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

  • Arekusenpai@lemmy.world
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    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
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      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
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      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
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        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
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      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!