Google search failed to even find a hollywood movie, even after 1 hour of attempts. I don’t really care about the movie, but I am terrified by the prospect that google now ceased to function on this basic level. Why is this happening?

I understand the explanations of seo and other stuff like spam content. But why are there NO relevant results at all.

I wouldn’t mind having to start wading through results at page 2 or even 10 but now it utterly fails to find even the most basic things.

Things you found on the first attempt even just a year ago. Now they are effectively hidden.

To me functionally the entire internet has now vanished. I cannot access anything that I am searching for. Might as well not exist at all.

Has anybody found a way around this?

Is this on purpose? Is this an attack on the free internet, herding people to just the top 5 sites like facebook, youtube, tiktok, and so forth?

Are there search engines that still work?

  • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1214·
    11 months ago

    The last part of your comment sounds like an ad straight out of those overlong YT videos.

    • FlatFootFox@lemmy.world
      614·
      11 months ago

      Have Brands™ started astroturfing Lemmy yet?

      I’m not completely sold on Kagi yet. I’m still in the trial period right now. But paid services can be a tough sell online. I figured I’d be up front about the costs rather than wait for the inevitable “$10 a month for search!?” comment.

      • eric@lemmy.world
        231·
        11 months ago

        I haven’t seen any obvious astroturfing yet, but your last paragraph really did have the vibe of a smoothly transitioned paid promotion. Not saying it was, but even the comments that you haven’t fully bought into it made it feel even more like one of the more honest paid promotions.

      • bravemonkey@lemmy.ca
        2·
        11 months ago

        I signed up for Kagi after the trial. I’m very subscription adverse, but this one was something I don’t mind paying for.

    • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
      136·
      11 months ago

      It’s great that DDG doesn’t track a users searches. It really is.
      But at the end of the day, it’s still just another ad platform profiting off of companies trying to sell you things.
      And here you are complaining it seems like an ad, when someone’s explaining an alternative ad-free search.
      Just think about that for a moment.

        • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
          31·
          11 months ago

          DDG pays Bing to use their API. DDG makes money by placing ads in the results. They do it kind of circularly using Microsoft’s ad system, but they are separate.