Search Engines are Totally Useless Now...

[@vengeance160]

I remember back until 2012 or something, googling even whole specific sentences will get so many results, a lot of matching phrases from countless forums and websites. Internet felt alive back then, even huge. Nowadays, googling "my new car" gets me only 10 pages of search and 90% of it is just ads.

[@alaysiakayebutler6299]

Environ-mental pollution, liken to air pollution, water pollution, our info streams are polluted, : clogged up by intentionally thwarting garbage techopollution

[@NinoMaluri]

Totally 😢

[@FreedomFromRuminationCoalition]

...or, results that have nothing to do with what you are looking for, or don't want to find in the first place.

[@atticusherodes6648]

doesnt it kind of feel like one of those fake internets inside an o video game computer game, where you are only getting a limited set of webpages ?

[@TheKingWhoWins]

We are in one of those "fake" shows. *X-Files music plays*

[@icedlain]

Pinterest is the worst of these websites flooding every single search. Shows you a picture that does not exist when you want to open it, then puts all the content behind an unskippable registration wall, and finally leads you to nothing because Pinterest does not link the original source of that content. Infuriating AF.

[@loscopihues2343]

Pinterest is annoying af

[@iNet16]

Add "-pinterest" next to your query to avoid pinterest in google images

[@MCChubbyUnicorn]

I wouldn't be surprised if Pinterest generates these things on the fly like lots of spam sites do.

[@enkidu9298]

Images are a ton of data, and cheap developers would often abuse it to host image content, in order to leech them on web hosting bills. They have to limit it, intentionally.

[@RoxNoAnne]

As someone who uses Pinterest to look up art references, it really is too annoying. This shit should be outlawed

[@BCDeshiG]

What really gets on my nerves is when the 1st search result is someone asking a question on reddit only to be told to "just google it".

[@purplep3466]

stackoverflow.... Yes, I'm here baby

[@svenkarlsen2702]

Well. You don't know how a search engine works. The most accurate search result is a page containing your exact query. So when you search for a question, then that is what you get, and if the answer is there is actually irrelevant to the search engine. Learn how to search for the answer/solution and not the question.

[@casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469]

Or lmgtfy.

[@svenkarlsen2702]

@@casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469 I used to love lmgtfy back in the day. The good old days before Google removed "Don't be evil" from their corporate code of conduct.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Googleception!

[@andrewtucr]

Even up to the mid 2000s, the internet was pretty great. Tons of hobbyist/fan sites made by few people, 'portals' which collected links to cool websites, forums each with a distinct culture.

[@rswindol]

The internet was so exciting back then. We got dialup in the mid 90's when I was a kid and it was pretty mind-blowing. It was like the Wild West back then.

[@19nineteenthirteen19]

@@rswindol I remember that! I was probably 9 or 10 when we got our 2400 bod Modem. I could dial up what we called bbs's or bulletin boards. You would have to go to the local computer game rental store to get a printout of the different bbs's with local phone numbers. So cool

[@VADemon]

Few years ago I found a link on a long gone website to another history page (on WBM). It had WW2 German documents in original and their translated copy. A quick search in both languages today yielded... zero results. The man who ran the site was in his 50s and was doing history as a hobby. Today you'll either get SEO spam or news media (also SEO spam if you aren't ever interested in them) or Indian sites filled to the brim with ads. Old "unoptimized" web pages get zero ranking in results FB et all promote consoomerism, not hobbies

[@bbsara0146]

I wish we could go back to 2009, that was like the peak of the internet. the tech was getting better but most sites didnt censor content like they do today

[@EgaoKage]

In the early days of the internet, everything felt "novel". It was a novelty to share all manner of information. And people often did this at their own expense. Whatever the hobby, you could find at least a dozen different information-rich sites archiving someone's passion for it (along with a few dancing Jesus GIFs, for good measure). The internet these days seems more like a place of disinformation and dispassion. It's become a billboard. If I wanted to be told what to think, I'd go to church!

[@debtminer4976]

I agree with this 100%. Even the ''good'' search engines today rely on Google, Bing or some other shitty service. The current internet is basically just modernized TV without the privacy.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Don't say "without privacy". Say With serious privacy violation.

[@debtminer4976]

@@aniksamiurrahman6365 For people like us, you're right.. but 99% are willing whores to new gadgets, and it's hard to call it violation at that point.

[@deersakamoto2167]

There are privacy-friendly alternatives to Twitter (Nitter), Reddit (Teddit), and KZbin (Piped). They are front-ends so they "rely on" those services but remove ads, tracking, and JS crap

[@debtminer4976]

@@deersakamoto2167 Yes, and although I appreciate developers like them, and people like you for pointing them out, these sites are the curated bullshit I had in mind with my original comment. Adding some privacy seasoning to a shit sandwich, don't make it more appetizing. Reddit and twitter could disappear tomorrow and i'd barely notice. Even weaning off KZbin for my video fix, as much better alternatives are rising, and the censorship really killed the thrill. Aside from a few channels, there's not much going on here anymore. Unless you're into their tik tok ripoff scheme. Boring.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

@@deersakamoto2167 Thank you dude. This is the most useful comment so far. BTW, do u know of similar alternative for Facebook?

[@MrVecheater]

Google: "We want to prevent people from reading fake news" Also Google: *puts Facebook and Twitter at the top search results*

[@MrVecheater]

@Thomas B kk

[@kaizarchan]

@@MrVecheater kkk

[@superdanny59ify]

Also Google: **C(linton)NN**

[@commentingisawasteoftime7195]

KZbin is full of blatant misinformation and fake news, yet Google won't even let you report it.

[@blepware]

"We want to prevent people from reading misinformation (unless they pay us)"

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

Something i realised and experienced first hand, google became so bad in the last few years its frustrating. Some weeks ago I remembered reading as a kid about the early history of Japan and how they were conquered by horsemen from the Korean peninsula in the late antiquity/early medieval period. Trying to search for it on Google drowe me insane, Google for some reason keept pushing "No you mean the Japanese invasion of Korea", "No, you mean about the Mongol invasion of Japan". I did manage to find it tho, in books in my library lmao

[@person800]

The Google Tokyo office has decided that this is a part of Japanese history they'd rather you forget.

