I've found that I often get better results on google if I click "Tools" under the search bar and change "All results" to "Verbatim". It seems to force it to just do the query without as much of the magic.
Yeah I have tried verbatim and it does seem to help a little in some cases. In others, it either shows totally irrelevant results or does not turn up any search results.
I wish I could do a grep style search on the web after removing all the social media and popular brands.