I agree. I tend not to use Google search. Except for Google scholar every so often. Although I’m told that most other search engines just put a different face on; underneath, they rely on Google.

I’m not sure how true that is, but either way… the problem with all search engines is their preference for returning sales websites or ‘journalism’ that is written solely to convert views into ad clicks. But the nature of search engines means the results are presented in such a way that hints at their veracity and authority.

For example searching ‘can people with XYZ (e.g. a medical condition) eat ABC?’ And the search will return loads of articles about XYZ and ABC, but it’s clear that the writers are not, usually, experts. Or they’re selling something related to XYZ or ABC.

You only see the problem if you know what you’re looking for. It’s dangerous. (I’m not having a dig at the writers, who are likely just trying to get by; it’s the system that’s flawed.)

Don’t get me started on Google’s decision not to crawl forums. Some forums contain some good stuff, but they rarely show up in Google anymore. Google prefers to pitch us it’s own services and affiliated social media. Same with the other big tech companies.

Searching for ‘forum + topic’ tends to return links to blogs that include lists of ‘top forums’, but the forums themselves don’t show up. And the popular forums on those lists tend not to be very good.

Ah, I didn’t! Well, I’m not talking about a specific lecture, really. I mean, for example, that I know of loads of academics whose talks are recorded and uploaded to YouTube. If you know the academic’s name, you might be able to search for it on a general search engine.

This may take you to e.g. university websites that publicise the original events and link to the recordings on YouTube. Or you might find the academic’s page on their own university’s website, with links to publications and conferences.

But when you search the same academic or topic on YouTube… they’re nowhere to be found.

I’d like to watch lectures in Spanish. If I explore a Spanish university website, I can find some links to public lectures. But when I search for the topic titles in Spanish… Nothing.

It’s frustrating.

Worse, perhaps: IRL the only person I’ve mentioned this to who understood what I was talking about was a professor of information retrieval or some such area. Nobody else seems to notice. Except you, of course, but citizens of the Lemmyverse are going to be more knowledgeable about this kind of thing than the average browser. Almost everyone I speak to just assumes that searche engines are thorough and rigorous and are shocked when I say they’re useless and biased.

Well, thanks for coming to my talk.