it's still ignoring your manually set browser language preferences and is instead using your IP to guess your location and use the primary language of that country, because google is shite
this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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Even when it uses the set browser language it sucks if you speak more than one language and don‘t want translations of either of them.
it works half the time?
If I google something in English I'm going to get results in English (plus localised ads of course). But if I have a linguistic question about English, no matter how advanced, I'm going to get surface level results in Polish.
Tbf whatever info they have on me imples they're very confused. I get ads about: "stay legally in Poland! :)" and "leave Poland and get a job in the Netherlands/Germany! :)" then "polish lessons!" and "English lessons!", I'm starting to think that in the eyes of the AI overlords I'm both polish and not polish at the same time.
You get ads?
"sponsored" results which I count as ads
The paradox of your existence is a threat to the AI. You’re in big trouble once it figures out how to go back in time and try to kill your mother.
Schroedinger's polecat
Seems like an ordinary experience with Google. They love assuming what users want instead of letting them have options.
Those assumptions and deliberately disregarding what the user wants and replacing it with something that makes Google more money makes it such an astoundingly bad experience. But Bing and DDG somehow still give way worse results ime.
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They learned this from Microsoft.
Open google.com/ncr once. It sets your preference to no-country-redirect.
I'm not going to lie to you, I'm never using google unless I'm forced to
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We’ve added this after hearing from some that there are times when they’d prefer to just see links to web pages in their search results
It's almost like they know their product is shit
They know, and they know it's deadly long term, but the money from pushing ads to users like they're making foie gras is just too good. That's what MBAs in charge gets you.
Yeah, I'm convinced they know. We know it, they know it, and I'm pretty sure at this point they know that we know it. So, like, what, we're all just gonna hold hands into the apocalypse? Sorry, I'm not trying to come off as being shitty at you. Like a lot of people I'm just very frustrated with the way things are in a wide selection of sections of society and I just can't help but think of Kitty Genovese in times like this
we’re all just gonna hold hands into the apocalypse
More likely departments or the entire company, if valuation drops too low, is sold to a private equity firm. Profits from the sale get showered over the shareholders. The private equity firm is going to drastically restructure Google and if that doesn't work give it a few more squeezes to get the profit out and sell the tech for parts. That's the standard play book.
That requires the valuation to drop. A ton of people just go with what they know and are only fuelling it, creatures of habit and convenience and whatnot.
That's true up to a certain level. Then a moment comes where the pain of using it becomes bigger than the convenience and there is an exodus. Some call that the trust thermocline . Or as some say how they went bankrupt as first gradually, then suddenly.
There's at least one public story from an ex-googler who worked on search having a big QoL feature update killed at the absolute last moment before it went live by someone in marketing/ads because it decreased click through rate for the "sponsored" results at the top of the search page.
Google Search had ONE JOB and that is to show web links.
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PS for those unaware:
If you use Firefox, you can add a custom Search engine with the Search URL string:
https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s
Then set that new custom Search engine as default.
Important addition: You'll have to set browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh to true in about:config to see the option to add search engines via URL. Otherwise you'll just see the option to remove them and a link to the add-ons page.
As an extra PS to anyone reading this, this is also possible on Chromium browsers, should you use that instead.
Edit: Just for those notorious for not reading the article ;)
The best way to fix Google is to not use it
It's unfortunately still far more useful than other search engines, in my experience anyway. I haven't yet tried the paid search engine someone pointed out to me recently, Kagi, I think.
But given the cost of Kagi's tiers based on number of searches, it would have to be MUCH more useful to me than Google to really make it feel worth it.
Kagi is good. I'm using the unlimited search tier. It's so nice not to have all the cruft in my searches.
The internet is going back to having to pay for useful services rather than getting it for free.
If this stops enshittenification, I support this.
Never thought I would see the day where Google crumbles, but they're actively sprinting towards it now.
Why tho? Why use google?
It doesn't. But it makes the results more bearable and less filled with trash.
Why do y'all hate AI so much? I'm using Google for search every day and it's still working well.