[@belstar1128]

In 1998 i learned to read but by the year 2000 i had read every book they had in there.

[@N0zer0]

No, you mean Google is awesome :D

[@NightTimeDay]

I thought I had lost my ability to search for things at first, until it kept happening. It really is bad.

[@233kosta]

Looks like DDG feels the same way about it 😒

[@Monsuco]

It's known as the "Dead Internet Theory". Most of the content that's actually reachable on the internet today is curated by AI to the point that reaching anything original is damn near impossible.

[@joshuajohnson3296]

how do you find the lost internet written by real humans?

[@TheWaggishAmerican]

@@joshuajohnson3296 word of mouth.

[@user-od9oj3pf7q]

At this point KZbin, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram are the internet, and the accounts and channels are the websites.

[@bluebull399]

People are returning to bookmarks, portals, link site pages and word of mouth. Basically, the internet is reverting to how it was in the 90's. Those that don't know about these sites are stuck with Google which is basically a massive database of AI generated bot sites with affiliate links. Just as an example, say you was interested in Mazda cars, there will be a website that contains a list of links to other sites on this subject that is actually useful. The best place to start would be reddit, discord and telegram. Some of these groups will have sticky posts with links to sites. Failing that, asking people in those groups. You need to start using bookmarks instead of relying on Google. Eventually you'll end up with enough bookmarked sites that you won't need to use Google at all.

[@balala7567]

*cough* systranbox *cough*

[@klnmn3722]

I thought I was the only one who noticed the AI-written spam sites. Thank God I'm not going insane.

[@whatsupbudbud]

Yeah, search engines are useless now.

[@___xyz___]

This is apocalyptic in nature. I'm getting flashbacks to my teen years, when browsing the web brought up homemade websites with interesting anecdotes and stories. It's only around 15 odd years ago. But now... I don't know what I'm looking for any more. The modern Internet is truly confusing me. Trying to get me to go places and do things I don't wanna do. The frightening fact is that this is all nothing but a frustration. Big social network shills are lulling me so hard I haven't had the opportunity to wake up to the reality that this is really, really scary. Where once there was novelty is being replaced by homogeneous low-effort "contents". A whole lot of noise. Everyone and their grandmas dog doing the same thing, and it's in the search engine's best interest you check out every single entry to find what you were looking for. I think you're right. But I don't like it one bit.

[@indeepjable]

are personal websites even a thing nowadays

[@MrSpankyxiv]

there was once a "wild west" of news print and before that a "wild west" of book print with the guttenberg press. The internet is no different. Wide dispersion of information and ownership of both hosting and domain quickly being dominated by a handful of entities. Information is power and power tends towards centralization over time as nearly all systems do. One day people will notice that thier EVs, solar panels and renewables are all connected to an ever centralized grid controled by just a tiny few also and they will long for the freedom of the "wild west" fossil fuels of old. New paradigms will pave the way to unthinkable new "wild wests" just watch.

[@davidravnsborg2565]

Google has turned the world's most powerful search engine into the world's most powerful ad engine. It has succumbed to the same forces which drive every other company. What we need is to look at search engines and personal domains as public utilities. It would give an ad free option that companies would need to compete against, for search and social media. Everyone should have the right to access such an ad free public space. Would also encourage young people to learn a bit of HTML, or even CSS and JS, so they could customize their pages. Many big cities have the same problem with excessive commercialization of space, which is why they build public parks and transit. The same concept should apply to the internet.

[@thomase13]

@@indeepjable Absolutely - just check out Neocities or Angelfire to easily find a lot of them!

[@Xinjiekou_新街口_Station]

I wonder why google ect.. are not getting physically attacked? Like where are the terror attacks?

[@ChickenPermissionOG]

Someone needs to build a search engine the way google use to be. Where what you search for is what you get not just one word of what you searched.

[@EP-rq3pn]

This is huge for me. "I'm not going to show you the websites that match all or most of your keywords. I'm going to show you the sites that rank the best for 1 SINGLE KEYWORD THAT YOU ENTERED and include none of the others" - google.

[@jarihaukilahti]

Someone needs to bring back Altavista and not a google search when you realise there should be 1 million pages about the matter but google can only bother to show 20 and thats it from all the world -This is bullshit

[@jameskvo]

If someone buiilt a really great search engine without the fake news, spam and sponsored trash, Google would simply use its financial muscle to buy it and destroy it.

[@phoneywheeze]

Brave search is pretty good

[@headphonejack9479]

It got noticeably worse in the last few years. I've searched for stuff that got me basically the entire first results page full of trash results. I thought the site got compromised or that I somehow got malware on my computer that manipulates something on the user-end. But no, it's just like you described in your video. AI/SEO trash sites gaming the search engines. Same problem when searching for stuff related to current events. Just mainstream trash news with basically all the same articles slightly differently worded ,over and over again.

[@remix4098]

And then people still tell you to “google it” even when the search results are this bad.

[@AdrianTechWizard]

I guess the telephone book doesn't look so old-fashioned now...

[@victorkreig6089]

did you forget that all the way up to 97/98 we had website address books?

[@AdrianTechWizard]

I remember phone books being online. I recently tried to look up a number but NONE of the websites worked, I was so angry because I remember how easy it used to be...

[@victorkreig6089]

@@AdrianTechWizard yellow pages was a lifesaver Here, a somewhat accurate recreation of what I am talking about (starts at 1:18) kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6DCn2mVg8mrabM

[@mikewallis2987]

Yeah at least tou get a hard copy lol

[@XIIIWinters]

A fone.... a pho..book.... What's a phonebook? Sounds sort of familiar. Is that like a kindle you can call people on?? lol But seriously now. All these corporations can go straight to hell.

[@the-real-zpero]

I have noticed in recent times that I get pointed to useful websites more often by talking to people, than by actually searching for them on a search engine. It's really just sad.

[@tozlink]

I think there's a big opportunity for a human-curated directory of websites, like the old Yahoo or the old paper Internet magazines like The Net.

