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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

#661

Post by froindt »

zone411 wrote: post #504
froindt wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 amazon result. Backblaze had a competitor who bought ads for the search term "backblaze". The CEO successfully contacted the competitor CEO and they agreed they'd be in a p…

If the competitor was smaller with more money to spend or let's say had higher margins, it was stupid of them to agree to this type of (possible?) collusion.

I get what you're saying. It does have an anticompetitive/colluding feel to it.

I don't know exactly where my opinion lies in this case. I think the cloud backup space currently has many players and that even if all players agreed to this - the net result would be Google earning less, each of those companies having less ad spend, and therefore greater profitability.

Heck, imagine if a 3rd party existed to "bypass" the Google ad auction through collusion on generic terms like 'computer backup'. (I'm not in this space, so some of the feasibility is speculative). Each company puts in their bid parameters for search terms. 3rd party evaluate the bids, submit 2 slightly different bids to minimize ad spend, and since the whole market coluded, Google made less money.

It's fragile, it's collusion. It's easily by passable by anyone going to Google directly. Was anyone harmed?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#662

Post by userbinator »

IvyMike wrote: post #382

Others have mentioned that this is almost certainly the result of a long course of A/B testing. The problem with this kind of aggressive A/B testing is that it's a game of "how far can we push the user?" So instead of having enthusiastic fans, they have people who begrudgingly use them. Sure, Google picks up an extra nickel here or there, and I'm sure some PMs got a raise. But I don't know any strong Google boosters…

Bing results still look like Google's used to, and although its index is smaller, that is slightly less important when Google seems to try its hardest to avoid showing you what you actually searched for. I've been using it more as a result, and also occasionally DDG and Yahoo; whereas for a long time my searches were exclusively on Google, now I find myself using other search engines because of the lack of quality of results and these other stupid changes that happened to Google within the past year or two.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#663

Post by userbinator »

masswerk wrote: post #349
kllrnohj wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of what I mentioned did obfuscate the domain name. Users do not care about domain name security boundaries - that's yet again an implementation detail. An important one, but still not something most users recognize or care about. Hence, you know, why phishing is so successful.

Users used to care about paths and other descriptors. A decade ago, we were fighting for human readable resource locators. However, users have been taught progressively to ignore them as too complex. (Just the same as it happened for any advanced, but user accessible browser controls.) Why is it that 25 years into web usage, any controlled access is deemed too complicated? (Mind that other technologies were already a…

Why is it that 25 years into web usage, any controlled access is deemed too complicated?

Two words: corporate greed. It's so much easier to persuade and herd them to where they can be "monetised" when they don't know how things work, nor can't figure out how and where to learn.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#664

Post by bsanr2 »

johnnycab wrote: post #275
cytzol wrote: post #26

I've been in this A/B test for a couple of months now, so I've had time to adjust, and I still hate it. I've just become so used to seeing the complete URL in green. The complete URL! If you hover over the results, you'll see that they like to take bits like numeric components or the query string out. This is part of Google's attempt to de-prioritise the URL. Their destructive AMP service confusingly shows you Google…

>Thanks for ruining the Web, Google. I posted the solution below, which I found a few days ago. The script will work with greasemonkey and tampermonkey, it will provide you with results similar to the ones before the change. If you also use uMatrix, there will be no ads. https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/395257-better-google

I'm confused. Isn't AMP mostly an issue on mobile devices? Can you use this on a phone?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#665

Post by bamboozled »

Wow, it’s amazing how a company can stray so far from its humble origins and original ethos.

It’s an interesting study. I remember Google before Gmail. It was a different time with such promise for a better web and better world.

What a shame it’s becoming such an irrelevant piece of junk. Then again, where else could it have went ?

What a shame.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#666

Post by perl4ever »

dragonwriter wrote: post #376
cytzol wrote: post #26

I've been in this A/B test for a couple of months now, so I've had time to adjust, and I still hate it. I've just become so used to seeing the complete URL in green. The complete URL! If you hover over the results, you'll see that they like to take bits like numeric components or the query string out. This is part of Google's attempt to de-prioritise the URL. Their destructive AMP service confusingly shows you Google…

> Their destructive AMP service confusingly shows you Google's domain instead of the website's No, it doesn't. It's actually served from Google's URL, but it (the AMP service) shows you the original site URL (well, it shows the domain by default but that's a button that expands to the URL if you click it.) Your address bar shows you the Google URL, but that's not misleading, either, since what the address bar has alw…

I mean, I generally get the gist of what you are saying, but you are saying "no, you're confused, it's not misleading..." It's kind of like saying "no, you don't have hypochondria, it's all in your head!"

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#667

Post by perl4ever »

cldellow wrote: post #565
taurath wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were a competitor, and it’s that cheap and effective for Expedia, then I’d never allow Expedia to have that real estate.

It's absolutely extortion, but it's cheaper for Expedia to buy than a competitor due to Google's auction rules. Essentially, the bid to be #1 is discounted by the click-through rate. If 90% of people who search "expedia.com" will click an ad for Expedia, and only 10% of people who search "expedia.com" will click an ad for travelsite.com, travelsite.com has to pay 10x what Expedia does to make up for the lost revenue.

Devil's advocate - isn't this a neat way of automatically being anti-incumbent and pro-competition?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#668

Post by terminaljunkid »

bsanr2 wrote: post #664
johnnycab wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Thanks for ruining the Web, Google. I posted the solution below, which I found a few days ago. The script will work with greasemonkey and tampermonkey, it will provide you with results similar to the ones before the change. If you also use uMatrix, there will be no ads. https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/395257-better-google

I'm confused. Isn't AMP mostly an issue on mobile devices? Can you use this on a phone?

If using Mobile Firefox (not FF Preview or FF Focus), then greasemonkey is available as add on.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#669

Post by blihp »

dragonwriter wrote: post #385
blihp wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK they don't have their own algo, they are just a front end for other search engines (Bing etc.) depending on where/what you're looking for.

They have to have some (possibly trivial) algorithm for aggregating the sources they combine.

If they're doing that, sure. I'm not sure it's that sophisticated. Last I heard they sourced different engines for different types of things/geographies not necessarily mixing results from multiple sources for a single query. But this is all based on things I've read in passing rather than any serious research/insider knowledge.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#670

Post by perl4ever »

komali2 wrote: post #506
IvyMike wrote: post #382

Others have mentioned that this is almost certainly the result of a long course of A/B testing. The problem with this kind of aggressive A/B testing is that it's a game of "how far can we push the user?" So instead of having enthusiastic fans, they have people who begrudgingly use them. Sure, Google picks up an extra nickel here or there, and I'm sure some PMs got a raise. But I don't know any strong Google boosters…

Haha, I remember when they announced chrome like 15 years ago, hyper excited 13 year old me literally emailed ceo@google.com with how excited I was. I uninstalled Firefox and installed chrome. And now I exclusively use Firefox again.

My employer just banned Firefox. Unless you theoretically have a "business reason" that they accept.
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