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Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

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21–30 of 204 posts

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#21

After switching to DDG few years ago, I used google search again for the first time in a while was surprised How bad their search has become. Not because it’s not good, it’s still better than DDG at certain things, but because the results have been crowded out by so much junk. There were so many ads, snippets, did you also means, and AMP widgets that there was only room for about eight actual search results. How have…

I have been using startpage.com. I find it even better than ddg. It feels as google used to a few years ago.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? The government has managed to break up any monopoly since: Think of Standard oil or Bell corp.

Computers are magic though.

The government cannot afford paying someone who actually understands computers. That someone would already be in Silicon Valley, not wanting to work for the government. Funny how things work

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#23

After switching to DDG few years ago, I used google search again for the first time in a while was surprised How bad their search has become. Not because it’s not good, it’s still better than DDG at certain things, but because the results have been crowded out by so much junk. There were so many ads, snippets, did you also means, and AMP widgets that there was only room for about eight actual search results. How have…

Also "people also searched for" (which can be tricky to uBlock), which is about 80% of the reason I prefer DDG these days.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#24

After switching to DDG few years ago, I used google search again for the first time in a while was surprised How bad their search has become. Not because it’s not good, it’s still better than DDG at certain things, but because the results have been crowded out by so much junk. There were so many ads, snippets, did you also means, and AMP widgets that there was only room for about eight actual search results. How have…

I tried DDG in the past for privacy reasons but struggled due to poor results. Recently I switched to DDG because of poor results on Google. On certain controversial subjects, Google seems to how filtered out many results for political or advertiser pressure reasons. Even on non political results, the wrong sorts of sites seems to be pushed to the top.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#25
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google realizes their biggest loss leader is directing customers off of their website to other websites, so the best way to turn a profit is to either keep users on the site (snippets, calculators[0], amp) or to send them to other sites for a price via ads. 0: https://goo.gl/search/right+rectangular+pyramid+calc:+find+A

Except that people will stop using google if it can’t help them find useful information. Google’s leadership seems to not understand or not care about how the internet works

I think it's highly naive to suggest that Google's leadership is operating in complete ignorance of their own product. This is the company of analytics - whatever approach is being taken is probably backed by a gargantuan amount of data.

That doesn't mean it's good for the web, but "what (the most) users want" is Google's strong point. And this is par for the "the internet is now 4 websites" course, so I don't think it's possible to claim that this isn't "how the internet works" anymore.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#26
You know what I hate about google search possibly most of all? It doesn't list the actual URLs as hyperlinks. It lists part of them, and then has a google tracking URL as an actual link. Some times, I want to copy a URL without visiting it to use elsewhere. Sometimes, clicking it will cause the page to redirect, meaning I have to copy really quickly. I wish they would stop doing this.

For reference, you have to right-click and go to "copy link location"; then paste, and you will see.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#27
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google realizes their biggest loss leader is directing customers off of their website to other websites, so the best way to turn a profit is to either keep users on the site (snippets, calculators[0], amp) or to send them to other sites for a price via ads. 0: https://goo.gl/search/right+rectangular+pyramid+calc:+find+A

Except that people will stop using google if it can’t help them find useful information. Google’s leadership seems to not understand or not care about how the internet works

That might've been true in the past when the internet was still young and there wasn't as much data around to monopolize. Look at the history of the auto industry to see how the development of a new tech industry plays out long term. To be overly reductive, thousands of companies got distilled to GM + Ford (like Google + Facebook).

Data is the most valuable commodity today. The mountain of data and network effects Google has cultivated ensure they will remain on top for the foreseeable future. It's similar to the crazy expensive industrial supply chains that manufacturers in the past leaned on to maintain their market position. No other company (outside maybe Facebook/Amazon) has that kind of a data moat.

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#28
I hold the people developing this personally accountable for its negative impact on the web.

Each developer’s role is just small enough so they feel powerless or don’t recognize the larger impact of their work.

If you were paid to work on this, you are either wilfully ignorant or morally corrupt. Sure, this is only a small loss for the open web. But Google is a factory for small losses for the open web. I hope the pay is worth it!

Re: Google Creates 'Dedicated Placement' in Search Results for AMP Stories

#30

After switching to DDG few years ago, I used google search again for the first time in a while was surprised How bad their search has become. Not because it’s not good, it’s still better than DDG at certain things, but because the results have been crowded out by so much junk. There were so many ads, snippets, did you also means, and AMP widgets that there was only room for about eight actual search results. How have…

Same here but I wanted to add that search is at par 100% on the main search tab. Almost identical but less ads on DDG. Not sure about the images, they seem to just be different images. Google is better at news search. That's the only place I've noticed DDG not being as good at. But DDG is FAR superior as a user experience IMO because of the bangs https://duckduckgo.com/bang
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