Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website • Hacker News Board

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#141

Post by MrStonedOne » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

lern_too_spel wrote: post #113

mateus1 wrote: post #18

Google once was a force for good by indexing pages and rewarding good content with SEO. I deeply hate AMP. It's a monopolistic move to bully companies into handing over Google their content.

> It's a monopolistic move to bully companies into handing over Google their content. That's nonsensical. Google already has their content. If anything, AMP is a democratizing technology. If you want your articles in Apple News, you have to integrate with Apple. Same with Facebook Instant Articles. With AMP, you don't have to integrate directly with anybody. Just publish AMP pages from using standard HTTP, and every…

There is no way for a user to disable it on their phone.

It causes news stories and blog spam to pop up before product pages or other non-"article" style pages.

It basically shoe horns the internet into 1 type of page because if you don't have "article" style pages you don't have amp and don't have the higher ranking.

Your getting downmodded because you completely missed the point here. People don't merely hate AMP. They also (and sometimes more stongly) hate what google is doing with AMP and what that's doing to the internet.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#142

Post by kowdermeister » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

Am I missing something? The article is about AMP. It's fine to dislike it, but your blog content is not displayed via AMP if you do not enable so blocking the Googlebot is totally unreasonable to me.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#143

Post by oblib » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

I've been fairly well amazed with how far developers have embraced and kowtowed to Google since they first bought "Urchin" and started issuing requirements, guidelines, and standards, for them to "rate" your web page.

Going down that road was against the best ideals of how the internet should work and was essentially "giving the farm" to Google, but everyone around me jumped right in and even fought with one another to do it better.

I readily admit that crushed my momentum, but I just could not do it. I could not give all my user's data to Google or develop according to their standards and requirements.

"Gatekeepers" is accurate. I just cannot follow that route.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#144

Post by dentemple » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

rangeofmotion wrote: post #39

I really wonder about the people who work at Google. Surely they have people whose ideals are higher than this? It seems obvious that Google is a real threat to the freedom the internet originally made possible. But engineers still sign up in droves to work there? What kind of engineers are these? Do all of Google's employees simply disagree that Google is a threat? Do they not care? Are they just financially scared…

> I really wonder about the people who work at Google

Engineers $till $ign up at Google in drove$ for many valid reason$, not the lea$t of it i$ the quality of their practice$$$$$$$$$$$$

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#145

Post by hyperdimension » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:45 PM UTC

allknowingfrog wrote: post #22

rahuldottech wrote: post #7

> As fewer results of such not-for-profit websites show up in Google Search, competition will be reintroduced to the search market. I don't think it will. While I personally hate AMP, and disagree with many of Google's practices, this is not the solution. Google is everywhere . It is the default search engine on almost every browser, as well as on most devices. How often do you hear someone say "look it up" as oppose…

I'm not saying it proves anything, but Kleenex is synonymous with facial tissue and Velcro is synonymous with hook and loop fasteners. I "google" things on DuckDuckGo. :)

Just for your own edification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#146

Post by dentemple » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:45 PM UTC

ptconroy wrote: post #80

sverige wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be amazed how easy it is to rationalize such concerns away for $250k (or more) per year. The first sentence of the internal response of a Googler will be, "You don't understand."

. . . and the marketability and prestige of having Google on your resume.

ANY sort of relevant engineering experience is good enough to get a great job in this industry.

Going out of your way to work for a mega-corp like Google is unnecessary.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#147

Post by lightswitch05 » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:52 PM UTC

mateus1 wrote: post #18

Google once was a force for good by indexing pages and rewarding good content with SEO. I deeply hate AMP. It's a monopolistic move to bully companies into handing over Google their content.

I also hate AMP and its getting harder and harder to avoid. I created a hosts file that blocks as many AMP domains as I can find. Personally, I would rather not read an article then to visit an AMP site. If you are interested, here is the AMP hosts file: https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/lists/amp-hosts-ex...

The hosts file is easily added to something like PiHole, uBlock Origin, or Steven Black's hosts project. Many other tools also accept host formatted block lists.

I'll be the first to admit that the list is lacking, but I would love to accept pull requests if anyone else has an interest in contributing their list of known AMP domains

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#148

Post by MrStonedOne » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

kowdermeister wrote: post #142

Am I missing something? The article is about AMP. It's fine to dislike it, but your blog content is not displayed via AMP if you do not enable so blocking the Googlebot is totally unreasonable to me.

AMP pages get ranked above non-AMP pages, so if you don't support AMP you lose money from the lost ranking, but AMP is bullshit so its a shitty lose-lose google is doing.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#149

Post by dhimes » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

r3bl wrote: post #61

allknowingfrog wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it proves anything, but Kleenex is synonymous with facial tissue and Velcro is synonymous with hook and loop fasteners. I "google" things on DuckDuckGo. :)

Yeah, I've been using DDG for years, but I just can't get "Google it" out of my dictionary. I try to replace it with "Duck it", which feels stupid as fuck to say, but "Google it" doesn't feel any better.

Yeah- I feel that in this case the whimsical name "Duckduckgo" is a liability for them. It's just hard to turn it into a verb in an unambiguous way.

Re: Dear Google, I'm Blocking You from My Website

#150

Post by dhimes » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #93

rahuldottech wrote: post #7

> As fewer results of such not-for-profit websites show up in Google Search, competition will be reintroduced to the search market. I don't think it will. While I personally hate AMP, and disagree with many of Google's practices, this is not the solution. Google is everywhere . It is the default search engine on almost every browser, as well as on most devices. How often do you hear someone say "look it up" as oppose…

Outside of tech circles, no one is going to make an effort to even try other search engines People used to say this about Altavista and Dogpile and Lycos before Google. Change is possible, but it's slow and hard. Google is also the best at searches. I disagree with you on this one. It used to be the best tool for searching. Now it's hit-and-miss. I've found about 70% of the time DDG works, and I only use Google when…

They need to start with a niche, like entertainment. Be the best search engine for gaming or something. That'll get eyeballs, then branch out. Would take some serious marketing, guerilla and otherwise, though.