topic Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY? in Electronics

HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Spurt — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 14:24:03 GMT

Lately when I search for an answer to a question using Google I am not finding any answers, the Google search results are terrible. However, when I bring my question up on Bing I get my answer. Anyone else notice this? Just curious.....Looks like I will be switching to BING as my search engine of choice....its not the greatest but appears better than Google...several articles in tech blogs written about this....one as late as July 2019..

My Chrome Browser is the latest version and all my Windows computer hardware/software is up to date, all caches routinely cleared....

Some tech guy said it seems Google is now catering more towards businesses so we are no longer receiving relevant results in Google's search engine.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

dex — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:46:44 GMT

@Spurt @Now that you mention it I have noticed that my searches haven’t been as good as they once were.I used to find just what I was looking for...maybe they want to start charging us.I noticed that a lot of sites want you to download their app.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

ValuSkr — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:47:13 GMT

I haven't noticed that. To me, Google's search results are far more relevant than Bing's. And it's not even close!

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Swedishmiss — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 14:13:59 GMT

Thank you, Spurt! I have felt the same way about Google lately...I just did a few searches using Bing with better results 😃

Looks like I will be switching to Bing as well!

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Imaoldhippie — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 14:21:52 GMT

So far google search is the same for me.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

proudlyfromNJ — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 16:44:52 GMT

I’ve noticed that I will get about four answers to my question and everything after that is totally unrelated to what I asked for. I have been using Bing also.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

NickNack — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 16:55:01 GMT

I haven't noticed any difference. I haven't tried Bing in a long time.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

hckynut — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:20:18 GMT

@Spurt

Nope

hckynut

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

dooBdoo — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:23:32 GMT

Google (and all search engines) makes changes all the time, some obvious, some barely noticeable and some imperceptible. I saw a slight change in recent months and there have been articles online about this. Here's one example from June:

"Google Just Announced a Major Change To Your Search Results"

inc.com/jason-aten/google-just-announced-a-major-change-to-your-search-results.html

I like to use different search engines, and find that those with less tracking like DuckDuckGo, StartPage, Qwant, etc., are good alternatives. Here's an article about these:

"10 Privacy Oriented Alternative Search Engines To Google in 2019"

itsfoss.com/privacy-search-engines/

(please copy and paste the URL links or search for the article titles)

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

NickNack — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 21:55:38 GMT

Those were interesting articles @dooBdoo . Thank you for posting. The Google change sounds good to me. I'll have to start noticing that. It was sometimes irritating when the first three or four results were all to the same website. I hope I understood it correctly that they're changing that, or have changed it.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Allegheny — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:05:37 GMT

I've noticed this for quite some time. Google just doesn't "zero" in on what I am specifically looking for as it once did. I haven't changed, but perhaps Google has. I have to admit however there is so much more data available then when I first started using Google.

Google has become such a habit, but I am now realizing I need to explore using other search engines.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Toppers3 — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 02:30:21 GMT

Thanks for posting these and for sharing these with us, dooBdoo.

I have definitely noticed a change with Google when using it for searches.

One other thing that I'll mention here that maybe some of you have noticed with your Gmail if you use it, is that you can't easily sign out of it.

If you figure it out, let me know.

For the life of me now, I don't know what happened to that sign-out option.

I use a Chromebook, so it's not like I can switch to Firefox, or another browser choice.

My husband noticed it as well, and the change probably came with a recent Chrome browser update.

Anyway, I also use Duckduck go for searching. (Deliberate space included).

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

dooBdoo — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 03:23:13 GMT

@NickNack and @Toppers3, You're welcome!😊

@Toppers3, My main email account is Gmail, which I access from my Mac and mobile devices.

On the Mac, I log out this way each night so it might work for you on your Chromebook (great description and image courtesy of "How-To Geek"):

"How to Sign Out Of Gmail

In Gmail, click your profile picture at the top right of the page. In the dropdown box that opens, just click the “Sign Out” option...

...Note that if you use multiple accounts, that dropdown will show a list of your accounts. Click the one you want to sign out from, and then use the “Sign Out” option."

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

LTT1 — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:35:37 GMT

@Spurt @dooBdoo @Toppers3 @Allegheny @NickNack

Google is now very "booby-trapped!"

If I do an online search for let's say "shoes" I can get a price for my size on the first try. My further searches result in the retailer not having my size.

So I have started using incognito tabs or duck duck go for searches.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

CelticCrafter — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:53:16 GMT

I've been using Google for a long time and haven't noticed any change.

Now if you ask my husband, he feels Google is worthless - he hates it and prefers to use Bing. Personally I think he is doing something wrong when it comes to Google because it's every single time he wants to search something that he has a problem with it.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Allegheny — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:55:31 GMT

@LTT1

Yep. Absolutely. I'll be searching for something specific and will get referred to a variety of sites. Low and behold when you go there to price compare they don't even offer what you originally searched for.

I also find it annoying when doing reference searches. It used to be so simple to land on one or two sites that provided factual, concise data.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Nataliesgramma — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 19:42:25 GMT

Yes!

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

apple1964 — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:29:09 GMT

I have not seen any changes in Google but, I got a new Samsung phone the A70 and now I have a so called "Google assistance" which is terrible. So I had to change back to the Google search and that was a chore and a half.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

gardenman — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 13:51:30 GMT

I use Bing because I can earn Microsoft points and every month or two I get enough points for a $5 Amazon gift card. I tend to get the results I want with Bing and they more or less pay me to use it, so I use it.

Re: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ABOUT GOOGLE LATELY?

Toppers3 — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 23:27:11 GMT

@dooBdoo wrote:

@NickNack and @Toppers3, You're welcome!😊
@Toppers3, My main email account is Gmail, which I access from my Mac and mobile devices.
On the Mac, I log out this way each night so it might work for you on your Chromebook (great description and image courtesy of "How-To Geek"):

"How to Sign Out Of Gmail
In Gmail, click your profile picture at the top right of the page. In the dropdown box that opens, just click the “Sign Out” option...
...Note that if you use multiple accounts, that dropdown will show a list of your accounts. Click the one you want to sign out from, and then use the “Sign Out” option."

This option is missing now for us, @dooBdoo, as to what you're kindly showing above here.

We don't have the sign-out buttons.

I don't know "what" happened to change things...

I'm thinking that it was probably one of the recent Chrome updates for our Chromebooks, since we both have Chromebooks but they're different makes and models. I use and HP Chromebook and my husband is using an ACER Chromebook but we both have the exact same issue.

One thing that I did figure out is that when there are OS updates for the Chromebook, they're different than the OS updates for the Chrome browser that you have with your Mac or Windows PC, for example.

The Chrome browsers that are independent from the Chromebook are a little bit different.

It would be much easier if things were the same when it comes to technology, wouldn't it?!