A couple of weeks back, Google redesigned the search results for its desktop website. According to the firm, the new layout was meant to mimic the ordering of search results on the mobile version of the website.
Most significantly, the changes allowed the inclusion of favicons next to display results and the removal of color overlays. This meant that advertisements and traditional search results were displayed inline with little to distinguish between the two.
And now Google is backpedaling.
As a DDG user, this thing kind of passed me by, but upon checking Google, I have to say I agree that this feels so off. You’d think adding favicons to search results wouldn’t make a big difference, but it really does – and not for the better.
I normally use Bing.. I know, but it’s nice to see different results.
Google’s engine has been off for me in the UK for a couple of years now. Results always seemed to be dumb down and it was forever adding additional keywords it wanted and I ended up getting more frustrated than using Bing.
I did still go back to Google for some searches, however in the last few week I got the weird looking google page and my first reaction was … I’m infected, must be malware of some sort. If Google was trying to make their search engine less appealing they managed it. I haven’t wanted to even go back to it since. Why are they trying to force mobile stuff on to the desktop, didn’t they see how that worked out for Microsoft with Windows 8 and the metro stuff.
I think I’ll switch out my alt search engine with DDG, thanks for the prompt Thom.
One thing that bugs me about google search results (beyond the usual tracking & privacy stuff) is that they don’t respect literal queries. If I search for X Y Z they return results that contain X and Y yet omit Z. Even when I try again with quotes, google still refuses to apply the requested criteria and return pages that don’t fit the criteria…ugh! Maybe those pages can show up, but at least have them listed AFTER the results that are a full match! As a programmer who likes to instruct computers literally, I hate that google reinterprets my queries. Also, it sometimes feels like google promotes popular sites over ones that are a better match for the search criteria, Honestly I really wish that we could search the web with an SQL-like language…maybe that’s too advanced for the general public, but man does it suck to have to dumb down everything into english phrases in order to query search engines like google.
It has been suggested that one way to increase competition against the google monopoly would be to make it’s search index public.
http://www.osnews.com/story/130329/to-break-googles-monopoly-on-search-make-its-index-public/
Of course I don’t believe it would happen, but it certainly would help innovation and there’s a decent chance that I would put together a more structured search engine for it, which is something I’ve wanted for over a decade.
This 100%. So irritating. Stop second-guessing me, Google! I know how to spell and type, so search for what I ask for, nothing more, nothing less.
What I find even more surprising is that DDG exhibits the exact same behavior. This seems like low hanging fruit that DDG could improve on to show substantial improvement over Google’s algorithm despite being the underdog in terms of depth and extension of their search index. And yet, I’ve been reporting this behavior to DDG for years and they simply don’t care.
As for favicons, I’m surprised on the pushback over this. I always enable them when I use DDG.
100% agreed! I run into that issue on a daily basis. It can be borderline infuriating that Google insists on `interpreting` my intent rather than taking my searches at face value. I know what I want to search for, I know what key words or terms I want present in results, stop playing tug-of-war and just give me what I’m asking for! It’s a good thing Google doesn’t own any restaurants. You might order just a burger and wind up with fish & chips.
I switched to DDG… probably a decade ago? And haven’t really needed to look back since. They have some features that are just so much nicer than Google, and to top of it off, none of the crappy ads and tracking!
If Bing is working why switch? Just curious. I am really happy that there are good competition to Google these days.
As another DDG user this also passed me by. But I’m surprised the favicons in particular have turned out to be so controversial, as DDG has been putting favicons next to search results for as long as I can remember.
The problem is not the favicon. The problem is that they are in the same place and have the same layout as the “Ad” warning, making them visually similar to the “Ad” maker.