Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
by jjoonathan on Thursday November 23, 2023 @09:15AM
(#38392969)
It depends on how heavily targeted the terms are. The two big objectively user-hostile lines I was watching and have seen crossed:
1. Removed the yellow background that easily distinguished ads.
2. Zero organic results above the fold.
Obviously #2 doesn't happen every day on every query, but I saw it during the crypto craze and I have seen it during the AI craze.
I specifically searched just now something I searched recently, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off".
I naturally blocked ads, but it shows "Cast", "People also ask", the official Netflix result (good), "Trailers and Clips", "Reviews", "Episodes", "Top Stories" with some gossip, and then Wikipedia and IMDB.
However this is also not so bad! I will make sure to document all my problematic Googling experiences.
You can argue that those things are "noise that my brain should block" or that "they're actually useful", and that's entirely true. But Google is no longer returning the results I used to expect from it, and that's a fact. Maybe I'm not the target audience anymore? Well, that's not a big deal, there are other products. But my point still stands. Sorry but not sorry: Apple's Spotlight is still better for this and needs zero scrolling to take me to Wikipedia.