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Every Google result now looks like an ad

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Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#121

Post by nkingsy »

selimthegrim wrote: post #106
enterabdazer wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt the same about Google alternatives up until about 3 months ago. Google's results have been declining in quality for a decade, with much more rapid decline over the past year or three. Google's results are uglier and blatantly revenue based. They have now lapsed behind DuckDuckGo in usefulness for me. I fall back to Google a few times per week, with inconsistent results when I need a "second opinion." I'd sugge…

Er, who do you think Apple pays for search on iPhones?

Pretty sure google pays them for search

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#122

Post by threatofrain »

dehrmann wrote: post #31
Jerry2 wrote: post #15

With each AdWords display change, Google's been adding billions of dollars to their revenue by confusing and fooling their users and blurring the line between the content and ads. A visual guide: "A (mostly comprehensive history of Google's ad shading and labeling" https://i.imgur.com/0RxdzBE.png

For branded keywords, it's not just shady, it's racketeering. You wouldn't want your competitor to show up first when someone searches for your brand, would you? Then pay up. E.g. https://i.imgur.com/SfomkdQ.png ; the second result is a competitor's ad, the third result is the organic result.

If my Michelin alternative Yalp became influential and I allowed restaurants to bubble up to the top based on money, am I engaging in racketeering?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#123

Post by mkolodny »

itamarst wrote: post #2

Perhaps it's worth quoting Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in the original paper on the Google search engine: > "The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users. ...we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers. " ( http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html ) At th…

Then later in that section:

> we believe the issue of advertising causes enough mixed incentives that it is crucial to have a competitive search engine that is transparent

This change seems to go directly against their belief that it's crucial for search engines to be transparent. After the change, it's way less transparent, or "easy to perceive or detect", that an ad is an ad.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#124

Post by z1023aqwdq »

SquareWheel wrote: post #67
pmlnr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

read. more. tech. history. You have no idea how furious your comment made me.

They've built browsers, standards, protocols, libraries, and frameworks for the web. They've contributed more to the web than probably any company outside of CERN.

All of which are either garbage or data collecting nightmares. The web was fine before Google even existed. They built a better search engine that peaked around 2004 and then went downhill.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#125

Post by rolph »

titzer wrote: post #89
SquareWheel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've built browsers, standards, protocols, libraries, and frameworks for the web. They've contributed more to the web than probably any company outside of CERN.

Which is still dwarfed by everyone else 's contribution to the web.

espescially those who actually did build the web with human prosperity in mind

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#127

Post by hddherman »

SquareWheel wrote: post #88
ramraj07 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we're all poorer for it. They have taken a public service and molded into something that makes money for them and only for them. And all the while (maybe gradually) they've masqueraded as some benevolent philanthropy. The day "don't be evil" came off their motto is the day they conceded they are evil. At least as evil as any publicly trading company has to be.

Releasing hundreds of open-source tools and donating protocols to standards bodies is really not what I would consider evil. The web is a thousand times better now than it was ten years ago. And despite the frequent misinformation, "Don't be evil" has never once left their code of conduct.

The web is better in some technical aspects, certainly, but much worse regarding privacy, mass surveillance and data collection.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#128

Post by scott_paul »

SquareWheel wrote: post #70
cptskippy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet they felt the need to remove the "don't be evil" clause from their code of conduct.

Still there, as it always has been. https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/

And yet, they are observably evil.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#130

Post by jacurtis »

Zenst wrote: post #101

I'm almost at the stage that I almost instantly scroll to the bottom and read up the results as I'm finding most of my clicks at at best near the middle and more often finding it's the second page onwards.

Yes, I too have built a subconcious habit of flicking the scroll wheel on my mouse twice after clicking enter on my search phrase. I just want to get past the 4 ads, the pack of local listings that I don't need, and the carousel of Google Shopping results, so that I can see the organic search results.

Of course if you scroll down too far, Google jams another 2-4 ads at the bottom of the search results before you can click the link to the next page.

Finding organic search results on a google page is becoming similar to playing a game of "Where's Waldo" (Or "Where's Wally" for non-US friends). There's stuff jammed on the top, on the sides, on the bottom. Looking at the real results is like looking through two slats on a fence. It gets very frustrating.

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