Every Google result now looks like an ad • Hacker News Board

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#471

Post by bruwozniak » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

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…

Funny you say that, I was just thinking the same. Their recent user hostile moves seem like desperation more than part of an evil plan.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#472

Post by nullc » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

Plot twist: Google insiders concerned with the consistently unethical practices of the company are working in secret to undermine the viability of their primary revenue stream to save the world from google.

... Fiction aside, since so much evil is done by accident and indifference it's only fitting that some heroics be done by similar mechanisms.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#473

Post by Drdrdrq » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #403

rahuldottech wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Konqueror was even further ahead. After you searched for something via search engine and then opened a page, it offered you buttons which could be used to search for those same terms on the result page. Very useful, but never saw it elsewhere.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#474

Post by rusk » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #355

0xff00ffee wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does DDG use for an algorithm? Originally Google was just using pagerank but that was too easy to game by SEO. This means DDG needed to address this, and apparently they have (e.g, search for 'favicon' like the post). How long can we rely on DDG staying neutral in their algorithm?

From wikipedia: "DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources, including Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Bing, Yandex, its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot) and others. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the results." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo

this brings back memories of metacrawler

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#475

Post by average-alice » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

hm

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#476

Post by pottertheotter » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

LeftHandPath wrote: post #260

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

I switched a couple months back because Google started messing around with image search. If you click on an image it now displays a small version of it on the side, instead of enlarging it. It's so useless.

There are some things I miss about Google (I feel like I got better results when searching for programming questions), but I don't miss it too much.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#477

Post by toohotatopic » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

333c wrote: post #267

Guest0918231 wrote: post #252

It's funny, because if you run AdSense on your website, Google has very strict guidelines about not misleading users and making a clear distinction between advertisements and your content. However, when Google shows ads on their site, they don't need to follow those rules, they blend them in as closely as possible. Also, what's the deal with showing an advertisement for the same result that's number one? See the belo…

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.

Does this create an opportunity for 'number one' sites to band together and create a competing search engine?

Would it be possible to fund a search engine startup by selling shares to all of those sites who now have to pay to stay at the top? In the long run, it should be cheaper to fund a competitor.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#478

Post by riffraff » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:38 PM UTC

_prototype_ wrote: post #469

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

DDG has its own crawler and index too, they had it for a long time

https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/du...

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#479

Post by whatshisface » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:38 PM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #448

riddlemethat wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been using DDG for almost three years. Going back to Google is actually frustrating for me. Their results are so badly presented and the number of ads so onerous to scroll through...

I am most frustrated with how almost any url from search or Gmail shows as the url, but actually routes you through a Google url first (so they can track it, of course). That extra hop sometimes takes a second or more. I don't understand why they don't just track my click with JavaScript. I suspect this new hiding the url thing might have to do with circumventing scripts like I have used before that rewrite the url s…

If it's named according to the true URL, those same scripts would work, albiet differently.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#480

Post by enterabdazer » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:39 PM UTC

aquova wrote: post #418

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…

Do you (or anyone else) have any recommendations for an email service? I've cut pretty much everything Google out of my life, minus Gmail, mostly due to not wanting to go through all the trouble of transferring everything over to a service that I end up not liking. I've heard ProtonMail is good, but other than that, I'm not sure.

I'm leaning toward Tutanota, but I can't claim to have experience with them yet.

Proton has appeared somewhat bumpy to me -- I can't say for sure why, but they give me some spidey tingles.

Migrating / transferring is indeed a problem. I would suggest using Google Takeout, their data export tool, and permanently archiving your data with a third party service and / or physical backups. See https://takeout.google.com/. You probably won't be able to import into your new provider.