Google's search results have become pretty much useless for anything but like... how to videos and song lyrics. I know there are better alternatives out there in the year of our lord 2022, but I've been using Google since before it was a verb. Any suggestions?

Also, how difficult is it to build an open source search engine? I imagine it's not something that a group of hexbear coders could manage, but if I'm wrong... we could really use a search engine with an explicitly leftwing bias.

  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It pains me to say this but googling any which topic and +reddit at least gets you actual results. It's why I hope the site doesn't shut off but gets reformed or something, it's genuienly the last bastion of the internet to gather around actual hobbyists for shit

    • TheCaconym [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      This is my go-to as well. It actually works, for a wide range of topics.

      Also, fuck you google. You don't know better than me - if I included a search term, I fucking want it in the results. None of that "these search terms are excluded from this result" shit should've ever been implemented. I'm tired of having to use quotes around each and every search term.

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Ah, it's a product, and I reckon most people don't google "fixing sram p7 instructions" but instead do "how do I fix an sram p7 gear hub"

        But since the tech doesn't bend that way, ya gotta exclude some shit. Whenever something gets more user friendly, it also gets a lot worse for anybody with half an idea of what they're doing

        • Madcat [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          that's my fault sorry. i google things like i'm asking someone a question lol

          • MerryChristmas [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I've actually started doing this one, too, because I get more results from actual people asking the same question. At some point, dumb guy googling became so common that it actually became more efficient.

        • TheCaconym [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          That makes sense. I wish they included an opt-out though.

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
      ·
      2 years ago

      reddit works as a filter because it covers a wide range of topics (though still not everything) and because the bulk of the posting is human-generated and not motivated by profit (there are bots and paid actors, but they're generally small and focused on a limited range of topics)

    • MerryChristmas [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'll be honest, this is what I've done up to this point, too.

    • neo [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You can use site:reddit.com as part of your search query to ensure the results only come from the domain reddit.com. You can take it a step further, like site:reddit.com/r/shitliberalssay to get an even more narrow result.

      edit: my bad i see this advice was already offered.