Let’s not forget bot/AI generated websites that just copy paste some irrelevant content template but fits your search terms, and then feeds you tons of ads when you thought you found answers to your questions.
I hadn’t even considered the quantity of ads on those sites… Any time I accidentally find one, it’s a long column of text that starts off with a bunch of filler roughly related to whatever I was searching for, maybe a couple of lines with an answer (right or wrong is a different matter), then breaks down into a bunch of self-contradicting nonsense. I just don’t see the ads because of uBlock Origin, so I never see how bad they are. AI generated sites are completely aggravating.
I also don’t see the ad with ad block, but when you see the not working weird space or failed embeded blocks, sometimes a same site reference link etc to other not related topics(highly likely to have finger printing) it’s like “okay, fuck, they got me again.”
Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s just so aggravating, but I try to find comfort in knowing that at least I wasted a small bit of their precious bandwidth!
“But muh capitalism breeds innovation”
My standard response is “capitalism breeds escalation, which can sometimes cause innovation, but always breaks down in absurdity.”
You need the last word to end in “-ation” to keep the rhyme going!
I pretty much only use google to search other web sites, like “thing im searching for” site:beehaw.org or whatever. It’s completely useless otherwise.
Truly. Most web search engines, including google, are mostly useless these days if you don’t already have a good idea where to look or it is a very common search.
You use to be able to click down a bunch of pages till what you were looking for turns up. But now after you go down a few pages it just starts repeating and it is all mostly big tech sites.
The thing that upsets me most about this article is that when I try other search engines, I still find myself needing to use Google to find certain things. Usually that’s information or questions and not products, but if it’s this bad for Google I can’t imagine it’s any easier on the others.
