Has Google (and YouTube) search been terrible for anyone else lately?

[TheOtherAndy]

It seems as though over the past year or so my Google search results have been horrendously bad. Not just the usual SEO spam articles, but totally unrelated junk coupled with an inability to understand intent no matter how much I try to communicate it. It always thinks I want to buy something. I could swear Google used to be better than this.

YouTube almost seems to be de-indexing any videos that don't have 1 million + views.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Yes, I've noticed this too. Sometimes I've searched for things. And I'm like wtf I'm not trying to buy something. I want information. It's infuriating. Sometimes I've resorted to using different search engine. Brave Search or DuckDuckGo. Particularly if you're searching for specs. Or some technical information unrelated to purchasing it. But how to do something with it seems to be difficult to find. Even more so lately. Especially for things like Appliances.

 

[Nermal]

I switched my default search engine to Bing about six months ago and haven't really missed Google unless looking for very niche things. That's not to say that Bing's perfect, but it seems to get the job done and hasn't annoyed me too much.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have noticed this as well.

Not sure about the timeline, but I would say at least a few months.

 

[eyoungren]

Not quite sure why this is a surprise. Usually commercial products are returned first in thumbnails at the top. Sponsored posts come after that. I usually just scroll down to the first post that doesn't say sponsored on it and go from there.

Of course, I've always set Google up to display 100 search returns per page so scrolling down it's such a big deal for me.

What DOES annoy me is when Google switched to the new News format. I much preferred the old format. So instead, I'll search for some news item I want to read about and then click the News button. When you do it that way you get the old News format.

For the record though, Google prefers as few search terms as possible. Even if it sounds like you'e typing in broken English. If you can reduce your search query down you'll get better results.

Finally, if you just want returns on what you specifically typed in, put it in quotes.

 

[retta283]

Finally, if you just want returns on what you specifically typed in, put it in quotes.

It seems like the verbatim search is also deeply affected by these issues as well, and is often simply ignored or returns no results. If I search something verbatim and the above happens, I often chuck it in Bing or Yahoo and immediately am returned good results.

There is something seriously wrong with Google now, whether it be AI or SEO manipulation. It is rapidly becoming a useless product for specific searches.

 

[splifingate]

Frankly, all my 'Searches' (no matter the source) have been disappointing for a handful of years.

 

[eyoungren]

It seems like the verbatim search is also deeply affected by these issues as well, and is often simply ignored or returns no results. If I search something verbatim and the above happens, I often chuck it in Bing or Yahoo and immediately am returned good results.

There is something seriously wrong with Google now, whether it be AI or SEO manipulation. It is rapidly becoming a useless product for specific searches.

Maybe it's just me. I'm not having these problems.