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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

#841

Post by Kwpolska »

tjoff wrote: post #822
nikofeyn wrote: post #800

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google amp is a plague on the internet and should have been shutdown by regulators. it is definitely anti-competitive. i am sick and tired of our government completely slaving to the big tech companies when it comes to regulations and anti-competitive behavior. google amp on mobile overrides behavior on mobile, even on android, so instead of web links opening up in the respective and selected default app, it opens up…

Unless I misunderstood, that is something you disable in each (google)app that has that "feature". In Gmail for instance: settings: General settings: Open links in gmail. Turn on for "faster" browsing. Default is on. Tip: Use firefox focus instead as the default browser to open all links. If the link warrants further look copy the url to your main browser. The above has nothing to do with amp. But to not detract, amp…

This is not AMP. It’s a feature originally called Chrome Custom Tabs [1], and it’s a faster way to open a webpage than a regular “open URL” intent (that would have to launch the entire browser app) or a custom WebView (which sucks for other reasons). The thing is, this feature takes into account your default browser, so if you set Focus as your system default browser, the custom tabs will launch in Focus, with all the privacy protections it offers.

[1] https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#842

Post by modo_mario »

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 anticompetitive af.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#843

Post by Iolaum »

nostrebored wrote: post #563
drusepth wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think it feels like a downgrade? AMP results seem to, on average, load faster with a better UI to me.

Not sure why this is being downvoted. I encourage people to visit the non-AMP version of smaller news providers. Enjoy the popups, video ads, autoplay, bloated sizes, etc.

If you use adblocking addons you don't get many of those.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#844

Post by mikorym »

skybrian wrote: post #780
mikorym wrote: post #778

Am I correct that it doesn't say "ad" or "sponsored" at all? Is that even legal (in some countries)?

I just searched on "Hawaii hotels" (to make sure ads show up) and got a bunch of ad links, each prefixed by Ad in bold, followed by a bunch of regular links with a favicon (?) where the Ad appears. It doesn't seem that hard to distinguish? Perhaps other people are seeing something else?

In the picture in OP I doesn't seem to like like that. Maybe the picture is not clear or resized?

Edit: I googled as well, and got the same results as you did.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#845

Post by a_e_k »

ehnto wrote: post #760
apl002 wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use DDG as much as I can but when I need to find something very specific, or find a solution to a bug Ive encountered, it takes 2x as long on DDG vs Google

I find Google ignoring my attempts to be more specific more often. Just as a contrived example a search like "R33 RB25DET Motorsport ECU" typically got me specific links relating to the exact car, engine and topic. But the past 5 years or so it seems like it is weighting the more common word and more general terms. Often excluding the target topic altogether and just giving general motorsport results. Perhaps it's a…

That's something that really drives me nuts about it lately. If I just wanted general results, I'd do the lazy thing and not put in the additional terms. Worse, I've been finding that it still ignores some of the terms even when I put them in quotes.

The results just seem really bad lately, especially for anything technical. Just now I'd been looking for "html5 canvas torture test". The top result is a video called "Torture Testing my Nut Sac!!" and then some videos about testing Glock guns. Umm, no, that's not even close to what I'd wanted. (Bing does way better here and DDG is somewhere in between.)

I'm not sure what Google engineers are using to find technical information on the web these days, but I can't imagine it's the public Google search.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#847

Post by varshithr »

For people who are suggesting DDG, At the risk of exposing my unpopular opinion, I kind of like personalized results. In fact, I prefer it. It improves the searching speed a lot and Google exactly knows what I had on my mind. Isn't this why still everyone prefers Google?

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#848

Post by rocqua »

elsewhen wrote: post #738
spookthesunset wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think half of it is the ugly font they are now using. Ugly is the perfect way to describe it. Google is really not good at creating beautiful products...

My understanding is that they are optimizing for revenue per visitor per month- they are not trying to make the most visually appealing product.

That's a scary optimization to make if it starts costing you visitors.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#849

Post by zyx321 »

nikofeyn wrote: post #800
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…

google amp is a plague on the internet and should have been shutdown by regulators. it is definitely anti-competitive. i am sick and tired of our government completely slaving to the big tech companies when it comes to regulations and anti-competitive behavior. google amp on mobile overrides behavior on mobile, even on android, so instead of web links opening up in the respective and selected default app, it opens up…

Semi-off-topic, but I recently found out that there is an even worse version of AMP, called Google Web Light. Running Firefox on an ARM device (e.g. Raspberry Pi), the results speak for themselves [1].

Notably, there is absolutely no way for the end user to disable it, short of spoofing your user agent.

[1] https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://news.ycombinator.com/...

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