Google search might have been good over a decade ago but today it's trash.
IME, its still consistently far and away better than the alternatives. Part of the difference in perception of quality may be that over time it has come to use more personal signals to zero in on relevant results, and the people that complain about how bad it is overlap considerably with those who actively seek to deny those signals to Google.
I am specifically disinterested in existing within an echo chamber.
When I search for a topic, I am looking for information that is most faithful to objective reality. A detailed explanation of the limits of our current understanding, or why my understanding / model is inadequate is orders of magnitude more valuable to me than something that will affirm that I am a smart, special person. Google used to be exceptionally capable of delivering those kinds of results, even if it took some work refining search terms. Over the preceding decade, their effectiveness in this regard has significantly diminished.
[I wouldn't know. I've been using DDG for so long now, I can't remember the last time I used Google search. Maybe I've forgotten how much better G is. Truth is, though, DDG does what I need of it. Rarely come away without the answer I want. So no temptation to use Google. At. All.]
There have been years since the last time I remember Google actually giving me better results than DDG (except when I only want product sellers, on this case there has been around an year).
Yes, maybe if I let Google see even more of my life, they would be able to get me better results. But they have access to much more than I'm comfortable with already, and the results aren't there.
Also Google broke a lot of search qualifiers for stupid reasons, like the '+' when they created Google+.
Now it's absolutely useless for the hard-to-find information that you most need a search engine for. That's not "objectively better" at all.
Is this the intention behind everything at Google - advertising/shopping/consumption? If so, congrats to Google I guess.
