ApocalypticaNow: Google apparently had to release a "verbatim" setting so that you can get decent search results. I tested it and it does seem to help lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-...

Google apparently had to release a "verbatim" setting so that you can get decent search results. I tested it and it does seem to help lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-...

How to Make Google Show You the Good Search Results Againlifehacker.com Off-target search results are getting more and more common, and we can only lay part of the blame on the results being cluttered with AI-generated junk and human-generated SEO-bait. I don’t have a fix...

Next up: Tesla begins selling a gas-powered basic sedan you can tow behind your Cybertruck in case the latter breaks down

...which you can use if you can manage to get out of your broken down tesla.

When you engage FSD, your Tesla then crashes into your backup sedan.

For the people pointing out verbatim search has existed since 2016: thank you for being so much smarter and better than the rest of us.

I think this didn't hit back then because search results didn't become noticeably, uniformly terrible until about 4 or so years ago

It’s been so noticeable that I’ve been using Duck Duck Go mostly, but while that SE’s regular search is good, it sucks for news/books/academic research. Thanks for sharing this.

Omg this. And why are all the news results on msn? I read the use Bing as the underlying platform—does that explain?

I have no idea and it’s absolutely maddening—you don’t get the New York Daily News, you get the New York Daily News ON MSN! It’s mind-boggling. Do they really use Bing that way? That could absolutely explain, in which case, I’m fucking pissed now lol

We've all been plenty distracted by numerous other things since 2016, too.

Yus

It shouldn't need to exist at all. 20 years ago you just "searched terms" and getting rid of that will never not be worth talking about .

Lmao there's literally no point in them mentioning that unless they're offering us their time machine to go back and start using it back then.

It was news to me. Thanks for helping out the duller amongst us😉

+1!

We'll, I didn't know. Thank you for pointing it out.

I installed the uBlacklist app and it works great. For Android and iOs

I got it to kill AI sites, but I also blocked Pinterest and my image searches have gotten 1000 times better.

Ooooooh

now this is good intel

It's a game changer. Image search is, for the first time in a decade, usable again.

i hate pinterest with the fire of a thousand suns

I hate that Pinterest is ranked 1000% higher than any original source in google or bing. If I am reverse image searching, say, an album cover, obviously I want the highest quality image or the oldest original source!

You had me at Pinterest.

Here's a good link, right on this site, explaining how to get and use it. Fantastic stuff. bsky.app/profile/hika...

Artists & Creatives, there's a browser plugin to remove AI sites from your search results. (Good for getting real references.) Get the plugin here: iorate.github.io/ublacklist/d... Then add the AI blocklists here: iorate.github.io/ublacklist/s... 🔁 Please Boost 🔁

Introduction | uBlacklistiorate.github.io uBlacklist is a Google Search filter for Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

📌

We’reNotWorthy.gif

just downloaded. hoping this helps

I picked it up, too, but it required a github account to download any lists, so it's useless to me.

I just tried this out on my phone, & found it to be tedious, & easily prone to the wrong move a thumb hiding the dropdown option that includes “Verbatim”. Google is making its basic functions now burdensome, not intuitive, & only for those who even know these sorts of buried options.

Yeah I'm not surprised Google isn't advertising this new feature—it's merely a kludge

It makes me wonder if the search engine part of the ecosystem does not make enough/as much money so they’d prefer to offload that burden to others. It fits into their passive-aggressive style.

Ads in search is very profitable for them, but I think it's more institutional inertia

Me: Searching for something very specific and unique. Google: Did you mean something very common? Here are 2,528,765 bad results. Me: "Something" "very" "specific" Google: Did you mean "someone" "very" "common?" Me: FUCK!!! +"SPECIFIC" +"SEARCH" +"TERM" Showing results for celebrities! FUCK!!!

I just always used quotation marks for my verbatim searches. Of course, I’m Gen X so it’s entirely possible I am outdated.

Even the quote marks don't seem to be as effective as they used to be

yah they started ignoring, to some degree, the quote marks

Probably didn't match any sponsored content.

Searched for the reference for a 4-sentence quote from a ~6 year old news article. This unique combination of words should have had only one reference, but Google didn’t find it.

I’m sure I’m not mad and you used to be able to do - and NOT to get rid of irrelevant results.

Yeah you did. I think there was other stuff like using * for a word you didn't know in the middle of a quote. Google is third rate now.

Yeah I’ve noticed that the minus sign before a search term you want to exclude has also not been working. Do you know if there’s a way to turn verbatim on in safari on your phone?

(Never mind, found it)

Our search for the truth has been censored, the men in black now use Ai to try alienate us from each other. Our children's dreams will be edited, but still we rise.

Ever since Joey used “air quotes.”

Yep, that no longer works. I hate spending all that time learning to use Boolean searches and now it works better if you use natural language. I now try DuckDuckGo first and only use Google if I can't get it there

Google doesn't give a fuck about those OR boolean searches. You'll get garbage and you'll like it!

I am 70 and have always been Gen X, however I cant speak for the other 95 percent. My children have always been educated to read between the lines and seek out the truth and speak out without fear. You will never be out dated.

Google used to be a search engine with some advertising Google is now an advertising engine with a steadily worsening search feature.

If only someone would invent a search tool for the internet that was simple, straightforward, accepted advanced controls such as the word “and” or “+” and wasn’t filled with pure inane garbage collected from content farms, ads, or… fucking LLMs. If only.

I've been using Duck Duck Go for a few months and it's fine, but nowhere near as good as Google in its heyday. I'm starting to think the internet itself is just a lot worse now.

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