Google's increasingly worthless search results
Google's search results are increasingly worthless. This a good overview article of the problem. I espectially like this anology in the article:
I'm really biting the hand - Google now provides 50% of all VideoSift traffic.
Searching Google is now like asking a question in a crowded flea market of hungry, desperate, sleazy salesmen who all claim to have the answer to every question you ask.
“Hey, anyone know how to wire an outlet?”
“Did you say ‘how to wire an outlet’?”
“I can help you with how to wire an outlet!”
“Here is info on how to wire an outlet!”
“Bargain prices on how to wire an outlet!”
“Guide to wiring outlets in New York, right here!”
And none of them actually know a damn thing about what you’re asking, of course — they’re just offering meaningless, valueless words that seem to form sentences until you actually try to make use of them.
I'm really biting the hand - Google now provides 50% of all VideoSift traffic.
10 Comments
kronosposeidonJust fucking Lougle it man! It ROCKS! \m/
dystopianfuturetodaySearch Results:
-HEY ANYONE KNOW HOW TO WIRE mp3 torrentz downloads
-XXX know how to wire an outlet live nude streaming XXX passwords
-Buy “Hey, anyone know how to wire an outlet?” free shipping at Amazon.com
RedSkyThat free shipping one sounds like a great deal.
gwiz665Nowadays you have to have serious google-fu to find something.
radxThat's why we wrote our own search engine back in the days: MetaGer.
NetRunnerGoogle "electrical outlet wiring diagram", and you get useful hits.
Part of the problem is that technical people sometimes forget that normal human beings speak in conversational English, and don't really intuitively grasp that a computer search needs a unique key in order to zero in on the information you want.
Greedy people looking to make a quick buck intuitively grasp what questions people will ask, but don't know (or care) about useful information.
Hence, the effect described in the article...
DeanoYou'd think this would be an opportunity for Bing or an upstart to provide better results. Nothing lasts forever...
vaporlockTrying to find a driver for a laptop is like playing a word game with scam artists. NetRunner's point is dead on, these days you need the exact nomenclature/make/model to escape the open-bizarre. Not to mention that all the scammy advertising makes finding the download link a chore.
spawnflaggerJust pick up the Pocket Ref from your local hardware store. It's like all the useful facts of the internet, but on paper, and pocket sized.
(does not contain a single ad)
xxovercastxxI suspect it's not so much that Google's results are worthless as it is that people on the internet are worthless. After all, Google is a search engine, not an answer machine. You can't expect Google to return information that isn't out there, somewhere, cruising the tubes on a giant truck.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.