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Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

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Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#81

Post by jsilence »

yyyk wrote: post #50

This is a purely anti-user move. No user gains anything by it, this actually helps phishing sites. Oh, and it happens to help Google's AMP effort, which can now pretend to be the original site even more effectively. Time to get everyone to use Duck Duck Go, and to get rid of those Google CAPTCHAs which are an even bigger data harvesting operation than search.

Would love to switch to DDG, but it consistently gives me search results that do not contain s search term at all, even when I wrap it in double quotes.

So they give me thousands of non relevant search results.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#82

Post by [deleted] »

jsilence wrote: post #81
yyyk wrote: post #50

This is a purely anti-user move. No user gains anything by it, this actually helps phishing sites. Oh, and it happens to help Google's AMP effort, which can now pretend to be the original site even more effectively. Time to get everyone to use Duck Duck Go, and to get rid of those Google CAPTCHAs which are an even bigger data harvesting operation than search.

Would love to switch to DDG, but it consistently gives me search results that do not contain s search term at all, even when I wrap it in double quotes. So they give me thousands of non relevant search results.

[deleted]

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#84

Post by dessant »

yyyk wrote: post #50

This is a purely anti-user move. No user gains anything by it, this actually helps phishing sites. Oh, and it happens to help Google's AMP effort, which can now pretend to be the original site even more effectively. Time to get everyone to use Duck Duck Go, and to get rid of those Google CAPTCHAs which are an even bigger data harvesting operation than search.

Do we have any recourse against this monopoly, other than voicing our concerns repeatedly while they ignore us?

Can we launch a class action lawsuit against Google if they harm people by limiting consumer choice, and force us to be tracked everywhere using reCAPTCHA v3 and various other methods?

Keep in mind that not sending your data to Google is not a real option, there are several government services, health care providers and utility companies using reCAPTCHA, you personal data either gets harvested by Google, or you're barred from accessing essential online services.

What can EU and US citizens do to initiate an investigation into Google's data harvesting practices?

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#85

Post by ddtaylor »

dessant wrote: post #84
yyyk wrote: post #50

This is a purely anti-user move. No user gains anything by it, this actually helps phishing sites. Oh, and it happens to help Google's AMP effort, which can now pretend to be the original site even more effectively. Time to get everyone to use Duck Duck Go, and to get rid of those Google CAPTCHAs which are an even bigger data harvesting operation than search.

Do we have any recourse against this monopoly, other than voicing our concerns repeatedly while they ignore us? Can we launch a class action lawsuit against Google if they harm people by limiting consumer choice, and force us to be tracked everywhere using reCAPTCHA v3 and various other methods? Keep in mind that not sending your data to Google is not a real option, there are several government services, health care…

What is wrong with just not using Google instead?

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#86

Post by hellcow »

DarkmSparks wrote: post #48
solarkraft wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not worth it. Just use DuckDuckGo or Searx.

startpage.com is pretty good to, been using that as my primary search engine for a while now.

Startpage was recently acquired by an ad company.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/di5rn3/startpage_i...

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#87

Post by yyyk »

SquareWheel wrote: post #79
yyyk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was sent to production. Obviously someone thinks about deploying this change. This is precisely the time for pushback - before Google does this - to tell Google their A/B result is a very big fail. Also, to get some people to try alternatives, because even if this isn't deployed, Google's anti-user direction seems clear enough.

>Obviously someone thinks about deploying this change. They could be testing this for any number of reasons. Maybe they're trying to learn something specific rather than change how the product works long-term. The linked post is from a month ago and there's been no evidence of this test being scaled up. Besides, it's still a misleading title.

"They could be testing this for any number of reasons."

Are they testing how to get maximum outrage from HN!? I kid.

I think the suspicious attitude is justified given Google's recent history; and it's better to make our opinion clear before Google does something stupid.

As for "a month ago", some other people in the thread also see this, so I guess Google is still "testing" it.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#88

Post by Finnucane »

daolf wrote: post #9

The title seems a bit misleading, Google do experiments like this all the time. Of course, should this change be permanent, we would have to be worried, but stating that it is already the case is not true. PS: here is one example: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/03/23/google-zero-se...

Even if it just a test, then they are doing it to gauge the result of the test. That result should be as negative as possible.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#89

Post by swebs »

jsilence wrote: post #81
yyyk wrote: post #50

This is a purely anti-user move. No user gains anything by it, this actually helps phishing sites. Oh, and it happens to help Google's AMP effort, which can now pretend to be the original site even more effectively. Time to get everyone to use Duck Duck Go, and to get rid of those Google CAPTCHAs which are an even bigger data harvesting operation than search.

Would love to switch to DDG, but it consistently gives me search results that do not contain s search term at all, even when I wrap it in double quotes. So they give me thousands of non relevant search results.

Duckduckgo uses Bing search in the back end, which is dogshit.

Alternatively, you can use Startpage, which uses Google results, but anonymized.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#90

Post by bharam »

austhrow743 wrote: post #68

Left gmail just over a year ago which was the biggest anchor holding me to Google. Appears this was what was needed to get me over to duckduckgo on search. Results have been fine for everything I've searched in the last hour.

What was your process for leaving Google? I'm on Android, have a GMail account and so on. If you want to leave where do you start?
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