Looking for an exact phrase (with "quotes") and limiting search to a specific site (maybe assisted by UI) is not difficult for the "avg internet users". It was possible to find just the most obscure and surprising information with a good search, and Google had the SEO spammers and content clowns beat for many years.

Now people use "site:reddit.com" to limit the results to a space that is moderated by humans and not completely commercialized.

The loss of Old Google might be worse for humanity than the burning of the Library of Alexandria.