Is Google getting dumber?

[pscot]

It seems as though there has been a change in the quality of search results obtained from Google. Commercial sites are now completely dominant. Searches used to turn up a large number of smaller, more idiosyncratic sites that often provided really interesting stuff. Those days are pretty much over. Anyone else noticing this? Anyone using some new alternative search engine? I want my internet back.

[Name removed]

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[Buzz Clik]

2. Whatever, dude.

[Name removed]

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[Buzz Clik]

5. this is your concept of "irrefutable"? Not mine.

[Name removed]

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[Buzz Clik]

10. Are you under the impression that you're the first to post a link to this?

Check the date on the website.

As I said, been there done that. If this floats your boat, then go sailing.

[Name removed]

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[Buzz Clik]

19. Red hot steel, buried in the rubble.

During the Vietnam protests, the old gymnasium on our campus was torched by the local activists. Nothing fancy, just ten gallons of gasoline and a match. The fire was so intense that the steel beams supporting the roof failed and sagged nearly to the ground. The beams were still glowing several days later, and they were surrounded only by the shell of the burned out facility.

Pulling out red hot metal from deep within the rubble is not "irrefutable" evidence that 9/11 was "staged", whatever that means.

[bahrbearian]

14. Whatever Dude.

[Buzz Clik]

15. "Irrefutable" has a very specific meaning, and that webite is not it.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Buzz Clik]

3. Google is driven by commercial interests.

To find obscure sites, you have to dig deep.

[enlightenment]

6. You might try looking at this site --

http://searchengineshowdown.com/

It may help you figure out what would work better for you. I used to like inferencefind.com, but they've pulled it. :-(

[AndyA]

8. Google started changing the way it indexes sites about a year and a

half ago, perhaps two years. Sites that were smaller, mostly informational but had some ads on them to pay the bills got slapped down in favor of directory sites that provide links to other sites, but little helpful information, and professional spam sites that make tons of money stealing income from smaller sites.

It's a real sham, and people have programs on their computers that do dirty work and don't even realize it. It's put a lot of smaller, independently owned sites in real trouble, because these programs interrupt their revenue stream.

[boolean]

9. Absolutely

I've noticed over the last couple of years that my search results haven't really been as good as they used to be.

Try use.com:
http://use.com

It's not great, but looks like it might be a nice copy cat.

[Hugin]

11. I haven't noticed any lack on the part of Google...

But, I've really noticed a tremendous lag loading those obscure sites vs. the
huge commercial conglomo websites.

Did the laws giving preferential treatment to the big sites pass? The Internet is
sure acting like it did.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Yes, seems there's a lot more filtering

Back in the day, DU used to come up has a news source all the time. Now we rarely do. That's just one example.

I use their image search instead sometimes and can still find some obscure and interesting stuff that way.

[Name removed]

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[skids]

20. Here's why...

It's been going on for ages... I wrote this tongue in cheek little screed about it a year or so ago.

http://abrij.org/~bri/rants/deepweb.html