Is Google Getting Worse?

Marissa Mayer, who used to work for Google, was featured on a recent Freakonomics podcast centering around the question, "Is Google Getting Worse?" On the show, she stated that Google Search serves as a reflection of the online world, and that it does not produce the inordinate amounts of poor quality search results. Furthermore, Mayer voiced a related perspective, claiming that a lot of the time users do not click on results due to poor quality content on the net. The show went on to talk about featured snippets,which some in the search marketing industry refer to as zero-click search results. Mayer stated that it is likely that Google has grown more reticent about sending users out of their service and onto external websites. She attributed this to their desire to keep users on their page due to the fact that the web often offers poor experiences. Furthermore, she indicated that the recent growth in the number of inline results is likely being driven by worries over the potential for bad user experiences. Marissa Mayer's views are highly valued due to her influential role in developing and establishing Google's services, such as Search, AdWords and Gmail. Mayer voiced the idea that Google may have reservations about certain unfavourable instances appearing on the web; could this be a slight factor regarding the affiliated featured snippets that Google produces? Although it is difficult to accept that this is a cause for featured snippets, it is worth noting what Mayer believes could be going on inside the walls of Google.

(source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ex-googler-on-featured-snippets/472644/)