Have you noticed Google results have changed?

[ChristineBaskets]

Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed that something has changed about the way Google searches work. I'm struggling to explain myself and can't exactly remember what the results were like before but it's definitely changed and I can't find things out as easily. There seem to be more news articles in the results rather than discussions and message boards (I have checked that I'm not on the 'news' tab but I do wonder if it's something else I've done!).

Has anyone else noticed a difference?

Tell me some of the terms you've been searching and I;ll tell you.

Well my most recent was 'donate body to science weight limit uk' (asking for a friend ) and I got a load of articles and websites but no answer.

Something's different but I don't know what!

Not Google, but YouTube! Who are owned by Google (?). Harder to find stuff and recommendations are old and shit!

Yes I've noticed that results are displayed differently.

This person on Twitter explains it a bit better than me.

I've noticed this as well. I find it really hard to scroll through and find what I want. But like you, I can't recall what it looked like before.

The format of listings changed too. Also results seemed more us based.

Yes i really dont like it!

I preferred the old way too!

The new display is so annoying! Takes far longer to scan the results.

Yes, I hate it too.

Same here

I tried restarting and deleting cookies etc but it's still the same. I'm slightly relieved that it's happening to others too, I didn't know how to explain it!

If you google a tv show or movie, google knows straight away and even tells you how you can view it. It feels more like it’s only funneling you to a product now. It feels more commercialized than ever. I’m sure it used to display a whole bunch of results in the olden times. Then more recently I’m sure the wiki page would come up plus the IMDb page but it’s just feeling overly ‘customer being delivered to product’ now.

When I am searching for something I always use more than one search engine. There often is a difference in results.

Think this is a combination of 2 things:

1. The way Google assesses relevance and authority

2. The rise in SEO and content marketing

Everyone and his dog now is creating content that address things an individual might ask. A few years ago, hardly anyone was doing this so you'd be more likely to get forums and communities come up in the SERPS.

Google is also continually trying to ensure that their search engine results are relevant in terms of the intent of the searcher. They do this by assessing lots of factors, including authority. The more quality backlinks a website has, the more authority it is seen to have. So now you're more likely to get new stories/blog posts/articles for a search than a forum or community.

Mine's not altered but I'm in Australia.

No help on the matter of google but when I looked into donating my body a few years ago, your BMI had to below 30.

Thanks FrogFairy, I've actually got an application form for donating to my nearest uni somewhere and I know there's a weight limit on it. DH was over the limit at the time but has lost a lot of weight and might be accepted now.

I'm glad others have noticed the change too. It's certainly not a change for the better because I can't find out the things I want to know now. Important things, like last night I was watching Alex Polizzi and wondering what kind of exercise she did to get such a toned bod and all I got were a load of irrelevant articles to wade through

Google is also continually trying to ensure that their search engine results are relevant in terms of the intent of the searcher

That's after they've prioritised the results that will make them the most money from ad-clicks.

Google is slowly dying on it's arse. The amount of crud on the internet is growing at a greater rate than the amount of decent content, and no amount of page ranking can hide that.

I wonder at what point some people would actually pay (and how much) for a decent search engine ?

I thought that image search had changed somehow and got lots of advertisements and product images rather than an image of the thing I was actually looking for if that makes sense, for example I might have been looking for images of flowers on a table and instead of flowers on a table I got tables for sale or flowers for sale.

I no longer use Google. Instead I use duck duck go. It's not perfect and is US biased but I don't get adverts following me around the internet based on my searches any more!

Here I have searched for "knitting still life" and at least the top 6 images were products that were for sale.

Yep me too .
Last 2 weeks google search is different and NOT in a good way .
Can't explain difference either but different Grrr

I googled a word yesterday can't remember it exactly as foreign. it started Areas........
"Did you mean Arsewipe"? No, I didn't.

Many, many years ago, there was a brilliant PC program called "Copernicus" that aggregated results from all the search engines. Yahoo, Magellan, Alta Vista .... sadly they quickly found a niche in enterprise networks, and that was that.

I reckon there is a fortune to be made if someone can sell a decent search engine to the more discerning surfer. No sponsored results. No b/vloggers. Nothing on Facebook or Twitter. Just solid data.

Being able to understand English (or any natural language) wouldn't hurt. Because Google doesn't.

IBM have a pretty amazing product in "Watson". Not sure why they haven't unleashed it on the web yet. It's one of the few things to have impressed me in the past 5 years.

I stopped using Google for this reason. I now use Ecosia (based on Microsoft's Bing search engine) which seems better. It also plants trees using the money it gets from searches. I occasionally have to resort to Google for very technical stuff, but for general use, Ecosia is more than fine.