The last 25 years of Google’s history can be boiled down to a battle against the Google bomb. Is the search engine finally losing to its hijackers?
  • o0joshua0o@lemmy.worldEnglish
    731·
    10 months ago

    I avoid Google products as much as possible these days, especially anything launched within the last 2-3 years, because it will soon be abandoned and unsupported. Their search results are worse than they have ever been. The only Google app I actually like is Google Maps.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.oneEnglish
      16·
      10 months ago

      Yeah the search has gone to shit. I’ve been using Duck Duck Go but I guess that is Bing based?

      Also been trying out Kagi. The format is unsettling at first but it is nice to see the results I am looking for at the top instead of a bunch of bullshit ads / sponsored results and whatever along with crappy results below the fold.

      • amarnasmoths@slrpnk.netEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        I’ve been using Kagi for two months now and I can’t recommend it enough. Whatever I search is always on the first results, no need to filter SEO crap.

        Also it’s incredibly fast.

        I’m not a heavy search user so their lowest tier (5$, 300 searches) is more than enough for me. I can see how the costs can add up for someone that is a heavier user tho

    • sndrtj@feddit.nlEnglish
      14·
      10 months ago

      Maps is also seriously going down the gutter.

      1. There are ads in maps now.
      2. It works OK if you know a name, but not the location, but not the other way around. If there’s any concentration of businesses, you can zoom in all you want but it will only show 1 in 2 places.
      3. Many search terms now result in residential places near the top results. I suppose these are mostly small webshops run out of homes for the same terms, but that isn’t usually what one is looking for when using maps.