Charlie Warzel of Galaxy Brain has an Atlantic essay on Google that’s far short of Galaxy Brain. It recapitulates the now famous thread on why searching Reddit is better than searching Google, and offers random speculation on what’s wrong with Google Search and whether it might not be “leaving us behind”.
It’s packed with so many Google apologetics, I certainly hope that Google paid for it, e.g.
Google search might be worse now because, like much of the internet, it has matured and has been ruthlessly commercialized. In an attempt to avoid regulation and be corporate-friendly, parts of it might be less wild. But some of what feels dead or dying about Google might be our own nostalgia for a smaller, less mature internet. Sullivan, the Search liaison, understands this longing for the past, but told me that what feels like a Google change is also the search engine responding to the evolution of the web…
Haynes agrees that ads’ presence on Search is worse than ever and the company’s decision to prioritize its own products and features over organic results is frustrating. But she argues that Google’s flagship product has actually gotten better and much more complex over time. That complexity, she suggests, might be why searching feels different right now.
Nah.
The problem with Google Search can be easily summarized as a lack of competition. Aside from Bing and satellite search sites like DuckDuckGo that use Bing’s search index, there’s nothing.
Google so thoroughly dominates search that there’s no competition. And so no incentive for it do anything except monetize search up to its eyeballs.
Alphabet doesn’t need good searches. Its searches are so bad because it stopped having any interest in having you find things a while back. What it wants you to do is…
1. Click on its services
2. Click on its ads
3. Search in predictable ways so that it can sell ads
Helping you find things is not on the list because Google does not make money if you spend 2 seconds clicking on the first search result and find what you’re looking for.
Google makes more money when you can’t find things than when you do. It makes more money when it serves you bad results. It makes more money when it ignores what you searched for and instead serves up the results that make it money.
This is the definition of why monopolies are terrible. But Google has a monopoly on internet search for reasons I’ve gone into before. And so internet search is terrible and as Google, like most big companies, gets hungrier, they’re going to get worse.
somehistory says
It’s much like b. gates. Already owning thousands of acres of U.s. farmland, he’s buying more and doesn’t care how unhappy people are.
google doesn’t care either as long as their pockets bulge with cash. this world seems to run on sex, lies, money and corruption along with the violence that keeps everyone else in line.
Infidel says
Already, North Dakota’s AG is asking the company thought to be associated w/ him: what are you planning to do w/ this farmland? It’s thought that he’s gonna use that to make plant based meat. Like in the case of solar and wind energy, where huge tracts of real estate are needed, I fear that the same may be the case here: thousands of acres of farmland to produce the same amount of meat from slaughtering just a few animals.
I am somewhat split on this: despite being non-vegetarian, I’m not a fan of animal slaughter, and so welcome this innovation in food. But if it’s gonna result in huge tracts of land being used for this, as opposed to normal farming, doesn’t sound as good an idea, especially if it exacerbates food shortages that are now beginning to be felt worldwide. Already, some countries are clamping down on food exports, and more may follow as food becomes more scarce
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/north-dakota-bill-gates-drew-wrigley-farmland/2022/06/24/id/1075944
Infidel says
I know there were some other search engines other than Google, Bing and DDG. A while ago, I saw FNC interview a CEO of a search engine who pointed out the shortcomings of DDG, but forgot which one that was
We need a company like Alphabet, but w/o the leftist and islamic agendas. Mammoth Nation, My Store, anyone else backing such an enterprise? A company w/ everything – search, mail services (like gmail), web hosting, cloud computing, computer platform for computers, tablets and phones (just like Android, maybe base it on Replicant), video hosting, social media and so on
gravenimage says
Google Search is Bad. On Purpose.
…………………………
Years ago, I used to be able to use Google to search for past Jihad Watch stories. Now it seldom even brings up any Jihad Watch stories on any subject–it can’t just be bad, because it works pretty well for many other subjects. And I’m sure that JW is not the only target.
Jamie James says
Little known fact, that Google was designed by women. We know this because if you ask a Google a question, you get 10,000 suggestions
gravenimage says
Pretty lame joke…