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How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

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Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#131

Post by munk-a »

scarejunba wrote: post #111
titzer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You don't need Google. The Internet is fairly decentralized. You can build your small web even today and just block Google via robots.txt, never use it yourself, and link via webrings. The Internet is very good at overlay networks. Search engines aren't even required. If you want Google's features then they ask that you pay their price. But if you don't want to play with the rest of us, you can host on your own, you…

Unfortunately their price is excessive and their income mostly comes from rent-seeking the contribution they make to the value of the internet is negligible and they leverage their position to take an outsized chunk out of income streams.

Google is a literal barrier to entry when it comes to running a web based business - if you can't secure traffic you die and traffic breeds more traffic so it's price is highly inelastic. It's (essentially) the same issue as market driven healthcare if you are dying then prolonging your life (generally) has infinite value and the market price for treatment becomes as much cash as you can get your hands on.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#132

Post by munk-a »

JohnFen wrote: post #113
mehrdadn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess, but the price tag seems intertwined with the quality of service? Hard to separate them (at least for me).

The pricing is much higher than equally good service that can be had from other companies in other parts of my city, so I consider it overpriced. But the bigger problem is that you have to scrutinize every billing statement from them, and then when they start charging you for things they shouldn't be (every 2 or 3 months), you have to spend a couple of hours on the phone with them to get it straightened out. Until th…

I feel like we need some precedent here - billing errors in the volume Comcast hands them out are essentially contract violations that go entirely unpunished - you don't get a discount if you have to wrestle with them to correct your bill, you can't charge them for your time, you just come out the other end with what they had originally offered you.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#133

Post by pdeuchler »

blackearl wrote: post #34
jborichevskiy wrote: post #13

> 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.

Google is more of a monopsony than a monopoly

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#134

Post by dmos62 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #4

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…

What search engines are you using? I'm displeased with Google's search results, but others seem to be just trying to emulate it (and badly).

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#135

Post by mthoms »

gtirloni wrote: post #83
delusionalwrit wrote: post #72

I'm ready for a pay per search tool that's as useful as google with the privacy focus of duck duck go. A penny a search - I'm game.

I'd certainly pay a fixed price per month for unlimited searches. I think Google knows that won't work so they don't offer it. Or they couldn't ask the same price that they get selling your personal data? They do offer Youtube Premium without ads but the search engine space is really different. Microtransactions are not here yet.

If they offered a premium "no ads" search option it would draw too much attention from the media/public to just how bad the situation currently is.

So, even if they could increase revenue per power user (RPPU?) it would do irreparable harm to their ad-supported model (for non-power users) in the long term.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#137

Post by munk-a »

Reedx wrote: post #100
tmpz22 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a certain irony that you ask for data instead of anecdotes to chastise /u/blackearl’s claim, then provide a personal anecdote to support your claim. This seems like a reasonable start to build a case against Comcast: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Comcast

Just questioning, not chastising. Nor making a claim based on anecdata. I thought that would be obvious by asking for actual data . I included my anecdote simply to question the narrative. What I'm looking for is proof.

When I used comcast (which was several years ago) the actual service was fine - it was the terrible customer relations that really got my goat, and it's harder to quantify customer satisfaction but the fact they aren't the absolute worst company isn't a mark of honor, showing up on customer surveys as one of the worst companies is enough of a black mark - the ranking is less important than being on the top ten at all.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#138

Post by dudus »

bluGill wrote: post #122
Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which ads? The ads on the google search engine, or the ads that random website is getting from google. Are the google ads at me.com any good? I'm surprised more companies don't take this in house. 20 years ago little small town newspapers and radio stations had their own in house ad sales. Seems like a no-brainier for web news to sell targeted ads to their customers.

They still do that. Large content sites still sell ads and can do so in any way they want, exclusivity deals, results oriented, click based, you name it. The inventory they can't sell directly they sell to Google or whoever is paying best at that time. They can even throw an ad view into ad networks to be bid on and show the winning bid ad to the user. The whole bidding war happens in real time for each user for each ad sometimes across multiple ad networks.

I suppose a lot of people here know how real time bidding networks work but I was mind blown the first time I saw that.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#139

Post by sdoering »

takk309 wrote: post #94
smichel17 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people type "example" into the address bar, hit enter, then click the Google link to example.com, without realizing that they could just add ".com" to the end of their initial query and go directly to their destination.

My wife does this all the time. If she wants to go to Prime video she types "Amazon Prime Video" into her address bar then clicks the first Google result, often the ad for Prime Video.

If I do not like a company but need to visit their site, I also do this just to increase the cost for said company as Google Ads are 'cost per click'.

Re: How much longer will we trust Google’s search results?

#140

Post by maigret »

thebean11 wrote: post #130
bluGill wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which ads? The ads on the google search engine, or the ads that random website is getting from google. Are the google ads at me.com any good? I'm surprised more companies don't take this in house. 20 years ago little small town newspapers and radio stations had their own in house ad sales. Seems like a no-brainier for web news to sell targeted ads to their customers.

Because a newspaper does not have enough user targeting data; their ads would not be as valuable since they would not be as well targeted.

The ads I see on my paper newspaper are often better “targeted” than the ones I see (or block ;) ) on their website.

Of course this is not data, but the parent post has an interesting stance.

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