Anyone feel that searching the net is harder than it used to be?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Recently I've become more and more disturbed by how many idiotic responses I get when I search for things.
It seems that I used to be able to zero in on what I wanted quickly.

Now I seem to get responses that have absolutely nothing to do with what I searched for.

I arrive at a page that says it has references to what I'm looking for but there is nothing there that is remotely related to what I want.

I put things in quotes and still get things that are totally unrelated.

What search engines are people using, I've always just kind of stuck with Google but I'm open to suggestions.

Mike

 

[patcooke]

At my age I find most things are harder than they used to be not least of all climbing mountains! Seriously though - search engine results, like most things in this life, are prioritised according to who pays the most. I've used Yahoo since the early days and being a creature of habit . . .

 

[strollin]

I use Google and it returns exactly what I search for. I'd say searching has gotten easier, not harder.

 

[davehc]

It returns what I search for, as strollin comments. Unfortunately, in my case, as as Mike has experienced, it has many alternatives so I then have to chase down the best offer. most of the more common sites these days know all the tricks for hits, so I would imagine the situation would get worse, not better.

It is the same, now, with the Microsoft store. With its added thumbnails, it is almost impossible to "browse" through for something you seek. Better, in this case, to google for the item and be redirected precisely to the Store App.

 

[kemical]

I always use Google and have found that successful search results often depend on the words used to start the search. If I struggle at first to find what I'm after I'll change the search parameters or certain keywords and this in the end usually brings results.

 

[ussnorway]

You could try using a multi-search engine like http://www.dogpile.com/ this looks at more than one to give you a wider range of answers.

I personally use https://startpage.com/ but that is more for philosophical reasons … the most likely scenario is just that you are getting older and what interests you, doesn’t rate high on a google search engine because they can’t sell it to teenagers.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi again.

Here's an example.
I tried to look up a fake email I received from some fictitious character named j.Reynold.

This is what I entered into the search....

"[email protected]"

In quotes just like that, that was the address the message was sent from.

Now I would think that I'd either get a hit that had this address in it, or a message saying that it couldn't find anything like that.

Instead I got 926 hits, for everything from Debbie Reynolds, to Madonna?

I got the New England Mail Order Pharmacy?

One for Mail J. Townsend?

And this one...

http://www.transportguide.biz/company-kilbrogan-trading-in-uranquinty-nsw-8587

God only knows why that one came up?

I guess that means that no one posted about receiving an email stating that they have had a large amount of money abandoned in a bank in Great Britain.

Apparently all I need to do is send them my bank account number, and millions of pounds will be transfered to my account.

I could hardly resist.

Does anyone really fall for this?

Anyway that's just one example of the kind of results I get when i search for things.
It used to be that "Quotes" meant just that, look for exactly this statement.

I didn't get any hits that actually had this address in it.

Maybe they changed it, and I'm just not aware of it.

Mike

 

[ussnorway]

I personally use https://startpage.com/ but that is more for philosophical reasons

This is what I entered into the search....

"[email protected]"

Anyway that's just one example of the kind of results I get when i search for things.
It used to be that "Quotes" meant just that, look for exactly this statement.

My results for that search;

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Looks like this guy has really been busy.
It's hard for me to believe that law enforcement can't catch up with these guys.

I suppose that I could use the excludes to get rid of some of the fake hits, the problem is I don't want a hit for every body named j Reynold, much less every j Reynolds, with an "S", there's no "S" on the name in the address.
All of your hits say Reynolds I think.

I guess I should be more exact about what I'm looking for, though I thought that putting it in quotes did that.

I tried "j.reynold" +"englandmail" and that worked better.
I got no hits which is what I expected the first time.

Then I tried "j.reynold" and I got everyone named Reynold or Reynolds on the net I think, About 25,400 results (0.17 seconds)

It just seemed like it used to be more exact than it is now.

Mike

 

[Inception]

I honestly feel that Google prioritizes by those who have sponsored it and gotten the most money out of Adsense. Google's searches have gotten a bit harder because of this, but honestly, if you can't find what you need with Google... I always do a second search with Bing, Bing is one of the few search engines still out there that prioritizes by actual relevance, not by how much money somebody paid them, in fact, a majority of the sponsors seem to show up on the later pages, whether this is a good thing or bad thing, that's to be decided... All I know is this:
Search Bing for less-biased and more relevant things if you can't find what you want on Google.