean Search using AND, OR, NOT and quote would would show the page now I find the less you type more likely you will get page now days.

I have search for many threads I made on message boards and thread title I used most of the time does not come up but shows up on other search engines. And very much so old internet most of the time is filtered out the 90's and 2000's .

Using duchduckgo and google for an year is an 50% it could be duchduckgo or google not both this is disastrous for modern search engines.

Microsoft bing seems better for showing blogs, message boards and no mans web sites than google. Now bing show more reddit and quora posts

Google already filterers out a lot of conservative web sites and web sites that may be harmful the AI now controls than Boolean Search that search engines where built on where the internet was the wiled wiled west.


Google no longer shows yahoo answers, answerbag or use nets that they did in the past. And many other old internet is being filterer out. And it does not matter if you use Boolean Search or copy much of the questions and answer on the page to see as test to see if it will show or not

This is disastrous there was time I would get 10 pages or more showing message boards, blogs and no mans web site now it seem so article base search and if it is new, trendy, popular and not more lily to be true and not harmful well this is censorship.

There no way the technology got bad this is censorship.

Yet google image search still some what seems to be like it was in past. It funny how I can type in google image search for search term and get hundreds of pages on it yet google page search shows 3 or 4 message boards and web sites han starts showing some thing very different.

Now if you lucky it be by the 2 or 3 page it will start showing some thing else. Most of the time midway on page 1 these days than start showing some thing else.

 

[jeyf]

default setting "any time" brings op out dated information
try to limit the search to a recent time search say 1 week ago or 1year ago...

 

[compwiz1202]

Personally, I find search to get better and better over the years. Today you can even type in natural language questions like "that movie where the computer wants to launch nukes", and War Games will show up, which was exactly what I meant.

Can you give an example of what you are looking for, and the search text you used? Maybe someone can suggest an improvement.

LOL I love searching for movies that way. I remember I put in some huge search string once, and the exact movie I was looking for was first. Wish I could remember what it was anymore.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I use Bing now these days. Personal preference. What was funny was, back in the day (years ago) when I was a google evangelist, I took those Bing tests and it showed I preferred Google. But that has changed over time. I'm using Edge on Mac OS but Brave on Windows for now.

What I've found I use more and more these days (becoming an older person (34)) - maps. I've found maps has REALLY matured over the last 5 years. Finding restaurants, reviews, when things are open, directions, traffic... I rely on this a lot.

I tried duckduckgo for awhile and while I am all for privacy and what they stand for (I'd even give them $) - I find them unusable for my daily life. I need Bing, Apple Maps, and Yelp. lol. I stopped using Google and Facebook because of privacy issues.

The need to maximize profit every month has destroyed a lot of things.

 

[Peace]

They are overrun by advertisers

 

[Bubble99]

I use Bing now these days. Personal preference. What was funny was, back in the day (years ago) when I was a google evangelist, I took those Bing tests and it showed I preferred Google. But that has changed over time. I'm using Edge on Mac OS but Brave on Windows for now.

What I've found I use more and more these days (becoming an older person (34)) - maps. I've found maps has REALLY matured over the last 5 years. Finding restaurants, reviews, when things are open, directions, traffic... I rely on this a lot.

I tried duckduckgo for awhile and while I am all for privacy and what they stand for (I'd even give them $) - I find them unusable for my daily life. I need Bing, Apple Maps, and Yelp. lol. I stopped using Google and Facebook because of privacy issues.

The need to maximize profit every month has destroyed a lot of things.

The only think I can think of is google is doing this on purpose that they try to take you to article web sites than blog or message boards that they google think most of the information on the internet is false so they censorship the search. Where big still shows more blogs and message board and web site ran by Bob in the moms and dads basement say bla bla bla about what ever.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I've been using Bing for years now. Mainly because of their rewards points, which basically gave me free Skype and Xbox Live for several years now.

Every now and then I use Google search, but for the most part I find their results horrible.

Google Images search seems to be top notch, so I still use that on the regular.

 

[Bubble99]

I've been using Bing for years now. Mainly because of their rewards points, which basically gave me free Skype and Xbox Live for several years now.

