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Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

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Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#211

Post by lostmsu »

halpert wrote: post #201
superasn wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and on the other hand sites like codegrepper and other such scraper/scam sites are frequently showing in my search results - which are just SO results. I don't know if they're gaming Google's search or google is actually condoning this (like they've been condoning pinterest's shenanigans for almost 10 years now)

I genuinely believe it's because the scraper sites have more Google ads on them compared to Wikipedia and Stack Overflow. The ad load on returned search results has reached astronomic proportions. I use uBlock on my laptop, but it's almost impossible to view search results on my phone.

Install Firefox, and use uBlock on your phone too.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#212

Post by luckman212 »

oezi wrote: post #146
superasn wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and on the other hand sites like codegrepper and other such scraper/scam sites are frequently showing in my search results - which are just SO results. I don't know if they're gaming Google's search or google is actually condoning this (like they've been condoning pinterest's shenanigans for almost 10 years now)

There is a ublock origin list which you can import to filter search results: https://github.com/quenhus/uBlock-Origin-dev-filter

This is awesome... for now. But what are we supposed to do when Manifest(o) V3 takes hold?

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#213

Post by account42 »

maeil wrote: post #184
superasn wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and on the other hand sites like codegrepper and other such scraper/scam sites are frequently showing in my search results - which are just SO results. I don't know if they're gaming Google's search or google is actually condoning this (like they've been condoning pinterest's shenanigans for almost 10 years now)

It has become very bad; searching for something like an error message, the first result is SO and results 2-9 will be SO scrapers. Unlike say, Pinterest, I don't see anything Google could gain from "condoning" these scraper sites. I feel it's 1. gradual ranking algorithm changes 2. succesful gaming.

> I don't see anything Google could gain from "condoning" these scraper sites

Do these scraper sites show Google ads?

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#214

Post by account42 »

otherotherchris wrote: post #155
mjmdavis wrote: post #114

I wonder how much this has to do with do not track and the search engines optimising towards people who don’t enable do not track / limit cookies.

Nothing to do with it. Since around 2018, Google is no longer searching for the keywords a user inputted into the search box, it's running them through an AI that rewrites them to maximize ad yield. Google's results for nearly every query are the pages that contain the most Adsense. That's how most results became "Best X in $CurrentYear" and top 10 listicles. Google is going to slowly lose the powerusers first, and t…

> Google is going to slowly lose the powerusers first, and then like what happened to Metacrawler, Dogpile and Altavista, the decline will be RAPID as they convert their families and friends.

For that there needs to be a competitor that is clearly better. Which one do you have in mind?

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#215

Post by account42 »

BridgetJones wrote: post #203

Legally, Google cannot demote sites for having registration gates, otherwise they would be sued.

Legally, Google can absolutely only show sites in search results based on what the user will see when visiting those sites.

Financially, it may not be worth risking lawsuits, even if they would win.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#216

Post by account42 »

mkl wrote: post #100
reboog711 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I change my mobile browser to use the same user agent?

Won't work if they care, as there are other verifications: IP addresses https://developers.google.com/search/apis/ipranges/googlebot... , domain name https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/...

And if Google cared then neither of those pages would be public. At some point SEO became something that Google condoned and actively supported instead of seeing it as people trying to game the system.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#217

Post by jjulius »

freediver wrote: post #123
richardsocher wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey. We will work on it together with the community this year. Private mode is even more private than DDG so we will likely have to do private ads just like them. But for the personalized experience we have a few ideas that I think are more creative and more aligned with users and privacy but not fully fleshed out yet. We're still a very small team but hoping to ship them this quarter.

Care to explain how is the private mode superior to DDG and what is a purpose of a non-private mode?

It's not. When OP first launched his search engine a few months ago, it was pointed out to him multiple times that DDG doesn't seem to communicate with third-parties, but You does even when in private mode. OP avoided that question - and a few others - then and, it appears he's still avoiding it now (he hasn't responded to you in 2 days).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29161545#29194124

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#218

Post by Mikho »

Interestingly, Google used to offer own extension "Personal Blocklist" to hide undesirable sites from displaying in search result. But it was removed, I guess not to mess with Google's manipulations with search results. Now the link to the extention in the Google's blog post about it leads to 404. [1]

1. https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension...

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#219

Post by throwaway98700k »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #85

If you're looking for an alternative, try Kagi. Much better search results than DDG/Bing, but it supports all the DDG !bangs. No Google-style knowledge graph/instant answers though, and while the beta is free, they plan to eventually start charging. https://kagi.com/signup?invite_code=morehumaneweb

I signed up to the beta but have heard nothing from them since regarding an invite. I’d pay for it now even in beta. Why won’t they take my money!?

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#220

Post by greggyb »

luckman212 wrote: post #212
oezi wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a ublock origin list which you can import to filter search results: https://github.com/quenhus/uBlock-Origin-dev-filter

This is awesome... for now. But what are we supposed to do when Manifest(o) V3 takes hold?

    # ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable
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