My issue isn't so much with the ads being prioritized; it's with when the ad link goes. For example, I often search for something vague because I can't remember the name or the site. When I use Google, the first or second ad is almost always relevant to what I wanted or exactly what I wanted. However, clicking the ad takes me to some sales-pitch link on the site that I don't care to go to. Instead, I'm trying to get to the log in page or front page, or whatever. This forces me to scroll down to the search result of the same name, or just go back up to the omnibox and type the domain in (now that I know what it was).
Every Google result now looks like an ad
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Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#402First time in my life I've ever wanted to stop using google.
Anyone have an extension to CSS it back to the way it was?
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Side note - most browsers offer 'search shortcut' customization options, so you can start an address-bar search with !g or !b or whatever to seamlessly swap to your fallback(s). While you indeed can configure browsers to do this, I think you may be erroneously attributing a DDG feature to -- or duplicating a DDG feature in -- your browser, because those are built in DDG bang commands.
I know for a fact that Firefox can also implement bangs like Duckduckgo out of the box, although you have to manually set it up.
This was a feature in Opera from something like 2002. That browser was ahead of its time.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#404This is a horrible decision. I find it jarring and disorienting, like I made a mistake and am at some non-Google search engine or something.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#405I'm confused. I noticed this aesthetic change a couple of weeks ago and I wondered what was causing it. So now when I saw this post, I turned off adblock on the search results page to see where the ads are, and I still can't seem to see any ads. The sidebar is blank. The main page has results from "Places", "People also ask" and "images", interspersed with the normal results (which now look more like the old ads), bu…
The ads look nearly identical to the search results now except the icon is replaced with "Ad": https://imgur.com/a/DpYGib7
Thanks! I don't get very many and for the searches I tried the first "Ad" result was on the second page. Yeah, even then they are way too hard to spot.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
They display both because Google is selling ad space on searches like these, where people search the name of a site. If that site doesn't buy the ad, their competitor will. So sites are being forced to buy ads on their own trademark.
I understand why it's happening and I mentioned it in my comment. However, I just find it incredibly inappropriate that... 1. When I search an exact domain Google will take money from a competitor and show their "advertisement" first. I say that in quotations, because it looks like they're showing a search result, not an advertisement. At this point it feels like companies are paying for their search placement. Pay e…
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Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#407It’s only a matter of time until they intersperse these organic looking ads into the search results, instead of all at the top and the bottom.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#408https://www.google.com/about/honestresults/ It's a little confusing to read now, so for context: at the time Google published this, it only put ads in the sidebar to the right of search results. This post was written to criticize the practice of putting ads atop search results, which competitors sometimes formatted almost indistinguishably from organic search results.
The post was written to criticize "paid placement" search engines like Goto.com/Overture (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2002/03/04/how-overture-go... for details). I believe Google has put ads above search results for as long as AdWords has existed (since 2000).
No, at the very beginning, Google only had the ads in little yellow boxes over to the right. They were very distinct. Then they started putting ads above the search results, but they still had a yellow background. Then they got rid of the background, but the results were still fairly visually distinct from the ads, and there would only be one or two ads above the search results. Now they just put this tiny little box that says "Ad" next to the ad, and they're no longer easily visually separable from search results. Also, very often the first screenful of results is entirely ads. The overall experience has massively degraded.
The other thing I've noticed is that more and more of the top results are from garbage content farms. Filtering this kind of crap out was the original reason Google existed and everyone switched to them, but they're failing at it now. IMO Google is overripe to be replaced with something better.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#409Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#410Anyone here have a pro-Google stance? Because at this point I'm vehemently against the company and most of its products. There's no good replacement for Calendar or Docs/Sheets as of now, that I'm aware of. Microsoft's suite as mentioned by therealdrag0 is an obvious alternative, and perhaps less advertiser-oriented, but still not a great in-browser option IMO. Especially when considering the interoperability of the…
Pro-google stance: They provide tools millions enjoy for free. As for alternatives have you tried Microsoft's Suite?
If you think it's free, then you're not counting right. They're making off you by monetizing your eyeballs, steering you towards the highest bidder, and letting them cajole you into buying something you wouldn't otherwise, either now or down the line. It's a tax on your online experiences that you don't see because the money doesn't leave your wallet and go directly to Google. It's indirect. The bidders get their money from you, in the end.