this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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There's your problem- Google isn't a search engine company, it's an analytics company that uses searches to generate data to sell to advertisers. Think about this: what are the goals for a "good" search engine? Results that are:
Fast- get users to their results as soon as possible.
Accurate- get results that users want to see, and minimize what they don't.
Immediately, it becomes apparent that the goals of a "good" search engine are literally the exact opposite of the goals of a "good" advertiser:
The faster users leave a search page, the less time they spend looking at ads which advertisers are paying to show.
Users want to see what they are searching for, which is probably not what's being advertised.
Advertisers want to maximize the amount of time you spend looking at their ads- in other words, advertisers want you to look at content they want you to see for as long as possible.
Given that, is it likely that Google will ever "improve"?
I'll have to look into this and strongly consider it.