google can no longer tell the time

The search was simply for "time":


16:34 is correct.  But look at "People also ask" "What is the time over there in England now?".  It gives the time in several English places as Fri 5:30pm (btw today is Thursday), and promises "200 more rows".

It looks like the crawler just took this snapshot, on a Friday at 17:30.  The thing about the time, though, is that a snapshot of it is not useful.  If you are going to do it, do it properly.  Or -- don't.

The decline of Google's main service's quality may be related to its recent transformation into a vast bureaucracy, summarised by Scott Locklin recently in his article "Calling a bureaucrat by its name" [1].

[1] <https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2023/11/29/calling-a-bureaucrat-by-its-name/>

Most likely, the people responsible for the 5:30pms can't be located.  And to remove their output from the front page for search "time"?

It's fascinating to watch google's capture and demise.  It sprang up at the turn of the millennium, and it's less than a quarter of a century later.


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