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by heavensteeth 414 days ago
Recently I've had Google return results lacking search terms I've put in quotes (and then clicked "Show results for xxx instead" when it tries to 'correct' me). I have no idea how I'm supposed to make my desire any clearer.
3 comments
bityard 414 days ago
It has been a long time since double quotes worked reliably for me on Google.

It has also been a long time since Google showed me any search results that weren't 100% ad-laden blogspam with wordy vague (and often incorrect) content with clickbait titles. I have basically given up on Google altogether.

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autoexec 414 days ago
I stopped using Google at work when they forced javascript. Since then I realized that I haven't missed it at all and I've stopped using it entirely. It's become trash.
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Ma8ee 414 days ago
What do you use instead?
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john2095 409 days ago
An LLM (ChatGPT/"AI").

phone: * that circle in whatsapp * find a freebie chatgpt proxy in telegram

web * "copilot" in ms Edge browser * https://kagi.com/fastgpt * https://grok.com/ * https://claude.ai

I find the need for a "search engine" reduced very considerably with all these "answer this question (NOW!)" options so readily available. They're the modern day "I feel lucky" button.

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int_19h 413 days ago
+1 for Kagi. If you want a search engine that works with you rather than against you, this is it right now.
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eitland 413 days ago
Not GP but I have used Marginalia + DDG until 3 years ago and Kagi since then.
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eitland 413 days ago
This has been going on for over a decade for me now (I know because I blogged about it at the time).

For years I used DDG, not because it was better, but it wasn't worse and I wanted to support competition.

Then I started using Marginalia and shortly after I found Kagi.

Kagi works like Google used to do (and has a range of nice extra features) and in the very unusual situations were it doesn't work, when I posted it to the forums it was quickly acknowledged and dealt with.

Extremely refreshing to be on the customer side of a search engine the last three years instead of being some kind of livestock for Googles ad sales machine.

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caxon26 414 days ago
Googles a little better about matching exact terms if you go to search tools -> all results and change it to Verbatim
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prepend 414 days ago
Every single search. It’s funny to me that Google doesn’t let you default this setting and a sign they they are quite anti-user.

I wonder what employees of Google actually use. Is there a non-crappy version of Google that actually meets their needs and returns what they need?

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