Has anyone noticed the regular Bing search engine becoming less useful? - UPDATE

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Mon Mar 20, 2023, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm not talking about the "new Bing" - the AI-assisted Bing chatbot - but just regular Bing search.

I noticed it's repeating a lot of search results page after page. With the search I just tested, it offered the same web page, the same article, as a search result a dozen times on 14 pages. 12 out of the first 140 results were the same, so 11 duplicates. There were other duplicates as well, but that was the most obvious and numerous one.

I don't use Bing as much as Google, have always preferred Google. But I don't recall running into this problem before with Bing.


UPDATE

I just googled

Bing results duplicates

which I should have done before, and found discussion threads on various sites about getting dup!icate results on Bing, threads going back to 2016. Not very many threads on this subject, so it probably hasn't been a common problem. But it means my running into it isn't likely to be connected to Bing now running Bing AI as well as regular search, and that possibly causing some search errors or glitches.

Thanks for all your replies and advice!

[SheltieLover]

1. I've always detested Bing.

[DURHAM D]

2. Same here. nt

[SheltieLover]

3. Great minds...

It just always felt spammy to me.

[highplainsdem]

12. I've actually been wondering if Microsoft is making old Bing

less useful to encourage people to use new Bing. Or if possibly the new Bing's computing requirements are meaning the old Bing can't run as well. I would expect duplicate results in searches to always be considered an error.

[SheltieLover]

13. No idea

Have you ever seen the 60 Minutes segment entitled Brainhacking?

Included to emphasize my presumption that it's never a good thing...

[highplainsdem]

17. Yes, or at least parts of it, but it's good to see it again. Big Tech does

want people addicted to their products, which us why OpenAI released ChatGPT for free the way they did, and Instagram and others are rushing to add chatbots.

[House of Roberts]

4. I use Chrome for general use.

For streaming, I use Edge on this W10 computer, and on my W7 computer, I use Chrome for everything.

Never was interested in Bing. I think it was the default search on an old tablet my ex got me ten years ago, then the Bing screwed up and I started using Chrome on it, too.

[spockeye]

5. I use DuckDuckGo exclusively. n/t

[highplainsdem]

7. DuckDuckGo is based on Bing.

It does have other sources, but the main one us Bing.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19380174

Have you noticed duplicate results popping up if you look at more than one page of results?

[fierywoman]

6. Haven't used it in years, and even back then I barely used it.

[IbogaProject]

8. Bing has a few limited strengths

It has a great reverse image search. It has really good satellite images with more detail than google earth. I'm not sure about any other strengths as I use DuckDuckGo and Google for my searches.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. I use Start Page

Often I use Google. None other matter to me. Public computers are setup with Bing but I don't like it.

[dem4decades]

10. I like Google, especially when I'm going someplace. The maps are so useful.

[TheRealNorth]

14. Bing is annoying....

I search for Domino's Pizza and the first thing on top is an ad for Papa John's.

[highplainsdem]

23. LOL! Just tried that and the same thing happened.

Bing's advertising is one reason I would never trust their AI summaries of search results, at least if they had any connection to any products or services that might be advertised.

When Bing AI was finally fact-checked after the demo weeks ago, when it served up lots of errors that no one caught at first (unlike the Google Bard demo where the mistakes were caught immediately, causing Google/Alphabet stock to drop), they found completely bonkers, inaccurate comments from the chatbot on products being asked about.

[Tetrachloride]

15. it is my impression that all of the search engines are below par.

wikipedia results are the most reliable.

Google may be the best but still inconsistent.

[FSogol]

16. Bing has always been less useful. n/t

[ZonkerHarris]

18. its always been garbage

[highplainsdem]

19. With lots of duplicates, page after page?

[ZonkerHarris]

21. Using Bing is like searching in an alternate universe

[Shermann]

20. General search engines are all in decline

It has been noticeable with Google as well, and there are specific reasons why.

[highplainsdem]

22. Interesting video. Thanks!