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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3266 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 11, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Am I going insane? Long time ago I watched some video on youtube about recreating coca cola. Now I can't find the same video although I did rewatched some that were in my history (not talking about the 3 well known recipes, you tube is full with them). What was mentioned (and showed briefly on screen) was that there was a whole forum/community dedicated to reverse engineering merchandise 7x and notes which of the formulations were closest. And it was not open cola.

What is interesting is that I can't find that community - not even a hint that it existed, or that such thing doesn't exit. google is just blank staring at me and sends me official coca cola siter, news sites or reddit. So I may have invented it in my imagination. On the other hand this is such a perfect nerdy hobby that I am fairly sure it should exist. And I have problems with Google lately - more and more I feel that they shape the internet, not just index it - I can't find quotes that I know exist - and I have found them couple of years before. I can't find the full text of jokes which punchlines I know by heart. There is a lot of stuff that is was there in the wild years of the internet that should be somewhere. And yet it is not. We are either losing knowledge at a great pace or the search engines are blackening parts of the internet.

I have direct links to several YT videos that I can no longer find via search, even by typing the exact title of the video. Many of them aren’t even political, like Yundi Li’s performance of Beethoven sonatas.

I think it’s mostly because search today doesn’t even bother to do a search, it just spits back to you whatever slop Google feels like feeding you.

It’s sorta like how the thermostat in the office isn’t connected to anything; it’s just there to give the employees some illusion of control.

EDIT: in case anyone wants to try, here’s the Yundi Li performance I’m talking about. Nothing I type in search will bring up that video in the results.

A few tips for making searching the internet more legible. The first is Yandex, the big Russian search engine. They've none of the political biases that Google bakes into their results, nor the ad revenue driven mission. Do keep in mind that some of the stuff Google blocks, and Yandex doesn't, are honest to god scammers and criminals, so always be cautious with results on Yandex.

Additionally, in situations like described above where you know the exact name of something in a Google search, after performing the initial search on Google, click on the Tools link on the top, then the down arrow besides All Results, then click Verbatim. While this isn't a perfect fix, it does seem to filter out some of the worst changes to Google search of the last decade.

The first is Yandex, the big Russian search engine. They've none of the political biases that Google bakes into their results

I am going to bet they have different political biases, with small if any overlap with Google biases.

Which, for the purposes of the modal resident of the West, means they're basically neutral.

Well, if you are interested in say situation in Ukraine or Russia then I would not assume that Yandex is without any bias.

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