• Joe Cool@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    While I don’t miss checking the index of my wall of Microsoft books (the light gray binders with the squishy plastic). At least those were (mostly1) correct and ad free.

    Then the future began and you got MSDN subscription on CD with sample code. Woohoo.

    1. they included a somewhat 20 pages of erratas that you sooner or later managed to memorize or punch and put in the correct place.
  • Gondolaaaa@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    I use DDG at home, or Bing at work, for most topics they auto generate cards that give you the answer from the get go like 70% of the time

  • RandysGut@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I searched for Magic The Gathering cards earlier on my phone (FireFox mobile), and got YouTube shorts in the results. This was in addition to a large amount of useless info panels and junk in the search results. I just wanted the official links or even an Amazon URL to the upcoming precons, not slowly regurgitated info!

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    It pisses me off that Java’s class library documentation is at a totally different URL for every version. You can’t just change 11 to 21 in the URL.

  • Pamasich@kbin.social
    0·
    2 months ago

    That’s why I use Copilot.

    Asked it for the official documentation, got a link to the /current/ documentation’s chapter on operators. Then asked for the heading about the IN operator and it gave me all four of the numbers. No need to wade through outdated or irrelevant results.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      2 months ago

      But they’re so innovative! They absolutely aren’t deserving of a massive antitrust lawsuit… /s

        • small_crow@lemmy.ca
          0·
          2 months ago

          Anti-trust is not about seeking perfection, it’s a defense against abuses of power. That’s a good thing unless you like to be abused by the powerful, in which case lick some more boots.

        • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          Eh I mean alphabet and Google do have legitimate reasons for antitrust lawsuits, but that’s independent of how shit Google search has become.

          Anyway, for those who are fed up with the terrible results, use Ecosia. I’ve basically never needed to use anything else and the advertising money goes towards planting trees responsibly to rebuild ecosystems.

  • apotheotic(she/they)@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I don’t mean to sour the funny, because it is funny/sad indeed, but

    If you know you want the info from the official docs, why not do a search that forces results from that site, or search just for the official docs and then find the page you’re after on the docs themselves?

    • amio@kbin.social
      0·
      2 months ago

      To be fair, back in the day you could get better results by relying on Google with site:foobar and the Boolean/“power user” stuff. A lot of built-in search boxes on sites were a bit dodgy, or at least less flexible than AND/OR/NOT and other “power user tricks”.

      Of course, these days those seem to be ignored wholesale and even “verbatim quotes” are an utter crapshoot, this was back when Google didn’t fucking blow.

      • apotheotic(she/they)@beehaw.orgEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        Nowadays I’m pretty sure stuff like site: foobar still works no? Idk I use ddg so I can’t say with certainty but I feel like “basic” power user stuff should still work right?

  • Vilian@lemmy.ca
    0·
    2 months ago

    read the official docs, and don’t use google anymore, seriously, any technical question duckduckgo/ecosia can answer better because they use bing search engine

  • johny_joe_1975@discuss.onlineEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    So many SEO trick to put yourselves into top google search for traffic.

    I have google for bug and stuff, and most common bug can be found on shitty content Java tip page with broken format, lot of ads, and sometime untrue/outdate information.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
        0·
        2 months ago

        I forgot how this worked until I discovered NeoCities. I suddenly remenbered when so many personal websites would have some page that’s like “links” or “sites I love” or “other cool people”, etc. And it was just a curated list of sites the author thought were neat.

        And your bookmark function was actually really helpful, because “web surfing” was literally jumping from link to link to link, following rabbitholes and breadcrumb trails across the web.

        Nowadays, I bookmark things but I never go back through them. I know Firefox sometimes automatically helps you remember stuff in your bookmarks though.

        But there was a time when it felt like finding some niche site was a sort of secret club or cool treasure, and you had to make sure you could find your way back. :)

        • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
          0·
          2 months ago

          When you didn’t make the bookmark, you were basically trying to backtrack which links you followed and what sites you visited to get back to that one website.

            • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
              0·
              2 months ago

              I still have those on one of the forums I occasionally still visit, but it might disappear soon after nearly 2 and a half decades.