I've actually moved to other search engines because the quality of the results have gone down dramatically. It seems like google will fixate on one or two keywords in my search (usually the most generic ones) and ignore the rest. In addition, the old google tricks like using quotes for literal values no longer seems to work. It is like google is guessing what I want, rather than trying to find what I have entered as…
To get the old behaviour for literal search using quotes enable the "Verbatim mode" (Tools > All results > Verbatim) It's a must if you're a developer searching for some obscure error message, yet still most people don't know about it.
> To get the old behaviour for literal search using quotes enable the "Verbatim mode"
> Recode’s Peter Kafka recently interviewed Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, and Peretti said something really insightful: what if Google’s ads really aren’t that good? What if Google is just taking credit for clicks on ads just because people would have been searching for that stuff anyway? I’ve been thinking about it all day: what if Google ads actually aren’t that effective and the only reason they make so much is bill…
Same as any other monopolistic company. Comcast isn't necessarily good at providing internet, in fact most of their customers would say they're shit at it. But most people don't have a choice.
> Recode’s Peter Kafka recently interviewed Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, and Peretti said something really insightful: what if Google’s ads really aren’t that good? What if Google is just taking credit for clicks on ads just because people would have been searching for that stuff anyway? I’ve been thinking about it all day: what if Google ads actually aren’t that effective and the only reason they make so much is bill…
But that's precisely what makes Google "good at ads." They built the firehose. Own a destination where billions of people go everyday, find a way to measure their intent, serve my information to them. That = fantastic at ads.
After all this time watchin me, everything I ever asked it, all the ads I never clicked on, all the videos it watched me watch, all my emails it read, heck even after I worked for the dang company for nearly ten years, Google does not understand a very basic, essential thing about me. I hate advertising, damn it! I am sick of looking at it, I am sick of it looking at me. I am sick of hearing about how advertising is necessary to support a $130 billion in revenue and a trillion dollar valuation and some of the world's richest people. It's a lie. I'm sick of hearing about how I don't really hate advertising, I just want to see better ads. It's horseshit. I want to stop being bothered. I wanna stop being followed around. I wanna stop being monetized. We could have a smaller, more useful web that better benefited humanity, we could make education free or nearly free, we could actually have a chance to realize the dream of the original pioneers of the internet, if we weren't so obsessed with making it into the world's largest commercial marketplace, the world's biggest casino and TV show, and Google wasn't intent on extracting its ludicrous "fair share". If access to the internet is a human right, then its gateways can't be commercial entities, let alone ones hell-bent on growth. It is fundamentally incompatible.
I've actually moved to other search engines because the quality of the results have gone down dramatically. It seems like google will fixate on one or two keywords in my search (usually the most generic ones) and ignore the rest. In addition, the old google tricks like using quotes for literal values no longer seems to work. It is like google is guessing what I want, rather than trying to find what I have entered as…
YEs. Switched to DuckDuckGo a few months ago and haven't looked back, the results pages are much cleaner, like the old Google results. One blatant issue with Google (& DDG still often does not get right) is the search for a specific busines - using the exact business name and sometimes even town - I expect their listing to be at the top. Instead there's piles of Yelp & listing pages, and I often cannot even find the…
When I'm searching for local businesses, I find I get better results from searching GMaps than through the regular Google search.
I still do trust Google --- because I knowingly feed the search engine with terms I really hope no one can monetize. That's the only way I do not feel betrayed.
Same as any other monopolistic company. Comcast isn't necessarily good at providing internet, in fact most of their customers would say they're shit at it. But most people don't have a choice.
Most people can choose only phone company or cable company for internet (some people only get 1 or the other). There are LOTS of search engines to choose from that are freely available. DuckDuckGo is pretty great these days. Microsoft is even is making a search engine now, I've heard! /s
i shake my head every time i think of the sheer marketing power of the bing brand...
Hey man, i googled that chick in marketing last night and found her facebook account. Really??? well i binged her and found her pornhub account. Bing... Find what you really are looking for.
> Recode’s Peter Kafka recently interviewed Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, and Peretti said something really insightful: what if Google’s ads really aren’t that good? What if Google is just taking credit for clicks on ads just because people would have been searching for that stuff anyway? I’ve been thinking about it all day: what if Google ads actually aren’t that effective and the only reason they make so much is bill…
> what if Google ads actually aren’t that effective Did anyone besides Google sales and marketing people actually believe that?
A significant portion of the modern digital advertisement is heavily data-driven, and those numbers are available to advertisers as well. Based on the numbers, many advertisers actually believe that Google is one of the best options available on the market. It's possible that this is not necessarily due to their modeling technology but infrastructure though.
> They aren't the privacy nightmare the pitchfork wielding folks would have you believe. Wait, so they aren't collecting as much information about me and my use of my machines as they can anymore? When did that change?
No they aren't and never did. They don't, for example, install a supercookie (like AT&T has done) so that they can track you the person vs "you" some uniquely identified user. Where are the pitchforks for AT&T? To the extent they do collect as much data as they can, they limit it to identify you as a unique user, not you as a specific person. In the cases they necessarily identify you the person (e.g. Google Pay wher…
> No they aren't and never did.
That you can say this make me think that we are using different definitions.
Have they also stopped buying real-world credit card usage and correlating it with your other actions?
> To the extent they do collect as much data as they can, they limit it to identify you as a unique user, not you as a specific person.
That doesn't really make it much better, in my opinion.
> They do an excellent job of not pulling a FB and selling the raw data. Their internal controls are extreme.
I never thought they did sell raw data. Having strong internal controls is wonderful, but a bit beside the point in my criticism. I object to the collection. How the data is handled post-collection is a separate issue.
I'm surprised nobody has been talking about the fact that muddying the distinction between ads and organic results is illegal. Google, Amazon, and others have been moving this way for a while, despite the FTC sending a warning a few years ago: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2013/06/...
I'm not surprised because I didn't even know that was a thing.