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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

#781

Post by pb7 »

scrollaway wrote: post #771
pb7 wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Google owe you traffic?

Google owes mostly-unbiased accuracy to the internet at large. They built their brand and reputation on that. It should not be possible to purchase a shortcut on the accuracy, especially someone else's .

It doesn't owe anyone anything. It trades this unbiased accuracy for eyeballs on its advertising, the same advertising that many folks in this comment section are condemning. Without the advertising, Google doesn't owe anyone anything. It's not a charity.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#782

Post by ComputerGuru »

marcan_42 wrote: post #769
adelpozo wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be such feature in the results page. I just went looking for it and I got 'Cached' and 'Similar' when I click in the little drop-down arrow. Nice feature that appears to be removed. How does removing that feature benefited the users?

It used to be an extension (an official one from Google, Personal Blocklist). It was never part of the vanilla search results page itself.

No, it used to be part of the official results before the personal blocklist extension ever existed. Then some features were removed from the search results and then partially reimplemented in that extension.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#783

Post by pb7 »

lwansbrough wrote: post #759
pb7 wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Google owe you traffic?

Google shouldn’t be a purveyor of brand quality in the case where the user has made an explicit request. If a user types in “shoes” should they 100% get shoes.com as the first result? Of course not. But Expedia? It feels wrong not to make that the first result.

Expedia is indeed the first result for "Expedia", after the 0-2 slots of advertising that may or may not be Expedia. If Google can't monetize the search results page, why are they obligated to provide the search results in the first place? Until Google recoups the costs by showing ads, the relationship between Expedia and Google is one sided: Google provides a lot of traffic to Expedia with nothing in return. How is that fair?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#784

Post by pb7 »

kempbellt wrote: post #773
pb7 wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Google owe you traffic?

If I promise to give you a truthful answer to a question you ask, "What's 2+2?", and then I say, "5" (because math teachers pay me to give that answer), the same argument could be made. Why do I owe you a fulfilled promise? Because I said I'd be honest? Why do I owe you honesty about my honesty? Reductio ad absurdum If I build a search engine and promise that it will give accurate and honest results to your search qu…

It's lying insofar as grocery stores having two brands of chips on an endcap that you see first before you get to the actual aisle with the other 30 brands is lying.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#785

Post by jansan »

mekster wrote: post #768
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. So, they helped make the web a far easier place to look around on things for a few decades and one layout change and you call them that they ruined the web? It's easy to be on the barking side.

Google gave us a lot, but that does not mean they should not be criticized. Without emotion I can say that using Google is far worse today than it was in the early 2000s. Besides delivering the results in a much more readable format, at that time we were able to search specifically in forums and there were a lot of advanced features like "linkto:" that are not supported anymore.

The problem I see is that Google does not care about us Geeks anymore. They are 100% focused on consumers now, and that sucks a lot.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#786

Post by wtmt »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #712
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 posted the solution below, Sorry to be "that guy" but for me the solution is to use DuckDuckGo. It's not perfect, but neither is trying to play arms race with Google's JavaScript.

I usually start with DDG (it's my default search engine on all the devices I use) and then quickly move on to !s (for Startpage) since DDG still is lacking in the quality of results for many searches. It's a bit rare that I go to !g (Google search).

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#787

Post by [deleted] »

roozbeh18 wrote: post #342
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…

almost any average PC user I have worked with, do not know where to enter URL and always search the URL.

[deleted]

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#788

Post by Guest0918231 »

kempbellt wrote: post #575
lonelappde wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Steal"? If customers searching for your brand are happy to buy from your competitor with a different name, maybe your brand isn't so strong? And if you are profiting from advertising your brand to people who don't choose your product over alternatives, isn't your marketing just "stealing" purchases from competitors?

Yeah, that's not how it is working right now. It's more like: User: "Google, how do I get to Costco?" Google: "Here are directions to Target." User:"But I asked for directions to Costco." Google: "Target gave us a lot of money. So, firstly here are directions to Target. If you still want Costco, keep scrolling, but Target is great. You should shop here." When you literally search for one brand and the first result is…

I imagine it kind of like this...

Two stores, A and B are competitors. I visit company A and say that I'll stand at the entrance of their competitor, store B. I'll tell each customer trying to enter store B about store A and attempt to refer them, as long as store A pays me $0.50 for each person I try to send their way.

This works, some people that drove to visit store B now go to store A instead. Now, store B is getting annoyed at me "stealing" their customers, but I have a solution. I tell store B the more money they pay me, the less likely it is that I'll refer their next customer to store A. So, store B starts paying me $1.00 each time someone tries to enter their own store, and in return, I do nothing but stand there.

A year goes by and I'm standing at the entrance of every store in the country. I collect a dollar when someone tries to enter every store, and I do nothing but let them pass.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#789

Post by wtmt »

terminaljunkid wrote: post #668
bsanr2 wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is available only on Android though. On iOS, Firefox Focus (or any Firefox or other browser) is tied to Apple's restrictions. So there's no scope for browser extensions as we generally think of it.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#790

Post by sovok_x »

lainga wrote: post #697
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to search for “xxxxxxx wiki” more and more now. No I don’t want Healthline and Medicinenet links above the Wikipedia entry, thank you Google. I wish by each search result there was a button that said “banish this domain to oblivion, I never want to see it again.” You could improve search really fast that way if you still cared about things like that.

try !w on DuckDuckGo

Or add "w" keyword for https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s&go=... bookmark on Android Firefox and then search with "w searchstring" from its address bar.

It's silly that it's necessary to create separate bookmark for this, though. Native search engines, surprisingly, don't support keywords there.

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