[codingdave]

No, I liked Google's results better 10 years ago. They are trying too hard to guess what I am asking for, and sometimes I find it difficult to look for a variety of answers because I get the one "right" answer, posted on a couple dozen pages. Some searches turn up so many of their new widgets that I don't even feel like I get a page of results... just canned questions and answers and widgets. Other searches give me 2 pages from a single site (pinterest, reddit, etc.), or most often, multiple pages of SEO-optimized content from people trying to flip Wordpress blogs for profit. If searching for reviews on retail products, I almost always ignore the first few pages of results on Google to try to find real reviews by real people.

I prefer search engines that are just search engines, and give me a basic list of results that I can judge for myself.

[nomel]

> They are trying too hard to guess what I am asking for,

If you’ve ever watched a non tech person use a search engine, you’ll realize why they’re probably doing that. Most people I’ve seen type their question into Google, rather than “search terms”. I imagine this is the norm since the whole concept of a keyword search requires some understanding of how the first search engines worked.

[skinner927]

This is the real answer. I don’t remember what show it was (some stupid big brother reality show), but many years ago I saw a girl search on Google for “if you kiss a dead wet fish on a beach with your lips can you get a disease?” Or something just as asinine and I realized at that moment that search was doomed.