[@mateufeu]

there are some stuff like that in neocities but most are community oriented

[@belstar1128]

Where is it.

[@phr3ui559]

@@mateufeu can you link?

[@joshuajohnson3296]

Maybe Scuttlebutt, but not technically the Internet

[@purdysanchez]

That's kind of how google works today. It's just that the people curating the information are acting in bad faith.

[@citizensnips7949]

What broke Google for me was when it got to the point where any search leads to a half page of irrelevant "sponsored results" followed by a half page of irrelevant organic results.

[@Petrovich2049]

And oftentimes you still have to do their captcha and train their ai just to see those ads

[@captkeebz]

there are no organic results. all their results are controlled and approved

[@MrG0CE]

THE EXAMPLE ABOUT CHANGING THE CAR OIL ABOUT A WEBSITE THAT STARTS TALKING ABOUT WHAT IS OIL AND THE BENEFITS ABOUT CHANGING IT... MAN, I FEEL U !!!

[@beachbum111111]

There needs to be a search engine that just blacklists all major sites. Allowing engine plugins so you can blacklist certain types of sites, or prop up more results from certain types of sites for your query's specifically would be nice too

[@swatisquantum]

Genius 🎉

[@HaggardPillockHD]

You can download extensions to blacklist websites

[@phoneywheeze]

Google has Google CSE with which you can do that and build your own search engine

[@shocktohp7314]

Luke walking around a pine plantation and talking about how useless modern web is? Count me in.

[@dougtilaran3496]

Let's get 1000 thumbz up so he can buy chemicals for the borers and not sell the garbage as pulp wood !....altho that's all it's good for..

[@gun5219]

hes building a Kaczynski gamer cabin

[@mrwojna]

When the search engines started “spell checking” my thoughts, I knew there was a problem. “You searched for, ‘dangers of the . Showing results for ‘why there are no dangers of the and why you should get 3 or even 4 as soon as possible.”

[@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776]

Not to sound cliche but it's really damn Orwellian isn't it?

[@mrwojna]

Free Speech Extremist absolutely. If I may employ another cliche. Cliches exist for a reason. It’s beyond creepy. I remember when I was younger thinking about how amazing the internet was. That I had all human knowledge at my fingertips. I felt bad for the people of long ago who didn’t have the internet. How did they get information? They had to rely on people with agendas, biased people who, if they even had the information, would twist it to fit their agenda. Those poor people, of long ago, who didn’t have the internet. Now here we sit today, WITH the internet. And we are in exactly the same informational predicament as the people who lived before the internet existed. Unbelievable!

[@rjds1800]

Freaky

[@Cbd_7ohm]

What are you searching lol

[@NK-ds8qo]

@@Cbd_7ohm vaccine s

[@fisshbone]

That bit about how Google suppresses the artisanal websites really stood out to me. As someone who's peak technology consumption began in the 2010's, my "instincts" are very warped when it comes to seeking out information. Only recently (thanks to some really dedicated KZbinrs who also have excellent written content on their blogs. ie, Ben Eater & MorePlatesMoreDates) have I started to create my own personal index of websites that are written and managed by people who are actually knowledgeable and won't blow smoke up your ass for a quick buck.

[@Tarik360]

I remember seeing the decline. Image search. First pintrest then memes and gifs, then we had the oil change stuff too. Up next; How to videos and informative sites are gonna be heavily regulated. I remember when turning off "safe search" meant I'd get more literal results and thus Google was more fun. And that was without having to log in to something.

[@iwankazlow2268]

Social Media sites are simply cancer.

[@233kosta]

You can't just go around switching "Safe Search" off! What if you find something... /gasp/... DANGEROUS? - someone at Google, probably

[@--___--d]

Yandex, though technically worse, still have less censorship so you get way way more hits.

[@sarahm9723]

@@iwankazlow2268 Exactly.

[@sarahm9723]

@@233kosta Turning Safe Search off results in porn crap, which is why I keep safe search on. It's all a nightmare.

[@haydenmaines5905]

For me the big kicker has been the loss of functionality and deprecation of many of the features. You used to be able to search for images on Google that were above a certain size (up to thousands of pixels / 20+MB) and it was great. Now your options are an abstract and undefined small/medium/large. They've done their best on mobile to kill off the ability to search for sites from a certain time period. I've even noticed on KZbin the inability to sort by a Creator's chronological upload schedule anymore - the options are either Latest or Best.

[@Shrouded_reaper]

"Best" "most popular" "trending" "hot", all total junk they just use to push whatever they feel like.

[@littlestbroccoli]

This is a weird and real trend. The question is, why??? Why make an Internet where no one can find anything and eventually no one will want to be? It just doesn't make any sense

[@BicycleFunk]

@@littlestbroccolicontrol of information? Google did remove their "do no evil" tagline a while back.

[@littlestbroccoli]

@@BicycleFunk True, and I'm cynical enough to believe that, but I mean that in the end, they'll make less money, because people will simply stop using it as much. It seems like shooting themselves in the foot for temporary gain.

[@BicycleFunk]

@@littlestbroccoli I think it is more likely just incompetence. Google has never really been that creative of a company (so many failed products) and at this point are so profit driven that they probably have blinders on to see how bad the search engine has become (or just don't care). The CEOs belong in jail for tax fraud so maybe their plan since the Pandora Papers has been to acquire as much wealth as possible so they can pay their way out of jail time.

[@classicrockonly]

It really has come full circle. People are computing from their big mainframes and there’s a weird fight for open source software all over again as most major software projects are maintained and funded primarily by mega corporations

[@rabbitcreative]

*cough* postgres *cough* freebsd *cough*

[@InsertMyChineseUsername]

It seems like whenever I want an answer to a question, I HAVE to add "reddit" to the end of the search, otherwise it's just tons of stupid useless sites

[@red4405]

Now even doing that doesn’t work

[@captkeebz]

but also, reddit is just the approved forum, and is usually useless. there are thousands of better forums online that have been blacklisted

[@3er24t4g1]

Discord makes this problem much worse. Because discord logs are not searched, there is a lot of info that is just gone. The death of forums, at the hands of discord, removes a lot of the internet from circulation.

