[move-on-by]

I’m a happy Kagi user. I set it up on my wife’s phone… she was relieved when the trial was over and I set Google back up. I’m starting to think this line of thought is more accurate than just ‘Google sucks now’. It depends on your demographic. I think Google has become so optimized for people who click on ads that they have alienated people who do not.

I never click on ads. Back when I used Google, if I searched for something specific and saw both the ad and the search result I wanted- I just scrolled down to the search result. My wife would just click on the ad, and I think most people do. Beyond that specific example, she clicks on other types of ads as well. For me, I just see them as invasive and hostile. I’m not the type of user Google cares anything about, and maybe that’s why I perceive a drop in quality results.

[IgorPartola]

I think that’s precisely why you perceive it. I am actually curious if anyone has done a large scale rigorous study in perception of search quality among average users.