this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Honestly the biggest issue is all the garbage websites using SEO to try to be at the top of the results without having actual meaningful content.
It seems like whenever I search for a problem, a bunch of websites come up with pages dedicated to that exact issue, but all of fixes are generic and don't actually help. And that whole website will be filled with pages like that, pages that claim to have solutions for specific problems but lack any content of substance. Add in paywalls to access sites, that lawsuit to have google remove the "view image button" from image results, and websites like Pinterest that require an account before you can view anything. People were relying on content from websites like reddit to get actual real answers to searches, and now reddit is looking at getting itself removed from google search as well.
I don't think it's that Google is specifically getting worse, but rather that the internet is becoming an increasingly unhelpful place where everyone is competing to sell you answers and drive clicks.
Beyond that, sites impersonating real business FQDN's are becoming increasingly common in top search results.
These include sites including illicit clone sites through to malware-laden shit holes trying to trick users into downloading some virus intereste infested imposter.
Often enough, they're registered via GoDaddy and use CloudFlare to obfuscate their true origin.
Many of them prey on typo-swatting, not necessarily in the domain name but rather on SEO-indexed terms that will get them into the top results, for example microsoft.com might still be the top result for people searching up that particular company, but "micro soft" or "Microsift" among many others may lead to malicious sites in the top results.
I've identified a ton of these and frankly, neither GoDaddy, CloudFlare, or Google seem to give two fucks as the process for getting them scrubbed is laborious, slow, and often ineffective.