@derickr @SinbadTheSailor @krishean Business goals have gone wrong with google. Everything they do now is about whatever increases engagement; search doesn't have to turn up 'real' results because people will use it anyway, maybe they'll click a few pages back and see a few more ads, and maybe the content-churner sites that come up first use google's ads. Search seems to run everything through the same sort of algorithm that has youtube turning up hard right channels, incels, etc, estimating how close your query was to something they'd rather show you (something "popular" that gets a lot of engagement) instead of what you asked for. It's the same north star that guided their layoffs, the meme-tier AI shitfest at that last press conference they had, the grotesque harmony of google news with right-flavored sensationalist clickbait, etc.

The short answer for anything google does now is that if it gets a click, keeps a user on a google product for longer, or gets an extra dollar, that's why