[@resentfulsoulofthetoilet589]

Seeing the internet forums becoming increasingly desolate brigs tears to my eyes. Goddammit I grew up with them! And the tech forums had SO MUCH useful information!

[@labrana6974]

Excellent point. Forums will make a comeback, I think.

[@jebediahkerman8245]

IRC was always a thing

[@nurmi90]

Would be so cool if Discord would make search, and only index channels flagged to be indexed, because people do such wonderful #memes and #resources channels

[@user-nf1zy6tf2o]

A Discord server is too centralized and he can actually ban you at a moment's notice becauee you are "there" already. He can be effortlessly notified via phone or pc. He can effortlessly log and look at your history and find you as a user. Forum admins take longer, they have to log into forum accounts, prolly read notifying pms, get into a thread (there are no threads in discord.. just channels that can act as threads) and find you or search your name in search engine. They usually don't know who you are and where you trolled. That's why even trolling was much more effective in forums.

[@mememan9890]

Sound like we've gone full circle and are going back to the Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves days of curated links.

[@svenkarlsen2702]

Maybe setting up a personal crawler+indexer is better

[@AugustusBohn0]

I would love to see web curation make a comeback. Vsauce had the right idea with their "Do Online Now Guys" curated list, it'd be nice to see people with their own specific interests do something similar and throw it up on neocities or something.

[@belstar1128]

Where is the modern yahoo clone or ask jeeves clone.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

History is repeating itself, even b4 becoming history.

[@r3lativ]

It already exists, it's called Wikipedia.

[@lordAgustin]

Search engines are the Ministry of Truth

[@vilhelmkron2663]

The Ministry of Truth is the opposite of Truth.

[@timeenoughforart]

Amen.

[@MrPolluxxxx]

The worst thing with reddit is thaat when someone asks a pertinent question, the first answers are always snarky and unhelpful or a low iq misguided answer by someone who didn't understand the question. Bizarrely, it's the kind of answers that get all the upboats.

[@deathcogunit106]

100 comments of snark, dead memes and marvel movie references THEN IF YOU'RE LUCKY someone might answer the question.

[@paulhaywood1615]

Loaded with shills.

[@virz4432]

Upvotes* and yes, reddit is shit too. I agree.

[@adamh2900]

"Reddit is a terrible site and the people who use it are really terrible and they are getting worse" Well said 👏

[@JuanAntonioGarciaHeredia]

depends. The top subs are fcking abominations but the very niche subs about specific stuff are good

[@bengraham5699]

no. Reddit is great.

[@towardsthelight220]

​@@bengraham5699 reddit sucks.

[@imiaze5546]

@@bengraham5699 ewww a redditor

[@BenjaminGessel]

Reddit is…. Not a place I go to to interact with other people, only for specific purposes like reading ghost stories… Redditors mostly suck, YES.

[@Maibes]

Well this aged like fine wine

[@jimmypoe4707]

I did a search for car radio removal. The top 50-100 results were only forums, with amateurs asking the same question stumbling their way thru.

[@Hnw761]

I am the guy who searches “Best ... 2021.”

[@whateverman9942]

Best search engine 2021

[@sudodoas]

Same.

[@MrFillzor]

Based

[@idkidc7513]

@@whateverman9942 best "best 2021" list: 2022 edition

[@Gurj101]

i only do that when i have to look for things for other people. When i have to say search for a new phone i instead search for what should i look in a new phone or the like.

[@edplat2367]

This is so true. I know my pet peeve is always when I try and find information for something even slightly complex and there is 10 pages of obvious answers to other much more simplistic questions that anyone with an IQ of >90 could figure out themselves.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Very true. Often the best is just wikipedia or ncbi!

[@UnchainedEruption]

Yes! I feel the same way! They’re dumbing down the results either because they assume most people are really stupid, lowering the quality of discourse in a self-fulfilling prophecy, or they want us to be stupid and uninformed if it serves their interests.

[@particleman5893]

@@UnchainedEruption most people ARE stupid, and the internet is reflecting that now that it's dominated by phone users instead of desktop users.

[@C_U_R_I_E_L]

This aspect is THE WORST how to eliminate this garbage

[@jodyjohnson265]

I find it funny that every time I do one google search I ether get a reddit conversation or Quora conversation it's really annoying to do a Google search now

[@leonidas14775]

Search engines need a like/dislike button for websites with ratios shown with the results, and a "never recommend" button to auto-hide spam sites. Maybe an option to hide paywall and login-wall sites too.

[@hqrlock]

spot on

[@nsacockroach4099]

Good idea

[@maricampari3970]

This entire lecture explains all of the reasons I hate internet 2.0 and I'm really not looking forward to "The Internet of Things" (3.0) Youve explained all of the nuances and decentralized info-sharing paradigms that made me initially fall in love with Internet 1.0, a decentralized distributed interactive medium. At age 8/9 I had penpals from across the continent and on the other side of the world. Personal peer-to-peer friendships outside of curated chat rooms and the lonely cliques in IRL life and school. I miss Geocities. :( Remember web-rings?

[@saerain]

Yeah, I'm thinking about that pretty much every time I use one now. Google was getting really impressively intelligent in image searching in 2012-2014 but that got quickly neutered and became more like the crap everyone originally expected it to be.

[@CheddarCheeseBandit]

Who else is tired of Quora junking up their search results?

[@NinoMaluri]

yup

[@matyasmarkkovacs8336]

Quora often shows some really useful result.

[@AtaGunZ]

I've been telling this to my friends who seem to think nothing has changed. I used to be able to find hacks from random hacker blogs and forums when I was a kid, now they are not indexed. This is just a small portion of things gone tho. I want old forums back. You say there is a market for it but there is no market if there is no money to be gained unfortunately. We need something like a peoples consortium of the new www, where the bullshit sites get yeeted off and personal sites without ads get boosted.

[@theedwardian]

Google is already pointless for finding anything valuable and behind paywalls.