Every now and then I use Google search, but for the most part I find their results horrible.

Google Images search seems to be top notch, so I still use that on the regular.

Bing seems to be really good at showing blogs and message boards postings. Where google likes to stick to articles than showing blogs and message board postings and likes of reddit and quora.

Google image search has not really changed but I fear that could change over the years with AI software.

I find these days when I have to search for some stuff I have to use many search engines to find the information I need.

I never know what search engine may have it.

This happens on average 3 to 4 times a week. This is really really really and I say really really bad.

Some stuff I never find.

 

[Bubble99]

Anyone here used https://www.dogpile.com/

It seems to pull search from yahoo, google, bing and other search engines.

It seems really powerful pulling hits from many search engines.

It seems to pull many entries from web sites, blogs and message boards that google search does not show up.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Time to go back to a better source. I am told that this search engine doesn't collect any personal info:

 

[Tech198]

i thought keywords were always more relevant. The trouble i always thought, people were using search engines more like constructing sentences, not keywords. You may get better results

As long as they can do maths, i don't care what is does

 

[S.B.G]

A couple of months ago I built my own meta-search engine using SearX.

Searx - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm quite happy with the results it provides me.

 

[0128672]

I do a lot of searching every day and am happy with Duck Duck Go after having been a Google search user for many years. I've never felt I was missing results.

 

[Bubble99]

I find Bing way better than google showing blogs and message boards.

Well google was really good in the past now thay seem to block this for some reason. It does matter how you play with the text or use search like AND, OR NOT so on.

Google model seem to have switched to showing articles than showing what people are saying on the internet. I think this is because Google is switching to more like encyclopedia type thing. Thinking the message board, blogs and web sites are what people think or saying and google does not like this.

And google switched to more article base showing sadly than base on keywords used in the search box.

And now if you use search like AND, OR NOT or quotes it now many times show less.

Google used to have a really good search function before but now they are filtering searches now.

That is why I stop using google.

I don’t know how many times I search for example say a computer problem and google not showing it but on bing it show it on reddit or Quora or some message board and google well filtering most of this out.

 

[Bubble99]

Here is interesting page on 5 search engines no one knows about.


5 Search Engines to Find More Than What Google Shows

5 Search Engines to Find More Than What Google Shows

Did you know Google doesn't show everything? These alternative search engines help search the internet in a way Google won't.

www.makeuseof.com

And no it not the main search engines most people know of.

 

[LizKat]

I use Duck Duck Go and am generally satisfied. Once in awhile I tweak the parameters and go again or use the bang to Google option.

Maybe I'm satisfied because like some other longtime users of search engines, I remember when they were pretty primitive and even the more ambitious ones like Lycos or Dogpile didn't have that much oomph or for that matter that much stuff to search through. I'm amazed now at how great just the online archives of some long-established magazines and newspapers have become. The contents of the open internet now are unimaginably vast.

The searches I can find more exasperating lately are the internal ones on a website. I can usually do better with DDG and just specifying the website itself as one of the parameters. But since I'm already in a site when I may think to look for an item sometimes, I will use a site's own search at least once to see how it works. Sometimes they use Google or a competitor and sometimes their search is a hybrid homebrew. Amazon can be hilarious in anxiously suggesting substitutions when it gets stumped and starts wondering if I might have meant to look for something else. It's worth going there just to fray its nerves on a coffee break...

 

[826317]

Perhaps look into Google power search. It allows you to be very precise as to what search results should and shouldn't include.

 

[LizKat]

I'm often looking for a book in one or another pretty narrow frame of reference so usually Duck Duck Go fetches enough stuff for me to see how --if at all-- I need to tweak for another round in the same engine.

 

[Bubble99]

A couple of months ago I built my own meta-search engine using SearX.

Searx - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm quite happy with the results it provides me.

Searx is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, searx can be used over Tor for online anonymity.

Get started with searx by using one of the Searx-instances. If you don’t trust anyone, you can set up your own, see Installation.

Redirecting to https://searx.github.io/searx/

asciimoo.github.io

Is this some kind of browser plug in for Firefox?