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How Google decided to Destroy its Search Monopoly

Article news.ycombinator.com

How Google decided to Destroy its Search Monopoly

This is a bit of a rant, yet it's one I think is rightly deserved.

Over the last several months, Google has exploded with:

* extreme delays in rendering search results

* popups of captcha + prove you're human, for simple searches

* extreme delays in doing anything after hitting enter on search

Instead of taking 100ms or less to return search results, it now takes 5+ seconds, 10+ seconds sometimes. Often with a captcha in between.

This 100% isn't me. I've noticed these changes, discussed with others, and it's happening to people across a wide swath of industry, and situations. Co-workers at home. Elderly parents. People at workplaces. The list goes on.

This is worst at night, and of course that's when I tend to work the most. It's so bad, that once I see that first captcha, I just switch to Bing. Yes, Bing. Kagi works, but from where I sit its results have been sliding and slipping, sadly. I don't know what they've been focusing on at Kagi recently, but it's not what it once was. Likely, reliance upon Google is part of the culprit here.

Because the other elephant in the room is that Google search results are 10x worse than even a year ago. Every search of course has to be force via web, or there's 5 scrollable pages of inane junk to sift through.

I guess my point in all of this, is that on top of all the junk that Google throws at you on their default search page? The useless nonsense?

Google is now the slowest, most error prone search engine out there. Workflow is terrible. And it's exceptionally wide-spread.

Some people, using tor or for some other reasons had constant captchas in the past. But this tended to be somewhat isolated. But now? Google's answer to AI bots hammering it? Its solution?

Is to basically make Google search so annoying for end users, that even Bing is better. It just baffles. It's like watching an empire crumble.

Frankly, it's pathetic. I have a strong feeling that core Google has zero idea what the real-world usage of its product is like. Or even really cares. Either that, or someone is relying upon the most ridiculous metrics, and we've all seen that before.

I keep wondering if the core Google search team, even some of those in retirement, won't just appear and create normal search. Because yes Google.

Humans do want normal search still.

Discussion 0 comments · 4 points · b112 · 2026-07-17
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