[@TravisHi_YT]

I noticed this 2 weeks ago, it has been much harder than normal to find relevant results. It's like they've flicked a switch and now only promoted content appears on the first few result pages. This happens on all main search engines.

[@istyleonu]

Thanks for making me not feel so alone. When I complain about the current state of the internet most people don't even understand what im talking about or what they are missing out on because they've only ever really used the internet as an intranet.

[@bbsara0146]

Google even admitted they will promote authoritative content, I miss their old search algo because you could tell it was actually using the machine learning algo that the original founders came up with... now its just curated to promote the mainstream media for whatever reason

[@snippletrap]

Their former CEO is tight with the DNC. Big Tech in general is tight with the Feds.

[@mysterytriangle6062]

I started a website 2 years ago and put my effort into it, writing content about things that I truly know and understand, and Google blocked it. So I started playing the seo game and i made an ads farm website with auto scraped content, and I earning $2,000 from this bullshit every month :D That is how Google works now.

[@chrissizemore745]

google r info criminals they cant block god

[@serpantinthewild]

Why google blocked it?

[@TrentTheCreator]

Can you teach me how to do that?

[@svenkarlsen2702]

Soon we'll just have to run our own crawlers and indexing everything except the top 20 web sites.

[@kacpers.1987]

mgs2 predicted this flood of useless information lol

[@core-nix1885]

Brave new world, even earlier on

[@krsmanjovanovic8607]

Give me scisors, 68

[@Dratchev241]

Maybe it is time for someone to create a new search engine. one that punishes spam sites, won't list anti-social media sites, punishes sites full of ads punishes sites who try and block ad blockers.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

How would such a site earn money and survive? Let alone compete with Google/Bing?

[@commentingisawasteoftime7195]

@@aniksamiurrahman6365 I personally would pay out of pocket for that.

[@keokawasaki7833]

@@commentingisawasteoftime7195 i was about to say something, then i read username, and now i am in a paradox

[@commentingisawasteoftime7195]

@@keokawasaki7833 mwahahahahaha

[@harmhoeks5996]

Do it

[@RandoomDude]

1 year later, search engines even more totally useless than previously thought possible

[@tobiasb.2823]

When I debug stuff and get obscure error messages or try to get the solution to a different problem oftentimes old reddit posts, stackoverflow or other help sites pop up. But that's okay. I don't want to search them each individually but get the most referenced solutions, because they tend to work

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

@@tobiasb.2823 Sorry. The comment was: That's also my point. But people who are searching specific topic: like "Zorn's Lemma" or "transcriptome" will always has to use search engine. People who has no such specific purpose or are just want the most trendy thing are probably gonna leave search engine.

[@tobiasb.2823]

@@aniksamiurrahman6365 Thank you.

[@hansdampf3468]

That happens when the internet gets commercialized. Just look at youtube. More or less unusable without any adblock.

[@goldengriffon]

Here in 2024, and now ironically AI has made those AI sites even more useless, since I no longer user any search engine but just ask Claude, Pi, GPT, or whoever and I'll get a straightforward answer. Yeah, the answers may have errors and can be ignorant of edge cases, but it's a vastly better starting point than struggling to find a diamond in the sandy wasteland that are search result pages.

[@jimbo-dev]

I find myself too looking at manually curated lists of websites more often, but he did mention a real issue. A great writer isn't great developer but a developer who doesn't know how to write will get his page indexed on search engines.

[@89Sawik]

I used to love forums. Such sites gathered usually only people relly interested in particular stuff, and dealing with trolls was much much easier...

[@mario34129]

Is there some kind of a website where people can share their curated lists with others? Something like that would great

[@ChristAcolyte]

@@mario34129 4chan

[@FreedomFromRuminationCoalition]

A lot of different websites are also blocked and not appearing, simply because the search engine does not like those views.

[@7reeman834]

Why are you not talking about Epik instead?

[@Epsilonsama]

Really makes you think...

[@jacklicker-qg9yd]

Can't agree more with this, I used to love using search results for my complicated questions on a bunch of topics for instance stock information and about companies, now the results are just absolute garbage with zero relevant information for what I actually searched. It's really frustrating, although I do think it leaves a big opportunity for someone smart to come out with a great alternative and their might be one, although can't find one.

[@whatsupbudbud]

Isn't it ironic that you can't find a good search engine on a search engine that used to be good?

[@greenrobot5]

It's gotten worse, they correct your spellings even though you wrote your search correctly, they show you suggestions and "people also searched for this", it's annoying and a waste of time, not only on Google but also major websites where you do searches

[@skerpracso]

I have had exactly the same issue with searching Spotify and KZbin! I use both sites to search for old recordings of classical pieces but its become nearly impossible as so many of the results are just garbage!

[@jari2018]

yup Spotify is just a trashsite and the swedes ruling that place cant be reasoned with since.. wait for it.. they are swedes.

[@thusspokezarathustra5179]

In the past the search engines finds things that you searched for. Now the Search Engine finds things that the tech companies what you to find.

[@swagar]

That's assuming search engines are to find actual information or new sites. They used to be, but first and foremost, they're for people who don't know how to type URLs. They're for your grandmother who types "facebook" to get to Facebook, and Google can get extra ad dollars for being in the middle of that.

[@alternateperson6600]

That also doesn't justify the inefficiency of search engines since it's customary of BBBs (big bloated browsers) to just display the same 4 or 5 sites that everyone knows in their homepage. Those same sites also have their own search mechanisms within their domain, making it redundant for search engines to index them. Even if BBBs were to default to blank pages, finding those sites would be relatively easy; so much so that it wouldn't even require boomarking them. Search engines have become identical and barely usable. Why bother sticking to Google when it's competitors are equally as bad?

