Google executives acknowledged this month they need to do a better job surfacing user-generated content after the recent Reddit blackouts.

  • klyde@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I haven’t been able to find anything good on there in years. Everything is some company claiming to have a fix and it’s just stupid crap that isn’t helpful. ‘Here’s 10 tips to fix your issue that are worthless.’

    • Arekusenpai@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m in the process of repairing my entry way guard rail. I did a Google search for marking banister placement with curved railing. Google’s attempt to be useful was to to search for “baluster” instead of “banister”. It’s a complete fucking joke.

      And forbid searching for vehicle tire size suggestions if you’ve ever done a single search bikes. Finding recommended tire size for 17x8 wheels is fuck all impossible. After the first 10 links I start getting links to Bicycle shops in the UK. While I’m located in the US.

      • klyde@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s awful and it’s sad. I remember when I could find everything on there and now it’s just all garbage. I’d be pretty annoyed getting links outside the US when that’s where you live. Sure wish it was like it used to be.

      • grue@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Also is it just me, or did search engines (not just Google) suddenly start disregarding quotation marks a year or so ago? I’ve been adding quotes to tell the stupid thing “no, I really did mean that weird word you think is a typo” and lately it just fucking auto-incorrects it anyway!

        • c2h6@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yea I have this problem as well. Brackets, quotes, nothing forces the search engine to ONLY return that specific term.

      • livus@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ah that’s interesting. I get US results all the time but I assumed it was because the US dominates and New Zealand is small and obscure. Yet now I see you literally live in the US and it still doesn’t help you!

    • Infernal_pizza@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      How to fix your tech problem:

      1. restart
      2. the same generic fix you already saw on the last 10 websites that didn’t work
      3. download our totally legit software that’s specially designed to fix this exact issue