[iLoveOncall]

I've been using Google professionally for 10 years and 10 more before that as a hobbyist, and there has not been a degradation of the results.

Every single time I have had someone claim that, and they then shared their search methodology, it became extremely obvious that the problem is between the keyboard and the chair, not in the search engine.

[anenefan]

If one was a professional researcher and relied on the various search switches [1] for nearly every search conducted, one would have found unequivocally that google's search ability has seriously declined some number of years ago. Google's present search is an insult to what it once was. It's presently perhaps a good fit for grasping, or easy to find data.

Also, additionally even with a focused search back pre 2010-12, I being thorough, often found myself 700 to 800 entries in search result, selectively opening about 10 or more sites to investigate further for a broad all encompassing search. Present time I'm lucky to get three results that are not ads, and no second or third page of 10 results per page. Google is clearly playing the numbers game.

[1] https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

[mbrochh]

I don't think your argument holds.

When people experience search degradation (which I definitely do), they experience that while using the product EXACTLY like they did for years. Why else would they experience the degradation. It is most striking when something that used to work suddenly doesn't work any more.

[fooker]

"You're holding it wrong." - Steve Jobs