Its changed alot-for the worst! Seems all the advertising pages come first.

Google-getting dumber every day.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/goog...sults-wsj.html

Actually it‘s getting cleverer by the day.

I agree with you in this respect. The Google search experience in the English Forum is utterly miserable if you are not using a touch screen. But that is nothing new.

However, if Google are fined a few billion dollars for their latest tricks and abusing their dominant position to suppress inconvenient truths and otherwise manipulate the information we get to see, I'll feel a bit better.

Attached Images

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If I use Google I very rarely find what I am looking for these days.

Paid Ads come first, only sometimes related to what I’m looking for. Then come a bunch of others that look like they should be paid Ads, but they don’t say they are and then, perhaps, on page 3 or 4, I might find something related.

I use DuckDuckGo for most of my searching. It isn’t as good as it used to be, but anything is better than Google.

The search result pages of DuckDuckGo look really washed out ( using Chrome ). The print also.But seems good otherwise

Using DDG and you add g! At the end of your search string, it gives you the google results, but doesn’t track you. You still get the stupid ads but at least they don’t know who you are.

And there is omtatsat's computer downloading "what google knows about him" within the next 96 hours. The result could be embarrassing.

I'm surprised people know about what shows first on a google result. I just scroll right through the results until I got the impression I hit the thing I was looking for. It does not bother me to even having to go to page 2 or 3 to find it. Still much faster than having to guess website titles, which would be the alternative.

As I see it, google search is a free feature. They are therefore free to design it as they like. Which includes showing paying customers first. Denying that while doing it is ridicoulos though, I would agree on that.
Still, I find it very strange how today's world seems to think it should get the fanciest things for free and still having the right to critisize it. The google guys here want their 120K/year too.

The bigger problem I see is android. I wouldn't want an iPhone (problem no much different, anyway), had a microsoft handy once and was seriously not impressed (that was a very long time ago though, so I give them the benefit of the doubt of having improved), looked into some other os and found nothing I felt better about than adroid.
As Samsung etc. can't influence what google does via android (at least I assume they can't) the power due to google's market share is indeed uncomfortable. Handy builders should develope each their own os or users should be able to choose which os they want to use on their handy - as they do on computers.

Which closes the circle: If you don't like google search - don't use it. That is possible, you know

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If there is a God, then I believe he’s more insulted by religion than he is by atheism.

HA! THANK YOU!
I just found something via bing.com I have not found on google for months now (something I wanted to read for free, so I thought I just have to wait longer).

Groovy! Thanks for the tip. In fact, I'm gonna pebble you for that one

Oh right. I've now seen it. Green pebbles. Well, thank you very much.

Dumb is continuing to use a service you don't like move on with your life....

Google is very susceptible to all this garbage and before it was less engaged in this advertising and the substitution of search results, and now more and more.

Bet Merkel can tell us all about it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-claims-merkel

When it comes to privacy, switch to Qwant, UR or Tor browser and Proton mail.

https://www.qwant.com/

https://www.ur-browser.com/en-US

https://www.torproject.org/

https://protonmail.com/blog/android-privacy/

Quite so. I started using ad blockers some years ago when intrusive advertising was becoming more and more common; I use firefox to avoid getting caught up by Google or Microsoft traps; I switched to DDG when google's results became unusable, particularly, for me, when they no longer supported the exact phrase search. Whenever I don't like a particular service I'll look around and see if there's a better option. Seems like common sense to me.

To sit and complain about it implies that you've just put up with it until now, which is a choice, so all you're really complaining about is a reult of your own poor choices.

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http://www.chaletbeauroc.com

I use the U2 search engine. And I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

protonmail: 1. Avoid Google Data Protection
Google Data Protection is an oxymoron, I should have thought that's common knowledge.

I actually did check what google knows about me. Basically nothing - so I did pretty well but my handy hardly ever goes on internet (too bloody tiny) and I hardly ever log in. When I do all android devices start pinging, asking me if that was me. I never bother to reply.
But it is almost embarrassing how they store e.v.e.r.y single place one ever accessed, including the link to it. They must be really bored.

__________________
If there is a God, then I believe he’s more insulted by religion than he is by atheism.

No! You're worth $$$ to em. Potential bread n butter.

Naaa, I'm this mad woman who googles every subject from any possible angle and google never knows, which side I'm actually on in the end.
They wouldn't know what to offer me therefore: Any way the do they will most likely be wrong.