I don't know, I was looking for "how to configure cors for specific vhost in nginx" and all I got was Apache SO links. Had to use -apache.

I get increasingly frustrated by the spammy SO mirroring spam sites getting into the top 3 results.

Oh yeah there's that too and now I also get them in other languages than English but they are just Google translate version of SO.

I recently noticed that a number of SO questions have even been turned into Youtube videos containing a slide-show of the answers, now :-(

I absolutely hate this. Scanning a video is so much more difficult than just scanning a written explanation. If these videos are being monetized, I think that's a problem. If they are, someone could just create a channel by converting SO questions into videos.

The question I have is what kind of keywords are people using on these videos that Google feel is more worthwhile than the actual text of a written version of the content? Or is the algo so heavily weighted to pick a youtube link?

Having worked a stint in social media for 4 years there was this huge guideline from Facebook to push publishers to churn out videos. I suppose Google ranking algorithm favors Youtube but i don't get Google's reasoning behind that. Engagement because of embedded ads ?

Use verbatim search too. All words must exist without aliasing.

(google aliases ubuntu and debian, john/jon/Johnathan for example)

Sometimes even this doesn't work. I used verbatim search and got back results which didn't contain the word I looked for.

I then just sadly wonder how the heck this could be possible and resignedly slowly shake my head.

I could wish for a feature where I double-double quote the word to empathically indicate that this word must exist in the result and not left out under any circumstances. But then again I am sure that the search quality will continue to decline and even double-double, triple-quote, quadruple-quote words &c won't help anymore. Sort of a quote inflation.

The + symbol used to mean this, then some lunatic woman from google explained to everyone it had been removed, but it was OK as quotes were the same.

She was either a highly incompetent buffoon, or a liar for PR purposes, as quotes are not the same.

Why the change? Because it caused issues with Google+ searches from their new fancy pants Facebook clone.

Soon after, due to protest, verbatim was introduced.

It was fine for at least 5 years, but someone keeps reducing its effectiveness.

Clowns. All I hear is clown music, when I Google search.

I mean, who rolls out a product so disjointed that the very search for its users is broken, then like a year later, rolls out a broken fix?!

Google, that's who. The product failure king.

>google aliases ubuntu and debian,

WHAT the FUCK. Is there a more convenient way to bypass this than "quoting" "every" "word?"

Yes verbatim search , under search tools after an initial search.

Google takes quotes as just stronger suggestions, fyi, but verbatim is supposed to prevent this.

click tools -> show all results -> verbatim

i just tried this for: 48 * 6

the results after choosing verbatim are even worse

Verbatim gives no aliasing, interpretation. 48 means 48, not forty eight.

This is correct. In this query, the '*' is being disregarded. Then, I assume, more people on the internet discuss 48 and 6 in the context of long division than in the context of multiplication.