Comment by FirmwareBurner
9 months ago
>Google search has become worthless for me.
Ditto. My most recent example, I asked Google what the thickness of the Pixel 8 is including the camera visor, which was something not listed in the spec sheet since the official dimensions sneakily only list the thinnest point on the phone, not the thickest.
And Google proudly and confidently gave me the answer at the top ... but it was the thickness without the visor, something I already knew since that's in the specs everywhere. I looked through the other results lower on the page and nada, no correct answer.
So I asked Bing and it gave me the exact answer I was looking for at the top measured by some Android review site. And man is that phone a tick boy in that spot. You can probably put your weed in there.
Sure, that's sample size=1 so probably not an accurate test, but still, to me it feels like Google sucks for anything but the easiest context searches where it works because it knows a lot of info about me like where I live and where I work so it can correctly deduct the context, but for other shit not related to me, it's like you're drowning in SEO junk.
> So I asked Bing and it gave me the exact answer I was looking for at the top. And man is that phone a tick boy in that spot. You can probably put your weed in there.
And the most annoying thing is, your phone will not. sit. flat. on a table, because the damn camera will always be unbalanced in height, which makes it an excellent attraction for feline companions. Tap on it and it wiggles. Tap harder, it wiggles more, and eventually the phone will fall to the floor, your feline will look at you with big round eyes and ask for f...ing treats.
I went today to a carrier showroom where they have the Pixel 8 on display to mess around with, and I though the reviewers were exaggerating, but that damn visor is nearly as thick as the phone itself. It almost doubles in height of the phone at that spot. The Pixel 7a next to it had a much much thinner visor despite sharing a similar design.
What the hell did Google put in that thing, lenses from the Hubble space telescope? It's not like they have a 100x zoom lens in that thing or a camera sensor so large it makes a Hasselblad wet itself. And that's before we get to the visible PCB screw heads poking through the OLED panel. On a phone that costs 600+ Euros.
I feel like Google is at least 5 years behind the competition when it comes to HW and industrial design. Or they just culturally as a company don't give a shit about HW, thinking their SW is gonna be the main selling point and the HW is treated like some last minute "who cares, just ship it, it's gonna sell anyway" afterthought.
It's still the only real option, all of the Chinese brands lock their bootloaders, and so does Samsung.
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The recent Pixels specifically don't rock, since the visor goes all the way across.
This is honestly a terrible example even if it is completely valid. You can't even get Google to find the most basic possible content about, say, oranges, without it being some SEO ad-infested fandom.com page about fruit, let alone product specifications.
>This is honestly a terrible example
I know, I'm not saying it was scientific, I was just sharing an anecdotal mainstream search query which I though was very relevant today for me and maybe others as well and also not super difficult for Google.
FWIW I just tried "thickness of the Pixel 8 including the camera visor", and got a snippet from Google:
> The actual dimensions of the Google Pixel 8 are apparently 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9mm, with the thickness rising to 12mm at the camera bar.
And nothing on Bing.
In Bing I get nothing in the results, although I do get the written Copilot answer on the side:
The Google Pixel 8, announced in October 2023, has the following dimensions:
Height: 150.5 mm (5.93 inches)
Width: 70.8 mm (2.79 inches)
Depth: 8.9 mm (0.35 inches)
However, if we include the thickness of the camera bump, the Pixel 8 measures approximately 12 mm3. The camera visor itself is notably thin compared to previous Pixel phones, but the overall thickness accounts for the camera bump and other components.
In summary, the Pixel 8 is a sleek device with a slim profile, and its camera visor adds a touch of functionality without significantly increasing its overall thickness.