In recent years Google has used the word “helpful” to describe new features added to its search product, its voice assistant, its generative AI tool Bard, even its Pixel earbuds. A keyword-search for the word “helpful” in Google’s own corporate news blog brings up more than 1,200 results.
Depending on what you’re searching for, though, Google’s main search service has become less helpful. To hear one columnist describe it, Google search is now a “tragedy” that is “bloated and overmonetized.” The Financial Times notes that it’s “cluttered with adverts”—less encyclopedia, more Yellow Pages. One prominent ex-Googler blames the lowered quality of Google search on
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