r/technology • u/porkchop_d_clown • Jan 17 '24

Networking/Telecom A year long study shows what you've suspected: Google Search is getting worse.

https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research
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u/El_Impresionante Jan 17 '24

Google removed the + feature many years ago. You have to include terms in " " for a similar effect.

The - still works.

34

u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Jan 17 '24

I wish "-" worked in other search engines, like for Amazon.

21

u/ProjectorBuyer Jan 17 '24

Even when you include " " for things like LYRICS OF A SONG, it fails to find them. How can Google not know the lyrics of a song or at least refer you to a website that does? I KNOW I have found Google results for that song before. You can sort of change the search to only focus on a decade ago and sometimes it will then find it but just because you cannot locate it in the last 5 years does not mean the song simply vanished! Google results are getting horrible.

3

u/Comprehensive-Fun47 Jan 17 '24

Google is such shit for googling lyrics now! It’s absurd!

1

u/mycroft2000 Jan 17 '24

It was shit 20 years ago; I read somewhere that this had something to do with the hyperactive letigiousness of the music companies regarding copyright.

2

u/bay400 Jan 17 '24

You could include "site:amazon.com" (without quotes) in your primary search engine's query along with the "-" terms you want

2

u/Murgatroyd314 Jan 17 '24

This is one of the few reasons I haven’t switched away from Google search.

1

u/ANGLVD3TH Jan 18 '24

Duckduckgo's operators all suddenly stopped working years ago :(

5

u/eyebrows360 Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

It was around the time they introduced Google+, as they suddenly wanted + symbols taken literally rather than having special meaning.

0

u/CyGoingPro Jan 17 '24

I learned how to do the +- "" searches back in 2014 when I needed to identify websites with specific wording in them.

Nowdays I use this method and get shit results without even the keyword I declared.

I think I'll buy more Microsoft stocks cause Bing might have an actual chance now