[@gryaznygreeb]

This has been disastrous for fish keeping. There are so many AI generated sites like "Top 10 tank mates for Golden Wonder Killifish" and it will just give an AI generated paragraph like "You should keep smaller fish with GW killis to avoid aggression. Here are 10 great fish smaller than them" When in reality a golden wonder killifish has a huge mouth and will eat any fish that it physically can, which means the list is actually "10 fish that your Golden Wonder Killifish will love to eat." Sorry that's an oddly specific result, but I just saw someone on a fish forum I'm part of ask "Why did my Killifish eat my neon tetras" and then linked one of those AI generated sites like "Well this website said it should be fine, what am I doing wrong?!" 😂 Or the classic thing where you want to find a recipe, you see one that looks good, but when you click on it, you get a 5 page essay full of Amazon affiliate links and advertisements explaining the ancient history behind cornbread and the entire autobiography of the author, and the recipe is at the very end. It's just so full of shit, I go to actual real people via youtube, discord, or other forums when I need information like that.

[@burlydugong4851]

Boomer rants about search engines after being outraged by Google not bringing up his website when looking up "Unaboomer".

[@ethanlee9633]

Luke is too young to be a boomer.

[@luxraider5384]

@@ethanlee9633 he s gen x

[@netrezv]

Well... He knows about SEO, should've invested in that 🙄

[@casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469]

Real boomers used to be the search engine. "Dad, why does the wind blow?"

[@victorkreig6089]

Google is ass and has been since 2005, turned search result placement into a bidding war

[@ohsweetmystery]

This us why anti-monopoly laws need to be used to break up Google's monopoly. Search quality would jump almost instantly.

[@halafradrimx]

KZbin is literally better than Google today. Why? Because KZbin actually has a form of rating (likes and dislikes), unlike Google Search.

[@viiltelijamurhaaja7225]

They removed dislikes and the search shows like 10 related videos and then its just like the homepage

[@4Clubs]

God bless you, Smith.

[@Bagginsess]

@@ViniciusSilvadaCruz why do you feel the need to be salty?

[@Bagginsess]

@@ViniciusSilvadaCruz I believe YHWH, Allah, Rama, Brahma, the Demiurge, The Most High, the Creator of all there is and will be, the one true and only God.

[@Bagginsess]

@@ViniciusSilvadaCruz great arguement you got there. Tell me, where does reality come from in your mind?

[@NK-le5ws]

@@ViniciusSilvadaCruz cringe

[@raymondcannon2141]

@Vinicius Silva da Cruz Read this comment just as Luke mentioned Reddit. Ain't that funny?

[@airhornistheone4915]

You are so spot on! I have been going nuts because I thought I was the only one who could see this . The last year for me was Amazon , every search has an Amazon result listed multiple times and if you watch something on site , every item talked about you will find ? Where else ?

[@amkathegod8422]

Hi Luke, Do you know what happend with epik domain? Do you recommend any other alternative?

[@highvisibilityraincoat]

Njalla.

[@vevenaneathna]

lol this i remember the days when you could google anything and find a super long forum discussion with people talking about super specific things. thats how i learned to fix cars. all this info still exists... but i cant find it anymore. their filter tools are garbage too.... give me my internet back damit

[@NinoMaluri]

I totally relate. I miss that so fucking much :( In fact, many of those sites don't exist anymore. Forums are kinda dead, and Google played a part in that when they stopped ranking/indexing forums. Meh...

[@MrCheswickMusic]

It's government censorship of information, that's what it is dude

[@Moccalocca100]

Search results on google suck so hard last days

[@icarusgaming6269]

100% accurate. There is one new technique that's emerged, which is asking generative AI the for the information you want to know, then using the search engine to fact check that information and see if it's true, which it won't be. It's very effective for finding the opposite of information, knowing what's *not* true, or for knowing where information *isn't.* Perhaps one day if we know where enough things aren't, maybe we'll know where a few things are. Ultimately it's just as futile as searching itself, just in the inverse direction

[@ferox7878]

Reddit is pretty useful when it comes to questions about niche software because often times you'll have a small community on there. That's the only thing I use it for, anyway. In terms of answering specific questions, having Reddit results is fine in my opinion.

[@seditiouswalrus]

The only real "community" on reddit are the communists on reddit.

[@towardsthelight220]

Their tech stuff is decent. Lots of Linux help and netsec is a good sub.

[@backtoeden853]

it seems like every time i put something into the search engine nowadays, i only get to see what google WANTS me to see, the same can be said with youtube.... very concerning

[@andershass6397]

Here is the heart of the problem: Google earns money from selling your data to advertisers. Google promotes sites that shows the ads from their customers that leads to the highest amount of sales profits. Google use A.I. to filter the results to their liking. Their thinking is probably that there is no use in spending processing power on something that wont lead to more sales. This means that results that doesn't offer a sale through Google's advertisement or could lead a customer away from future sales would be filtered out. After all they provide the service, and they probably try to optimize the results to their own profit. Their mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally acessible and useful." But useful to whom? Their motto is "Do the right thing." But what is right, and right for whom? After all, their customers are the advertisers, so I assume those are whom their mission statement and motto are directed at. That might be a wild guess and a long shot, so I'll leave it up to Google to define it in more detail. If you want good unbiased search results, then I guess you have to pay for it in some way, and Google doesn't offer that, since you are the product in their market model.

[@LikaLaruku]

It's a year latter & you seem to be right. The first 2 pages on Google are 100% ads. 50% of the images on Google Image Search are ads. I'm not actually finding what I'm looking for. When I get that hypochondriac itch to look up symptoms, all I get is dietary supplement blogs. When I look up types of plants & minerals, I get only results for gardening supplies & jewelry. When I want to see the latest runway fashion I get pages for cheap knockoff Chinese fashion. When I look up wallpapers for pretty places I get ads for real estate & vacation rentals.

[@bodhi6769]

Comment sections have disappeared on most sites as well. You read articles or new reports and can no longer leave comments.

[@angelsy1975]

Or read the comments of others...

[@nestoNESTOnesto]

I especially hate KZbin search these days. First 4 results are somewhat what I want to search for and then everything else is just "people who watched first four results, also watched this at some point in their lives".

[@jamesgibson3582]

Agree. Google is now useless. Entered 'What diagnostic lab tests are the same for both animals and humans' and I got nothing but veterinary sites offering cat and dog services 'in my area'. These things are not even close to the question I asked. This is happening over and over again and I am getting sent to Reddit and Blogs as sources of information. Maybe Google Scholar still works...

