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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?

#321

Post by Sami_Lehtinen »

blihp wrote: post #161
dessant wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes: minimize or stop using them. There are alternate search options. The web has very little lock-in (on the user side) compared to say desktop and mobile... make use of that. While there's a chance the EU might do something about the behavior, I think it's safe to say that here in the US the odds of anything pro-consumer happening anytime soon are effectively nil.

Mojeek is independent search engine: https://www.mojeek.com/

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#322

Post by maest »

derp_dee_derp wrote: post #282
maest wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's fair to say DDG (i.e. Bing) is clearly worse than Google, which is a real shame. However, it's still usable and you can resort to google when a search query isn't working.

It's not fair to say that at all. DDG has better results than Google for most has cases, and Bing has better results for just under half of use cases.

This might be a place where we have to agree to disagree.

I guess the stark quality difference I've experienced made me assume everyone had a similar experience.

I'm glad people find ddg useful, I want it to grow (I'm using it despite the fact that I personally find the results inferior)

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#323

Post by maest »

gspetr wrote: post #304
maest wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding technical queries, they consistently return links to the python 2 docs, never python 3. What I assume people do is they click on the python 2 docs then change the version on the python website. So, from bings perspective it looks like people want the python 2 links. It always frustrates me and makes looking stuff up longer than needed.

There is a very easy workflow remedy for this, if DDG is your default search engine: type "!py [topic]" For example, I tried searching for "python lists" in my address bar (DDG is my default) and I got all sorts of garbage. Next, I typed "!py lists" and the browser immediately opened this page for me: https://docs.python.org/3/search.html?q=lists So that works really nice if what you need is Python's native docs. But…

Nice tip, I'll try that next time, thanks!

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#324

Post by ric2b »

hodgesrm wrote: post #312
ConceptJunkie wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have monopoly power, the market can do little. Google has that power now.

You mean like the power of yahoo/altavista back in the day?

You mean like when the internet was small and being on top of yahoo/altavista search results was mostly irrelevant to your bottom line?

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#325

Post by viridian »

zrobotics wrote: post #254
izacus wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a counterpoint, consider that just because good people work there does not mean that the company isn't evil. This isn't a comic book or a Marvel movie. Companies are just that, companies. They're incentivized to make money. Google is as evil as BP, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Ford or Tesla. Instead of doing comic book analogies which don't apply to real world, perhaps start thinking in terms of incentives that dri…

I realize that perhaps calling a multinational corp 'evil' isn't the most nuanced. However, there is a sliding scale. I don't think it's unfair to say that BP and Oracle are more evil, in general, than Apple and Ford. Apple does some stuff I hate, and Ford really likes selling gas-guzzling F150s, but neither company tends to be overtly malicious in their decisions. Whereas Oracle actively chooses to continue with the…

I wouldn't call the F-150 a gas guzzler, in fact it has sort of the opposite reputation. It's a truck that's too small to be a proper work truck, and is a lifestyle vehicle. As someone from rural America, who did assistant carpentry for a few years as a teen, it's hard to see a quiet little f-150 as anything but a suburbanite larpmobile. If you want to talk about a Tundra or a Ram, those are different stories.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#326

Post by pmarreck »

gspetr wrote: post #304
maest wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding technical queries, they consistently return links to the python 2 docs, never python 3. What I assume people do is they click on the python 2 docs then change the version on the python website. So, from bings perspective it looks like people want the python 2 links. It always frustrates me and makes looking stuff up longer than needed.

There is a very easy workflow remedy for this, if DDG is your default search engine: type "!py [topic]" For example, I tried searching for "python lists" in my address bar (DDG is my default) and I got all sorts of garbage. Next, I typed "!py lists" and the browser immediately opened this page for me: https://docs.python.org/3/search.html?q=lists So that works really nice if what you need is Python's native docs. But…

TIL about the DDG Bang feature. Wow.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#327

Post by jvzr »

bauc wrote: post #54
solarkraft wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I switched to DuckDuckGo a while ago, took a little while to get used but as it's my default search engine I've got used to it. The funny thing for me is now google's search results look strange to me as I've not kept up with all their "tweaks/changes". I think best thing is switch default search to a new engine to get used to it, takes a little adjusting but worthwhile.

I switched to DDG what seems like years ago (at least two, maybe more). I cannot fathom how horrible the UI&UX of Google search results are now. Stuff and things everywhere, ads hidden here and there, images, lists inside search results.

I just want a plain list of websites, thank you. If I want images or videos or news, I'll click that handy tab you provided for me...

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#328

Post by f1refly »

fionnafire wrote: post #310
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.

I really don't understand why everyone is hating on amp, it helps me save data and load pages faster I also don't really understand what's wrong with data harvesting, if anyone wants to enlighten me, please do

I hate on amp because it locks pages into very heavy libraries that should really be kilobytes of html/css. It also nags me that google can do whatever they want with the content that way, completely taking control away from the publishing site.

> I also don't really understand what's wrong with data harvesting If you don't understand why people get pissed when they're forced to get every detail of their lifes put on permanent record by google without a choice to opt out, I can't help you with that. You should probably move to china, I recon you'll like it there.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#329

Post by ddingus »

zepearl wrote: post #258
ddingus wrote: post #211

Query: Good search tools in addition to ddg.gg I really hate no URL results. I search and obtain URLs all the time. Google is ruined for me.

Today I used a couple of times "Qwant" (no clue what it means and no clue why "lite"): https://lite.qwant.com They were always technical searches. In all cases the first result was perfect, but the highlighting of the searched keywords in the result never worked too well so far)

Thanks

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#330

Post by Grimm665 »

CivBase wrote: post #214
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.

DDG is a pretty easy switch once you learn how to use bang searches. DDG usually finds what I'm looking for, but in the rare occasion it doesn't I just add !g to the search and it takes me to google.

This gets even more powerful when you have DDG as the default browser search. I use !w in the address bar to jump to a wikipedia page when I know what I'm searching for will have one.

An even better one, something like "30GB at 20Mbit/s !wa" brings you to wolfram alpha and starts the calculation automatically.

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