I've been noticing a serious decline in the effectiveness of search functions across various platforms over the last couple of years. It's not just search engines but things like File Explorer, iMessage, Google Docs, and even the search tool in Windows taskbar. Even when I enter solid search terms, I'm often getting irrelevant results or sometimes none at all. Why is this happening? What changed in the way these searches work?
6 Answers
Windows search has always had its problems. The recent tweaks to Windows 10 made things even worse. There are third-party options out there that really can enhance your search experience if you’re not happy with what you're getting.
For me, using command line tools like 'find' and 'grep' on my WSL setup has saved me from the frustration of inadequate search tools on Windows. You might want to explore those if you often find yourself looking for specific files or data.
I think the issue is that search functions are leaning too much towards generating a broad range of results instead of focusing on the relevance or quality of what’s being displayed. Their philosophy seems to be that it’s better to show a wider array of results, even if the top ones aren’t what you’re actually looking for, just so nothing important is completely missing.
Honestly, Windows 11 has made huge improvements to its search features compared to 10, which was pretty much useless. If you're still on 10, you might want to consider upgrading for a better experience.
I was surprised when I searched for photos on my iPhone just by typing 'at home' and it found what I wanted, thanks to tags. But, man, searching in Mail is like a lottery – sometimes you hit, most times you don't!
It feels like all these search functions are just repurposing the same code from big search engines like Bing or Google. The focus has shifted to providing anything that keeps users engaged, rather than actually delivering what people are searching for.
Exactly! It seems that today's search functionalities are built for casual users, unfortunately leaving more advanced users high and dry. It feels like tech-savvy folks are no longer the target market and that affects how searches are designed.