[@jamesgibson3582]

Here's another one, trying to remember a guy's name I met at a conference once "" I got a bunch of non-sensical answers about marijauna in Alberta. After doing a bunch of versions of this search, the guy's name came to mind. Thanks Google! No need to go do a soduko now.

[@thebestSteven]

I saw this video several months back where this guy talked about a different angle of why search engines suck. He talked about how all engines give basically the exact same things, and then how google for example finds one gazillion results in a femtosecond, yet you only get about 50 results before it just says, "yeah, all the other results are duplicates." I've used google when in a hurry (don't judge me too much) to look for a specific Daily Wire article that I had read including the exact title and the name daily wire. And no it wasn't behind their paywall. I figured it would be right at the top, and the whole thing would take me 5second to bring up. Didn't show up at all. I think I got like a link to the home page in the 50 results, but it didn't show up at all. Was links to the new york times, washington post, talking about unrelated things. Totally useless.

[@RayWilliamJohansen]

Back then it was cool to search for something and getting thousands and thousands of results, that may or may not be related to what you were searching BUT it was great imo because it opened your mind to what was out there. Now i googled a phone number and nothing popped up, the internet in general is just becoming like tv.

[@seetheious9879]

Can we find this pine forest? The trees are ~30 years old. Can't tell the exact type of pine tree. Based on the color of the sun and the angle I'd say it is close to mid day, now the angle of the sun in September could give us a hint about the lattitude. It appears to be a day with a high pressure system, no clouds, clear blue sky.

[@ron-davin]

As a soydev, I'm really worried.

[@RoryFrenn]

Google downgraded reverse image search to shit it's unusable now, Yandex used to be decent but then they did the same thing. Back in the early 2010s Google used to show me adware/spyware malicious sites in results whenever I look up programs to download, websites like softonic, sketchy YT converter sites etc.. today guess what? they still do the same thing, they never fixed the issue.

[@archygrey9093]

Personally i don't mind the reddit results, 8 times out of 10 when searching for a solution to some computer issue it is always some reddit result that solves it for me.

[@apreviousseagle836]

Because Reddit has become the new Forums. As in, the only legitimate source of information most times, is other people that that tried/done what you are asking about, and provide the information with no alterior motive (like trying to shill a product)

[@lukkkasz323]

@@apreviousseagle836 That's true, but only when you're searching in English, whenever I search something in Polish I get results from outdated polish cavemen forums where no one answers the question and every post is filled with moderator warns or really weird answers.

[@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776]

Reddit is ok for niche things. Anything political in nature tends to be utter dogshit because of their echo chamber. Opinions on Reddit are filter by moderators who will delete your comment for simply having a different perspective.

[@apreviousseagle836]

@@lukkkasz323 interesting. I only visit the English ones. Which is weird because I am fully fluent in Spanish and Greek. But I hardly bother to digest content in those languages, only when I have to.

[@GeneralKato]

Knowledge is power and Truth sets one free. In a world ruled by lies it’s a very dangerous thing. So now it’s controlled and censored. The sites still exist but one needs to find them without search engines.

[@thewillowspeak]

Normie here, how can I add recipes to the cooking website? I have tons of recipes for authentic Mexican food from different regions. My husband is from the south and I am from the north of Mexico so our cuisine is a bit different.

[@dog85686]

If you preface your comment with "normie here" and you're in this comments section, you're probably not a normie.

[@thewillowspeak]

@@dog85686 I am believe me, I'm a FB mom. On here because I want to help my husband save money and we're all fed up relying on Google for everything. It's going to be a hard transition for me, but my husband and Brother in law know a decent amount about Linux.

[@dog85686]

@@thewillowspeak Yeah I haven't made the transition from Google to non-google services yet, but I will 100% do it in the future when I'm ready.

[@thewillowspeak]

@@dog85686 I want to live as independently as possible, but it is daunting when you have small kids to think about.

[@gooseninja2541]

It also wouldn't surprise me that a lot of internet articles are completely AI generated in real time as you click links. The algos have become a little better; but it's still fairly easy to pick out AI generated articles with syntax and slightly mismatched contextual references. I do like how they pull in a picture of the so called author at the end and generate a little bio; that is a nice touch by the AI.

[@the81kid]

Welcome to the "free market" people. Like even Adam Smith said: The free market is only free for about 15 minutes. Then moneyed interests, political interests etc. start pulling it one way or another.

[@elisabethbergeron2268]

