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Is it just me, or are search engines getting worse? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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My main focus isn't on quality of results.

The real problem is, whenever I type a query that's even the slightest bit out of the ordinary, I get no results. Google, Duckduckgo, Startpage, Searx, all of them.

It strains credibility that these advanced pieces of technology could not find anything among billions of websites, when in the past, less-advanced versions of these engines could find results for similar queries among smaller numbers of websites.

To reiterate: My problem is not with SEO, or spam, or AI-generated websites, or irrelevant results. My problem is getting no results much more frequently than in the past.

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[–] LostWon@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Someone suggested the Swedish search engine Marginalia in another discussion recently. It seems uniquely suited to restoring the exploratoration/discovery aspect that online searches once had. (I don't know how it will be for the particular application you need or for local services in general, though.)

[–] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The exploration/discovery aspect, as in, exploring unknown, barren territory and discovering that you're lost.

This engine is a massive downgrade, whenever I enter an even slightly weird query, or put too large a phrase in quotes, I get no results at all.

Which, ironically, is the problem with standard search engines that induced me to make this post.

[–] LostWon@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

How do you mean weird phrases? How long a phrase in quotes? Sounds like you're playing that game people used to play, trying to stump Google back when it was new and gaining popularity, except people at that time were aiming to get no results on purpose.