Google search has gotten worse over the years though. Perhaps that's because the amount of information is growing exponentially. So much of the search results seems spammy these days.

My guess would be because everyone's doing SEO, and since everyone's competing to be on the top of people's Google searches, they're often inadequate

It's still quite smart though. For example, asking a question about a programming problem often brings up the correct stackoverflow page, even if the wording is completely different.