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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

#451

Post by grogenaut »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #432
grogenaut wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can pretty much only use Google in verbatim mode now

My latest annoyance, nevermind them showing pages that don't have "quoted" keywords. They rewrite the search query in the textbox and remove the quotes. Just when you thought it couldn't get more annoying.

Oh yeah that kills me I often have one word that is the important one and instead they show me the low-value responses that do not contain that one differentiating word that is the reason I'm doing a search in the first place

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#452

Post by gpanders »

kenhwang wrote: post #291
LeftHandPath wrote: post #260

I've been using duckduckgo and bing for a while now. Google is just a fallback.

I switch to DDG precisely because I stopped being able to quickly distinguish ads from results in Google. Even the "results" felt like ads. Now when I have to fallback onto Google, the results just feel so spammy compared to DDG. edit: For example, I just needed to look up the current version of Scala. DDG correctly has scala-lang.org as the top result. Google has a snippet from sourabhbajaj.com (incorrectly) stating…

This thread is so enlightening. I too switched to DDG a while ago and occasionally I have to use Google for a search and your description is exactly how I felt: the Google results felt “spammy”.

I had assumed I had simply adjusted to DDG and just forgot what Google had always looked like, but this post confirms that the Google results have in fact changed.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#453

Post by ChuckMcM »

Very much a way to mitigate the FTC's requirements on making advertising more distinct than organic results.

It is an unpopular opinion but I believe Google is dying. They have been for a long time. The cancer is that nothing other than search ads generates the revenue and margins they need and the margins on search ads are now down 90% from where they were in 2010.

Personally I'm long on Microsoft/Bing as a candidate for the surviving English language web index. My prediction (which isn't shared by many so don't be surprised if you disagree :-)) is that once Google's dying becomes mainstream and they start heading into ground that Apple will buy their assets, keep Maps, Search, and maybe Waymo and throw the rest away.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#454

Post by beefield »

jpindar wrote: post #354
beefield wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish there was a way to directly help Bing/DuckDuckGo/Yandex improve their search results. I am amazed that no search engine gives me easy way to blacklist domains from my results. That would make the usefulness of any of them to increase by orders of magnitude. (and if they are careful, they might be even able to use the blacklisted data to adjust their general results , not only my personal results as well) And…

Google used to have that, but of course they stopped it. There are browser addons that have he same effect though.

> Google used to have that, but of course they stopped it. There are browser addons that have he same effect though.

Yep. Ironically enough, that was killed soon after I found about that. And anyways, it was implemented far from easy to use. It should be just behind the green arrow that gives the options to see cached version etc. And obviously with cross-platform effect on all my devices as long as I am logged in.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#455

Post by JoeSmithson »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #453

Very much a way to mitigate the FTC's requirements on making advertising more distinct than organic results. It is an unpopular opinion but I believe Google is dying. They have been for a long time. The cancer is that nothing other than search ads generates the revenue and margins they need and the margins on search ads are now down 90% from where they were in 2010. Personally I'm long on Microsoft/Bing as a candidat…

> "the margins on search ads are now down 90% from where they were in 2010."

Do you have a source for this?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#456

Post by mkl »

basch wrote: post #11

The FTC has spoke on this before. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2013/06/... I believe nearly all the search engines are still guilty of this one. I also think firms should be able to buy "blank space." For example facebook or amazon could pay NOT to have an ad above their result. Maybe they already do, I dont see an ad when I search facebook, however I do see an ad for amazon above the top amazo…

> Google should just be smart enough to see the top result and the ad are the same link

They are smart enough, but they don't get any money from people clicking on search results, only ads, so of course they're going to show the ad - some people will click it.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#457

Post by manigandham »

bduerst wrote: post #276
aaronm67 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not a requirement for AMP. CDNs now let you roll your own domains on the AMP standard All these certificates do is make it so Google's browser (and only Google's browser) will mask the fact you're on Google's domains if you sign the file a certain way. If anything, this shows more anti-competitive practices -- they're adding features into their browser that specifically benefit a features of their search engi…

That's not true. CDNs also use their own non-Google domains and infrastructure for AMP hosting: https://amp.cloudflare.com/

Effectively 0 AMP sites are using anything other than Google's CDN.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#458

Post by droopyEyelids »

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.

It's Never Racketeering

https://www.popehat.com/2016/06/14/lawsplainer-its-not-rico-...

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#459

Post by amatecha »

ogre_codes wrote: post #223

It's been clear for a little while that Google no longer cares about giving the best experience with a lot of their tools and is just focused on maximizing revenue. More and more, Google is the modern equivalent of Microsoft in the early 00s, still good enough that most people use it, but each successive "version" piles on more frustrations than benefits. It's so ironic that Google has become that which they most des…

I watched this clip of Steve Jobs[0] recently, where was speaking about promoting/empowering Product vs Marketing people. Some of his comments seem especially applicable:

"[...] the companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out, by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product vs a bad product." ... "They really have no feeling in their hearts, usually, about wanting to really to help the customers."

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#460

Post by manigandham »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #350
aaronm67 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not a requirement for AMP. CDNs now let you roll your own domains on the AMP standard All these certificates do is make it so Google's browser (and only Google's browser) will mask the fact you're on Google's domains if you sign the file a certain way. If anything, this shows more anti-competitive practices -- they're adding features into their browser that specifically benefit a features of their search engi…

So the user sees your URL, you're getting the revenue from the ads that are shown, sharing will share your URL, your statistics work flawlessly. In other words: if it behaves exactly as a page hosted on your site (just faster), why do you care? I'm getting the impression that HN users care a whole lot about seeing the request in the nginx log they are tailing.

It's not always faster. There are plenty of performance and usability issues with AMP pages, not to mention all the extra development effort needing to maintain a different version of the site just for a few mobile browsers.
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