[Chiron]

I'm not sure whether the question belongs rightfully here, but since Google has attained the power of a medium-sized nation I believe it might as well be regarded as political.

For a couple of years or so I've been experiencing the odd feeling that Google's efficiency as a search engine is dropping steadily and noticeably. And that the sense of humor it occasionally showed in the past has dried up entirely.

I admit my bias towards Google as the nosiest entity in the world after (or before) the NSA, however my question concerns exclusively the search engine itself, not the power that may lie behind it.

Is it just me?

[Jherrith]

I hadn't really noticed before you mentioned it, but you might be on to something as I do recall a few searches of mine returning the absolute weirdest rubbish

[parkdalegardener]

I think a part of it may be the fact that coders are subverting Google's web spiders.

Google's spiders have been around for a long time crawling the web. Once they were set free they were left to read meta, follow links, report all info back home. The original spiders still crawl and the code has not been updated on those particular bots. That leaves them ripe for the picking (subverting).
 In the old days we just had to put multiple instances of a word or term in a page's meta data to raise a site in Googles rankings. New bots are using different logarithms that Google doesn't want you to reverse engineer, but that doesn't mean they can't be subverted. 

[thelufias]

I'm late on this as always....But PKG and I agree on the fact that old technology is still out and about and in the Google World....and Google KNOWS IT.  But all in all....it's still the powerhouse of search engines.  Some have tried to emulate Google but to no avail.  I don't use Google Exclusively....I like Bing also.....

[parkdalegardener]

I use this quite a bit. http://www.dogpile.com/

[thelufias]

I use this quite a bit. http://www.dogpile.com/

Isn't that something infosearch came up with?  Once upon a time I tried it out and didn't like it at all.  But I went to your link and it's looking interesting.   I'll give it a try for a bit.  Thanks....

[thelufias]

Duh.....I see infosearch on the bottom of the page.  Strike question #1 LOLOLOL

[parkdalegardener]

Yeah; it's been the same for years. They just crawl other engines but at least the results are all in one place.

[Chiron]

For about a month I've been using https://duckduckgo.com/, and the main difference with Google I noticed so far is that they usually deliver much less rubbish and sometimes more pertinent info.
Besides, they - allegedly - don't keep any record of your search history, don't claim the right to stick their nose into your private business as a fee for their service, and don't inflict any ads upon you. My Ghostery never reported any sneaky trackers from their website.

Call me callous if you wish, but I'm still wondering who pays the bill...

[thelufias]

LOL.....Yup....when it's that free and clear of crude on the outside...it makes one wonder about what's ticking on the inside....

But I'll take a peek at it.

No matter how hard one tries...You'll NEVER be free and clear of the "Nosey" aspect of the web. 

It's no different the living next to the Jones and having them tell everyone what you brought, where you've been, and how many times you had pickled relish on your hotdogs.....

The key is to do what we do.  Run cleaners, Virus Scans, Malware programs and self checking of folders...