Recently I've had Google return results lacking search terms I've put in quotes (and then clicked "Show results for xxx instead" when it tries to 'correct' me). I have no idea how I'm supposed to make my desire any clearer.

It has been a long time since double quotes worked reliably for me on Google.

It has also been a long time since Google showed me any search results that weren't 100% ad-laden blogspam with wordy vague (and often incorrect) content with clickbait titles. I have basically given up on Google altogether.

I stopped using Google at work when they forced javascript. Since then I realized that I haven't missed it at all and I've stopped using it entirely. It's become trash.

What do you use instead?

Not GP but I have used Marginalia + DDG until 3 years ago and Kagi since then.

+1 for Kagi. If you want a search engine that works with you rather than against you, this is it right now.

An LLM (ChatGPT/"AI").

phone: * that circle in whatsapp * find a freebie chatgpt proxy in telegram

web * "copilot" in ms Edge browser * https://kagi.com/fastgpt * https://grok.com/ * https://claude.ai

I find the need for a "search engine" reduced very considerably with all these "answer this question (NOW!)" options so readily available. They're the modern day "I feel lucky" button.

Googles a little better about matching exact terms if you go to search tools -> all results and change it to Verbatim

Every single search. It’s funny to me that Google doesn’t let you default this setting and a sign they they are quite anti-user.

I wonder what employees of Google actually use. Is there a non-crappy version of Google that actually meets their needs and returns what they need?

This has been going on for over a decade for me now (I know because I blogged about it at the time).

For years I used DDG, not because it was better, but it wasn't worse and I wanted to support competition.

Then I started using Marginalia and shortly after I found Kagi.

Kagi works like Google used to do (and has a range of nice extra features) and in the very unusual situations were it doesn't work, when I posted it to the forums it was quickly acknowledged and dealt with.

Extremely refreshing to be on the customer side of a search engine the last three years instead of being some kind of livestock for Googles ad sales machine.

I just want a search engine that won’t return blogs with affiliate links or many results that are providing identical information.

When I click a result and see Amazon links, it’s instant back button.

Why can’t Google’s algorithm determine that any page with a list of Amazon affiliate links is 99.999% low quality, low effort blogspam?

Because those pages also make Google a lot of money via ads. "Show me the incentives, I'll show you the outcome."

Try Marginalia :-)

Kagi.com

Allows you to customize results more than any I’ve used.