Using Google whilst Duck Duck Go is down. How long has Google been this bad?

makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 507 points –

So ddg is down, so I visit Google. It's been some years.

I just can't believe how poor it's results are, and how it's trying to suggest things it think I might also want (and failing miserably).

I just assumed ddg would be the lesser, but I use it for privacy. Turns out I'm wrong.

How long has Google been this bad?

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Google is great if you want to buy things. It's absolutely shit for information gathering.

I'd argue the noise is to a point where it's even shit for buying things.

It used to be great for information if you included reddit in the search terms. Instead of google learning from reddit, reddit is now full of ads and bots. I guess google apps will be complete garbage soon too.

I remember a time when you didn't even have to include Reddit to get good Google search results.

Id argue it’s also shit for buying things because it will only give you products with paid ads. It’s useless to discover adjacent products or finding different sources.

And in web search when searching for a product it gives you dozens of "product tests" pages that are actually paid SEO articles. No, that page that shares a name with a newspaper has not actually tested what the best dishwasher in 2024 is.

I don't think Google can be beat when it comes to searching local businesses, but otherwise you might as well go straight to Wikipedia.

Yeah I’ll concede that, Google is still good for local business and maps.