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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

#461

Post by im3w1l »

nogridbag wrote: post #196
ppod wrote: post #174

I'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

Your image doesn't show the same experiment as the twitter "article" does

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#462

Post by miah_ »

anoncake wrote: post #420
josteink wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to prepend. You can bang it at the end and retry your search if it doesn’t work with DDG.

I wonder why everybody (including me previously) thinks you have to prepend.

Because some search terms get interpreted by the browser as trying to hit a specific site. If you prepend the browser probably won't make that mistake. I tend to use !g on the end of my search terms and hit this every now and then; I feel like I've hit this issue in Chrome more than Firefox.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#464

Post by ngold »

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…

As an advertising company, where are they losing money?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#465

Post by rtsil »

rifung wrote: post #309
at-fates-hands wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We cannot, as a healthy internet, let Google control so much of the web. It's getting worse too. Back in the day, you could Google something for a manufacturer and include the name of the manufacturer like, "Pioneer 10" Subwoofer" and automatically the first result would be a like to Pioneer's subwoofer page or their main ecommerce site. You type that into Google today? You will get 15 results for AMAZON pages with…

I work at Google (not Search though sorry), opinions are my own. > When you have the actual manufacturer being buried in the results, we have a major problem. How do you know though? What if the majority users actually do what you describe in hopes of buying something and thus the shopping results are more relevant for them? I imagine either there is a bug or this is the case, because I'm sure the links people actual…

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Third-party shopping results are shown on page one and the manufacturer's store is on page two, and people rarely go beyond page one so naturally they will click the Amazon results. This in turn feeds the algorithm and reinforces its original assumption.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#466

Post by birdyrooster »

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…

That would be a huge mistake for Apple, and I cannot imagine it passing the scrutiny of anti trust regulators.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#467

Post by bduerst »

underwater wrote: post #364
bduerst wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference being that you pay magnitudes less for your branded keywords than the competition, through the quality score. Allowing companies to advertise against their peers is actually creating more competition on the marketplace (which is a good thing). Edit: Disclosure - I work at Google but this is my own opinion on multi-sided markets

Advocating strongly for your employer and their business practices without disclosing the conflict of interest is essentially astroturfing.

You're right, edited my comment to be more clear that this is my opinion only. I don't use an anonymous username on HN because, as you saw in my profile before searching me, everything I say reflects my opinion only.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#468

Post by phs318u »

watwut wrote: post #250
kllrnohj wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then don't use AMP? It's your domain, it's under your control. You at least have a choice here, whereas you can't block most other forms of URL obfuscation when being linked elsewhere.

Google is deprioritizing sites without amp in search to force them to use it. So, if I search for something on reddit, I already learned to use duck duck go. Cause then I don't have to edit url to get rid of amp part not scroll up and down for that link.

> Google is deprioritizing sites without amp in search to force them to use it.

Isn't that just a protection racket?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#469

Post by _prototype_ »

LeftHandPath wrote: post #260

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

DDG uses an aggregate of results from various search engines. I really do hope that at some point (if they haven't already) they build out a native search team. I know its hard computer science, but they really need to start rolling their own search engine

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#470

Post by thecleaner »

I think this is a deeper problem, one with the limitations of personalized search itself. In the initial days people were picking up relevant stuff from the search results offered by Google and the feedback was helpful to improve the search index. Nowadays, people click whatever is the first result so the only feedback obtained is that results are great. Everything is so highly optimized for clickability that users are just not able to think and provide feedback.
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