Ted Gioia is a highly recommended follow. His posts on music, arts, and culture (and much more) are thoughtful and enlightening. His latest post addresses a subject that I have noticed myself. Search engines specifically, and technology in general, are getting worse. The link to the article is at the end of this post.
My primary search engine (today) is DuckDuckGo, mainly as an attempt to avoid all the tracking Google does. I sometimes use Google when I think it will provide a better answer than DuckDuckGo. I also use Bing now and again just to keep a hand in.
A small exception in my search condemnation goes out to DuckDuckGo and other small search engines that are still in the “give it away for free” mode and the other ones (Kagi) that are charging for searches. They are probably getting better, but it doesn’t really feel like it. But ad-supported search engines are getting worse.
Maybe the problem is that things on the Internet are getting less searchable. Certainly, the pay-to-play ads and dynamic content that seem to always meet your query (but don’t give you useful information) are part of the problem. If you have looked up a recipe lately, you know exactly what I am talking about.
It is harder to visually parse the response to separate the ads from the actual results. The results are likely to be less useful that the past. The People Also Ask and Related Searches clutter things up.
Interestingly, I have started using the various AI chatbots for some search. Yes, I know about their inaccuracies and verify when needed. But I don’t always need to. I asked Bard ‘when did Ian Hunter and Mick Ronsen record albums together?’ and I got a good answer. I’m not publishing a paper or writing a public post. I don’t really care about the dates either. I was just looking for a timeframe because I like the artists. I found a timeframe that felt right and found out about some collaborations that I hadn’t heard about. It provided links for me to look at more information and verify. This is much more useful than a normal Google search. I dread the day that ads start showing up the AI responses.
A buddy of mine (Hi Steve!) said fifteen years ago that the internet felt like millions of people in their basement that were passionate about different subjects, all posting information. And search engines made it easy to find them. There is a lot more content today, much of it created by those trying to make money. Now, I am not a get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon about the alleged good-ol’-days of the internet. I applaud the efforts that people are making to try to make a living on it. [Except scammers, of course. Go see The Beekeeper movie.] I just think we need to point out (and take our business elsewhere) when the service no longer is worth the price (monetarily or otherwise).
One note before you click through to the article. There is a gratuitous jab at SpaceX that has nothing to do with his larger point about Search engines and technology. The public try/fail SpaceX is doing has its own pros and cons, but has nothing to do with the demand for money ruining search.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/what-happened-to-my-search-engine