the collapse of google search as a useful source of accurate information is a boon to screenwriters everywhere. "why didn't they just google the house to see if it was haunted" they did and the top ten entries were identical automatically generated real estate ads on different seo-scumming websites

The villain uses clickbait and algorithm abuse to make misleading pages the top results. His greatest nemesis, the person who is willing to go to page 36

However it also heralds the return of the usefulness of trivia knowledge. Some of us needed that

People also ask: Why is house called house?

They searched the name of the house and its neighborhood on Google maps and then the first listing is actually a sponsored listing of a competitor, right where your finger is ready to tap

What is a haunted house? Why haunted houses matter. How to make your house haunted. 10 famous haunted houses. Best haunted house products (2024).

So are the other search engines still functional?

"I put it on my blog!" "Whats the address?" "www.hautedhouses.local.com" CUT TO A scroll of Google results page the mouse hovers over "Hauntedhouses.local.com" V/O "That's definitely a scam site..." cursor clicks on "www.neigbourhoodlegends.com" instead.

Not even looking through old Reddit posts could save them...

It's why "just Google it" is such a tone-deaf thing to say. Like, clearly the "just Google" crowd have zero clue how or why someone would turn to a human being instead of a glorified ad machine.

Searching for tech questions is 9 pages of SEO scum sites trying to get you to install malware.The Personal Blocklist extension on Firefox keeps me sane.