14 DAY TRIAL // Google has quietly shut down some of its specialized search engines launched during the company's early days. These search engines, which enabled users to search for things related to Linux, Microsoft or the US government. Granted, the search verticals weren't seeing much use, but some people are still upset about the move.
After users noticed that these search engines are now gone, the links redirect to the regular Google search page, the company has confirmed that they are indeed no more.
The search engines that are no longer available are google.com/linux, google.com/microsoft, google.com/bsd, google.com/mac, google.com/about and google.com/unclesam.
"These services were established many years ago to offer search across a limited index of the web, which in the past was a better way to find this information. For example, google.com/linux was designed to help people find information from message boards and blogs about the Linux operating system," a Google representative said.
"Today, search quality has advanced tremendously, and based on our analysis we’ve found that in most cases you're better off looking for this kind of specialized information using the regular Google search box, for example by typing [linux Fedora upgrade]," the company added.
The specialized search engines were created quite some time ago when Google search offered little ways of customizing a search. The idea was to restrict the searches to sites known to be related to the respective topic, making it easier for the algorithm to retrieve the relevant links.
But the search algorithm has gotten a lot better than it was in the early days so there really is no need for the specialized search engines, in fact the results are probably better in the regular search engine most of the time.
However, Google didn't give anyone any warning, it just shut down the search engines leading to some confused and rightfully upset users. The company has apologized for failing to communicate the move in advance.