Anyone noticed a recent change in Google?

[I am Groot]

Just over the last few days I've noticed that instead of giving me answers it presents me with a list of news items or aticles that are either openly or not so openly sponsored. Not just one or two but pages of them, and I can't get what I'm looking for at all. I forget what I was searching for the other day but I finally got frustrated and instead searched for duckduckgo. Once on their site I typed in the same identical thing and the response was number one on the list. Very quick and easy.

Today I was looking for 'concussion'. Instead of getting any information on concussions I got a bunch of articles on sports figures who had suffered from them. Not just one page but multiple pages. I typed in 'duckduckgo' instead and this time instead of getting their site I could a list of articles about duckduckgo. Since I had MS Edge open at the same time I opened that up and typed in 'concussion' instead and right off got all kinds of medical stuff on it. I typed in 'duckduckgo' and the site was number one on the returns list.

Has Google just gone into full-out prostitute mode or what? I mean they always took money to return certain sites first, but now they've really gone overboard.

[Black Dog]

1 hour ago, I am Groot said:

Has Google just gone into full-out prostitute mode or what? I mean they always took money to return certain sites first, but now they've really gone overboard.

Simple answer: content farms are using generative AI like ChatGPT to flood the internet with garbage SEO content and Google can't keep up.

link

[QuebecOverCanada]

FYI I know a friend working in a marketing firm and what he does at work has an impact on the search engine.

If you pay money to his company, they will boost your search results on Google. Many companies do that, it's very competitive, everyone wants to stay on top but can't, so you'll have discrepancies every day when you're doing research on Google in the sense of results that will pop up more.

Edited February 21, 2024 by QuebecOverCanada

[I am Groot]

1 hour ago, Black Dog said:

Simple answer: content farms are using generative AI like ChatGPT to flood the internet with garbage SEO content and Google can't keep up.

link

How come I can get answers on Bing and DDG?

[Black Dog]

11 minutes ago, I am Groot said:

How come I can get answers on Bing and DDG?

Probably because they are comparatively bit players in the search engine game so aren't as much of a target for AI slurry.

[eyeball]

On 2/21/2024 at 7:33 AM, I am Groot said:

Today I was looking for 'concussion'. Instead of getting any information on concussions I got a bunch of articles on sports figures who had suffered from them. Not just one page but multiple pages.

I highlighted concussion above, right clicked, clicked on "search google for concussion" and page after page of results are overwhelmingly medical in nature from medical associations, universities, govt health services etc.  There was 1 wiki mention about a movie called Concussion and not a single news story about sports figures.

My google seems to work just fine. Did you try giving your head a shake?

Edited February 28, 2024 by eyeball

[I am Groot]

8 hours ago, eyeball said:

I highlighted concussion above, right clicked, clicked on "search google for concussion" and page after page of results are overwhelmingly medical in nature from medical associations, universities, govt health services etc.  There was 1 wiki mention about a movie called Concussion and not a single news story about sports figures.

My google seems to work just fine. Did you try giving your head a shake?

That is... interesting. Mine is doing the same now. I wonder if changes were made.

[OftenWrong]

11 hours ago, I am Groot said:

That is... interesting. Mine is doing the same now. I wonder if changes were made.

Perhaps 'Sydney' was just messin with ya.

[Dougie93]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:33 AM, I am Groot said:

Just over the last few days I've noticed that instead of giving me answers it presents me with a list of news items or aticles that are either openly or not so openly sponsored. Not just one or two but pages of them, and I can't get what I'm looking for at all. I forget what I was searching for the other day but I finally got frustrated and instead searched for duckduckgo. Once on their site I typed in the same identical thing and the response was number one on the list. Very quick and easy.

Today I was looking for 'concussion'. Instead of getting any information on concussions I got a bunch of articles on sports figures who had suffered from them. Not just one page but multiple pages. I typed in 'duckduckgo' instead and this time instead of getting their site I could a list of articles about duckduckgo. Since I had MS Edge open at the same time I opened that up and typed in 'concussion' instead and right off got all kinds of medical stuff on it. I typed in 'duckduckgo' and the site was number one on the returns list.

Has Google just gone into full-out prostitute mode or what? I mean they always took money to return certain sites first, but now they've really gone overboard.

once I noticed, years ago, that Google is filtered to only give government approved & establishment media responses

I stopped using it for any sort of general search

its still useful if I know exactly what I'm searching for

but not for any kind of general searches, which are obviously filtered ideologically