[GordonS]

Yes, I feel like Google search results have very gradually become more irrelevant and spammy over the past decade or so.

There are 2 issues, I think.

Firstly, the SE-optimised spam, which has become very good as masquerading as genuine content.

Secondly, Google has dumbed search syntax down a bit, and often seems to outright ignore double quoted phrases, presumably thinking it knows better than I what I want.

As a dev, I do accept I may be an outlier though - with the incredible wealth of search history and location data that Google holds, it seems likely things have actually improved for typical users.

[MiroF]

is there a way to turn this " ignore thing off? drives me nuts

[mrguyorama]

Seeing as google has my search history for the past 14 years, they should be able to KNOW that I'm a slightly more technical user and can take advantage of power user features instead of treating me like an idiot