I am glad you followed up on this, to see if you could do it again! That matches my experience.
I remember feeling like the big tech corps had turned "consumer" into a pejorative and started relentlessly abusing their customers circa 2016 or so... Especially microsoft, post Windows 8. Consumer devices don't need to work. That's for pro devices. Consumer devices just need to sell ads, soak up user time, and let businesses market their goods for consumption!
The majority of search results from late 2019 or so and onwards have only degraded. Even on other platforms, like YouTube -- you get 4-5 real results, and the rest are "suggested for you", even if you've logged out. Google and Youtube both feel like "consumer" search engines, where advertising and eyeball time trump usefulness and user authority (i.e. the user being able to ask for what they want, and get it).
I remember feeling like the big tech corps had turned "consumer" into a pejorative and started relentlessly abusing their customers circa 2016 or so... Especially microsoft, post Windows 8. Consumer devices don't need to work. That's for pro devices. Consumer devices just need to sell ads, soak up user time, and let businesses market their goods for consumption!
The majority of search results from late 2019 or so and onwards have only degraded. Even on other platforms, like YouTube -- you get 4-5 real results, and the rest are "suggested for you", even if you've logged out. Google and Youtube both feel like "consumer" search engines, where advertising and eyeball time trump usefulness and user authority (i.e. the user being able to ask for what they want, and get it).