>Anything academic, search on specific websites or Google Scholar. Anything technical/coding, search on StackOverflow. Anything cultural/commercial you want a peer answer, instead of a salesman answer, search on Reddit

This is a completely miserable experience, and walls off useful information into classes of people who "are in the know" about where the most relevant information exists.

And if you're that grandma searching for a birthday present for your grandson? Good luck. She's likely to be devoured by ads, if not an outright scam.