[eplanit]

Google search over the past 5+ years: result quality getting worse overall; relevant results pushed further and further below ads/sponsored (now on page 2); privacy issues wider and deeper.

I recall being amazed at the seeming clairvoyance of their search results up to about 2014. It seems like when they reorganized under Alphabet, the division of responsibility became sharper. Alphabet to Google: you are an _Advertisement_ company. Your goal is to get as much info as possible on all people so to target and sell ads for maximum profit. The search engine, and other Google products, are to focus on that goal. The other innovation stuff may be done some by you, but we'll shift a lot to the other subsidiaries. I think the clarity and narrowing of purpose is wise, from a business perspective.

As a consumer, though, I've switched to DDG.

[bobbydreamer]

I would 100% agree with this. In 2014 and before if I go to previous Page(> 1). I would see old articles. Nowadays it's the same articles repeating. During 2008-2010 there was a issue like, when you search, there would be always page in the top for all search results. That issue is there now in news section.

Bing is not upto mark but my office browser default is edge and Bing. Well somebody has to feed that MS machine learning search bot....

Quality of Google search been dropping...

[asmos7]

You mean you can't just fix the problem by writing better product requirements - "Google search results shall give me more relevant results."

[majewsky]

The problem is that "relevant" is a frustratingly vague word. Google probably even believes that this is their mission. But when you talk to marketers, "relevant" is almost always going to mean "most relevant ads".

It's like with "engaging", which sounds good on paper, but by now we all know that "engaging" just means "addicting".