Google Search
Once best-in-class retrieval; now cluttered with SERP features, ads, and SEO sludge—users get the residual junk.
Junk Stage 4
The experience is broadly worse for users; the platform optimizes for extraction over quality.
Organic results are increasingly buried under ads, “helpful” panels that keep you on Google, and low-quality SEO content. The tool still works for navigational queries, but informational search often feels worse than a few years ago. Stage 4: the default is still used everywhere, but the experience for end users is broadly degraded in service of Google’s margins.
