Internet searches

[Flash Jack]

Is it just that I'm an old fart, or is it getting harder to find stuff on the net? I was searching yesterday for imperial bearings for a planer I'm restoring and it seemed more difficult to find bearings than it normally does. And then again today I was looking for small tins of paint. You know, the little tins that are just the basic colours, red, green, blue etc. Do you reckon I could find any? It's not just these examples, but I was wondering if there were any other old farts that were having similar problems.

 

[Mackka]

I remember the 100 ml tins of paint by British Paints, Glossmaster, Berger had the same but I haven’t seen any for a while, I suppose that is due to them both being owned by Dulux now. When I need a tiny amount of paint, I go to a model store that sell tiny pots 10ml i think and over 100 colours. My biggest issue these days is trying to get a manual on line for something only to find it’s 160 pages and I am so impatient I just give up. Good luck with your bearings search. Mackka

 

[Flash Jack]

I remember the 100 ml tins of paint by British Paints, Glossmaster, Berger had the same but I haven’t seen any for a while, I suppose that is due to them both being owned by Dulux now. When I need a tiny amount of paint, I go to a model store that sell tiny pots 10ml i think and over 100 colours. My biggest issue these days is trying to get a manual on line for something only to find it’s 160 pages and I am so impatient I just give up. Good luck with your bearings search. Mackka

You're not wrong Mackka. The manuals that some companies put out are nonsense. The first 30 pages are safety warnings! They have to assume everyone is a Wally so that they don't get sued. Too many d*ckheads and too many bloody solicitors!

 

[geof_junk]

When I want a small can I use​

Dulux Colour Sample Pot​

Dulux Colour Sample Pots are available to purchase online in 100ml sizes, allowing you to test your chosen colour on a variety of surfaces.

For sample pots in larger sizes, visit your local paint stockist.

 

[Flash Jack]

When I want a small can I use​

Dulux Colour Sample Pot​

Dulux Colour Sample Pots are available to purchase online in 100ml sizes, allowing you to test your chosen colour on a variety of surfaces.

For sample pots in larger sizes, visit your local paint stockist.

Yeah, but I don't need that many shades of white!

 

[sand surfer]

Is it just that I'm an old fart, or is it getting harder to find stuff on the net? I was searching yesterday for imperial bearings for a planer I'm restoring and it seemed more difficult to find bearings than it normally does. And then again today I was looking for small tins of paint. You know, the little tins that are just the basic colours, red, green, blue etc. Do you reckon I could find any? It's not just these examples, but I was wondering if there were any other old farts that were having similar problems.

PM sent flash jack

 

[Hilux]

I think search engines have definitely changed.

Searches in the 90's would lead to all sorts of interesting sources of information. These days the results seem to strongly lean toward commercial results.

I don't understand google ad-words or ranking stuff but in the early days if you searched certain words or phrases you seemed to find what you wanted easier.

Sometimes I jump onto a different search engine like

https://duckduckgo.com/

or

https://www.dogpile.com/

 

[Skiffed]

Is it just that I'm an old fart, or is it getting harder to find stuff on the net? I was searching yesterday for imperial bearings for a planer I'm restoring and it seemed more difficult to find bearings than it normally does. And then again today I was looking for small tins of paint. You know, the little tins that are just the basic colours, red, green, blue etc. Do you reckon I could find any? It's not just these examples, but I was wondering if there were any other old farts that were having similar problems.

Yes I have found that. Some entities pay extra to be at the top of a list. I find I have to scroll down perhaps 20 entries before I find what should have been on top of the list. Besides that I find that in general researching is now much more difficult.

 

[mbasko]

I've found you need to be very specific with your search wording now & also may need to try different wording/sentences etc.
It's definitely more weighted towards sites that pay to be on top of search results which unfortunately was always going to happen.
Don't get me started on how some browsers are trying to steer us towards their AI garbage. The amount of bad information coming through on AI (that a lot believe is gospel) is ridiculous. Recently an AI article for tourism come through on a feed calling a local town "the town of 1000 faces". Been here over 50 years & had never heard it & neither had any other locals who were giving the article "writer" a heap of grief over it. Don't trust what AI tells you either without looking into the information further.

 

[XLOOX]

Here is a big part of the answer -

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/google-search-is-losing-the-fight-with-seo-spam-study-says/
Basically Search Engines Optimise their results depending on what similar words other people seached for and which results they clicked on & amount of time spent on that site.

If someone searching for "paint" spends a lot of time on the Bunnings or Dulux website it should automatically shuffle higher in the search results. BUT if DodgyBrospaint.ch want to be 1st on the search list, even though they are new/useless, they can either pay Google big $$ to put them on top or they can pay spambots to roam the net and make fake search requests. The bots then click on the site that is paying them even if it is on page 1000 so that site keeps moving up the list the more it is clicked on.

So top search results these days are more & more who is paying & less & less the best technical match.

 

[Hilux]

Here is a big part of the answer -

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/google-search-is-losing-the-fight-with-seo-spam-study-says/
Basically Search Engines Optimise their results depending on what similar words other people seached for and which results they clicked on & amount of time spent on that site.

If someone searching for "paint" spends a lot of time on the Bunnings or Dulux website it should automatically shuffle higher in the search results. BUT if DodgyBrospaint.ch want to be 1st on the search list, even though they are new/useless, they can either pay Google big $$ to put them on top or they can pay spambots to roam the net and make fake search requests. The bots then click on the site that is paying them even if it is on page 1000 so that site keeps moving up the list the more it is clicked on.

So top search results these days are more & more who is paying & less & less the best technical match.

That's a great explanation. Totally makes sense as well.

 

[XLOOX]

That's a great explanation. Totally makes sense as well.

and it gets worse since Google will only allow a few paid top results and leave the rest as good matches else people start to get pissed off and use other search engines but the bots are very cheap and dont care about messing up the results so for searches for popular purchases the whole 1st results page can be bot crap.

 

[Flash Jack]

Here is a big part of the answer -

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/google-search-is-losing-the-fight-with-seo-spam-study-says/
Basically Search Engines Optimise their results depending on what similar words other people seached for and which results they clicked on & amount of time spent on that site.

If someone searching for "paint" spends a lot of time on the Bunnings or Dulux website it should automatically shuffle higher in the search results. BUT if DodgyBrospaint.ch want to be 1st on the search list, even though they are new/useless, they can either pay Google big $$ to put them on top or they can pay spambots to roam the net and make fake search requests. The bots then click on the site that is paying them even if it is on page 1000 so that site keeps moving up the list the more it is clicked on.

So top search results these days are more & more who is paying & less & less the best technical match.

Aah, so that's how it works.

 

[XLOOX]

And it now gets worse with Google "admitting" that its top search results are now often AI generated spam so it is even harder to tell them from real sites - both for people and for google search.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...se-pandoras-box-fight-ai-powered-search-spam/