Many search engines use Google results. I searched specifically for browser/search engine not affiliated nor owned by Google. LOL they call themselves alternatives to Google. SO VERY FALSE!!! And these phones are far from being SMART. All they are are mini recorders with phone features. You know like in the good ol days when you got a tv with a remote, vcr has a remote,stereo also has a remote......everyday for at least 15 minutes at random, you are digging in the sofa,recliner,room to room searching for one or all of the remotes just so you can watch or listen from one place without getting up? So an idea pops into mind to velcro all remotes on a lightweight board. Ok another eg, everyone had a little tiny book filled with names and phone numbers, had to keep coins in pockets and purses in the event you need to use a payphone to inform you weren't coming home you are lost and its late, stay at hotel required identification, credit card. So then hotel gives you a key-dont lose it,oh man no clock in the room,all phone calls are .50. Check out,return key. Usually maps and attractions are available in hotel lobby,you can't drive while looking at a map. What am i getting at? Basically it's pretty relevant to have all of those things compiled into one handheld unit that fits in a pocket. And it's definitely convenient. Of course there are more pieces needed to this puzzle In between that I left out,but all of this "stuff" that makes life easier doesn't qualify for such a title "smart". Each of these items listed previously can be added to this one pocket device where you can access what you need. Yay! What's not so yay is the fact that everything you do is now everyone's business. Whoever was elected to program ai must be limited on knowledge . Google employed those by the way. Perhaps are no longer members of Google or are but hate Google too therefore out of spite returning irrelevant search results in turn stressing out all who resort to Google for information. It's all stupid bs imo. People tend to believe what they hear and what they read. That's sad. Very common with internet is false and misleading guidance! If these devices were truly SMART, there would be only true and accurate results to a search. And you mentioned getting a direct result , LMFAO! No matter what you ask,how many times you reword the question, Google never gives a precise result to a specific inquiry. These devices are considered to be smart because you can add contacts,credit cards,drivers license,insurance cards,alarms,camera,hotel keys,remotes for appliances,gps,maps and directions,the weather forecast,music,fake newsfeeds and unimportant information that no one really cares about, and a little empty box with a magnifying glass beside it (which does nothing but create ignorance). Search creates ignorance simply because results are not always accurate,truthful, or complete. So now that person repeats this to others and everyone has new knowledge,what they don't realize is what they just learned is all false. The world wide web has created the wide world to be illiterate,lazy,unintellectual beings. How many people of the newer generation actually know what the Dewey Decmal System is? Listen I still have my first set of encyclopedias,dictionaries,and other reliable resources from before I graduated from high school and will keep until I die. Keep in mind history DOES in fact repeat itself. Knowledge has been lost before and it will happen again. Unfortunately for many they will not know what to do. One day technology will crash and it will be catastrophic for all that rely on these devices. Too bad. Maybe that's what all of this means,what you were explaining , perhaps something extravagant is about to take place. Google is a useless,worthless, invasive, intrusive, exploiting brain washer. I despise facebook too. Seems obvious google had limited knowledge,it has finally run out, I hope so and that it dies. But so what, it's too late , everyone's personal life and business is already spread out on the table. The main behind that is the government . That is my opinion. They decided hey let's do it! If each individual has a device,there will be no information we can't get,we will know where everyone is ,what everyone is doing,what everyone is planning to do. Ok maybe not. There may not have been all those mass fatalities if that were the case. Hmm, still and all Google is trash . I'm on device number 7 within the last 27 months and not because of upgrades,but being smashed beyond recognition with a blunt object ( hammer,etc). Oh o e day I was so angry with Google I proceeded to curse it cailing it every obscenity known to man even made some words up, guess what? The phone ,female voice, tells me, "Do not speak to me that way." WTF?Really? I was beside myself when that happened.Needless to say that phone will never power up again.

[@BEPrimAnim]

Hearing, reaching out to real humans is what I am feeling the absence of nowadays, and it fucking drags me down.

[@ZoggyWoggyII]

You always have a friend in Jesus

[@simonhumphries3747]

Do you remember "cache search" ? They took that away because of me

[@lastremain7867]

It wasn't that long ago. I remember back in like 2011-2016 if I was looking for a old video or website I would use a search engine and use details in the description and even if it took hours I would find it most of the time. now it's like impossible.

[@alaysiakayebutler6299]

This video speaks for me. Thanks for the passionate validation.. our minds are truly being messed with

[@paimonbutter]

I search things all the time. Like tutorials or medical questions. And most importantly: coding questions/errors. Google saves me hours of time by fixing my coding errors

[@AugustusBohn0]

yeah, I get what Luke is getting at but this video is mostly just him raving about his own obscure searches not turning up good results and then insisting it happens to everyone

[@ctrackthezer0]

@@AugustusBohn0 It happens to me on the daily. Try looking for a recipe or a product review.

[@politicscigarettes8420]

There's no way you're reaching good content when searching for tutorials, unless you actually enjoy someone wasting your time with basic, obvious information. As for coding, guess what are the 2 main websites that pop up when you ask something. What Luke is about, is that you could search directly on them and eliminate the middle man. But searching for everyday things, like some diy fix or cooking, that's where you get into the nightmare world Luke is talking about. Now I agree with him that having specialized search engines would be a nice thing, but for most things I don't think there exists such alternative.

[@paimonbutter]

@@politicscigarettes8420 there's amazing content for tutorials, what do you mean?

[@politicscigarettes8420]

@@paimonbutter if you just search on google / ddg? Maybe we're interested in different range of topics, but for me all these tutorials only cover the surface level, and are usually ripoffs of each other, full of filler content to make it seem like there's more to it than there really is. I feel like for most tutorials/articles I open I have to filter 90% of the content to get to the things I actually care about and even then most of it is either very basic or even wrong

[@B10KPlaysGames]

He should make his own search engine, just like how he made his own cook book website!

[@JohnDoe-bt9qp]

Are you talking about the anarchist cook book?

[@phoneywheeze]

​@@JohnDoe-bt9qpno, his cooking website he mentioned in the video (based cooking)

[@rabbit-ku1bn]

Depends on the context of your search term. I find search engines pretty useful in surfing through my STEM research questions (you don't get everything on stack). Especially more arcane your research topic is for conventional blabbering media to follow through, smoother the experience. Edit: on second thoughts, it is not about being arcane or otherwise, but rather, how big a political consequence your research has the potential to have.

[@mennehgambia1962]

I agree with the edit a lot

[@zombiemachinery4868]

Yeah, but when you look for something they don't want you to know or nobody paid them to show it your search is dead.

[@surfingbilly9654]

yep this is my exact experience the greater the political connotation/association of my search terms the worse quality results I receive.

[@mikeatarms]

I've been feeling this for awhile, so this video was very validating! I love that you also subtly made a non-verbal comparison by shooting in a "fake" forest - just like search engines have the veneer of legitimacy, but instead virtually everything inside is carefully chosen and placed. Smert!

[@peakminute]

Google wants you to go through bunch of sites and all the time you're clicking back to the search engine results you will look at ads. You probably know what that means: ads on impressions, which advertisers pay for. This leads to even more money for Google.

[@hauntologicalwittgensteini2542]

Congrats, its been 2 years and you are right.

[@Toshiro4619]

Not to mention the blatant censorship and thought policing being enforced by said search engines.

[@UnchainedEruption]

Un-fucking-believable. I just spent an hour writing an essay of a response to this video, and KZbin deleted my comment. Okay, so one line responses with no thought, harmless. Actually expressing an idea, now that’s too dangerous, silence that man.

[@HateBear-real]

If it's important, check in a separate browser not logged in after about a minute. It's also good to break up sentences so new posts start with an adverb or something unnatural and chain post to get around the auto-flag nonsense.