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My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

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Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#201

Post by artificialLimbs »

jasonv wrote: post #181
jjcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. I’m in a similar position except I know my password. Google decided for whatever reason that my location was too different and now requires that I verify via a phone number I no longer have. I have access to the recovery email and even get ‘su…

For this reason and spam calls, I have a free Google Voice number that I use for all services. I never give my cell #...

Their numbers aren't always accepted with various entities. I just tried to register with irs.gov, for example, unsuccessfully.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#202

Post by nucleardog »

handedness wrote: post #169
jjcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. I’m in a similar position except I know my password. Google decided for whatever reason that my location was too different and now requires that I verify via a phone number I no longer have. I have access to the recovery email and even get ‘su…

To add my voice to the ever-growing chorus: I'm in a similar situation, except in this case despite my still having session cookies stored on several devices, all of which were logged-out simultaneously, it's requiring a new phone number. When I eventually gave one grudgingly (one used on most of the other accounts listed along side this account in Google's account switcher), it still tells me I'm locked out and to "…

Yeah, I've got an account I haven't had access to in about ten years that I still can't get in to. I try and reset it from time to time and just always get the "try again later".

I'm pretty sure I even have the correct password, but it thinks my login is suspicious since it's from a new/unfamiliar device so requires me to further authenticate myself except I no longer have access to the phone number associated with it. I'm fairly sure I have the answers to the security questions as well as have succeeded at the other recovery options, but best I've been able to get is "try again later".

The email is being forwarded to another address of mine, so I can still receive email I just... can never actually get into the account ever again. Thankfully I don't/didn't ever use it for anything all that important.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#203

Post by nucleardog »

koolba wrote: post #73
KMag wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who occasionally moves countries, this is horrifying. Did you enable 2FA and still need to authenticate via text? I used to enable 2FA, but got worried about phone loss/damage.

Do they even let you enable non-SMA 2FA anymore? Last I checked the TOTP option was gone.

Yes, but first you have to enable SMS 2FA.

When you set up MFA, it doesn't provide TOTP as an option. If you enable it with a phone number/SMS MFA, you can go back into the MFA options and add a TOTP device then remove the SMS option.

Of course, at that point they still have your phone number...

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#204

Post by rossjudson »

tharkun__ wrote: post #132
Triv888 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had that problem too, multiple times, where I knew the password but Google wouldn't let me use it (I almost lost my account). Google doesn't like users that clear cookies, block trackers, etc... I wish that there was a way to disable those "protections".

There is a really really simple one (at least for your private life but if your company uses G-Suite, you always have the admin to take care of things you forget): Do not use Google! It's as simple as that. I have never had a Gmail account until an Android device sort of forced it on me, because I definitely didn't want to link things up to my real email address, so I just signed up for the whole thing. Do I ever use…

You should keep it all on paper instead, because nothing ever happens to that. ;)

I do think there is substantial room for a kind of "major provider reset" service, similar (at least) to what banks do physically. Lost your account access? You need to GO to a place, be on video, have an ID check done, multiple forms of whatever identification. It costs to do this kind of thing, and as a last resort I'm pretty sure most people would want to pay it, instead of losing account access.

Your argument seems to be "It would be massively inconvenient to lose access to these things so instead I will not have these things."

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#205

Post by doe88 »

weisbaum wrote: post #141

Taking a look at your site, it seems quite clear where all your traffic went. You have a pretty great backlink profile compared to other affiliate sites ive seen but the content is incredibly thin. Based on this, me or anyone else who visits the site just sees an advertising site. There are no personal experiences with the products, the products are not related and the UX does not make the user want to continue explo…

Exactly. Objectively this is bad. It makes me think of sometimes Youtube review videos I encounter, where the author instead of reviewing themselves the products display images or other bits of videos about the products from elsewhere. I don't deny it must take time to make these pages and videos but objectively it has little to no real information value at all.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#206

Post by inetknght »

ryan29 wrote: post #129
kenniskrag wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't you just disable ssl and sniff the password via wireshark?

No. It'll be a token.

What does it being a token have to do with anything?

An unencrypted token is just as vulnerable as an unencrypted password.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#207

Post by dmix »

ryan29 wrote: post #176
djitz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t this mean it’s a good market to be in right now?

I think reviews, especially something honest like the site in this article is aspiring towards, might be an ok market because the quality of those sites has declined so much in the last decade that I think there's room for a much better product. However, it's the affiliate based monetization that I was calling tough. At least for me, an affiliate link is an untrustworthy link because that link is working for the manu…

> Just look at the whole Hardware Unboxed / Nvidia thing that happened recently.

Can you expand on this? I hadn't heard of this.

I recently watched a new video on "playthrough” of Cyberpunk and it was a heavily advertising the power of a NVIDIA graphics card as he jacked up the raytracing settings and mentioning the card (which the comments section said was mean because it was impossible to find in the marketplace and/or costs thousands).

So I'm curious what you mean by this.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#208

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #185
codazoda wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get your own domain for ~$13 a year and then forward your email to Gmail or another online provider you like. If Google kills your account you can forward it elsewhere. I recently started using the startup https://hanami.run to forward my mail. It's a brand new startup that I read about here on HN and the creator is super helpful. Edit: I realize that parents Mom and my Mom are not going to do this, but us Hacker New…

My mailserver can’t point to gmail unless I get gmail premium I chose instead to run my own mailserver (it’s a pain, but it’s very scaleable and I use a catch all often). Gmail have created an anticompetative situation where I can chose to pay them money, or have problems communicating with their customers.

I prefer to pay someone... okay, anyone, who isn't Google. Fastmail, O365, Proton, whatever. Solves the problem and supports non-Google options.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#209

Post by s17n »

creato wrote: post #193
s17n wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually really like the concept, as I understand it - a vetted shortlist of products worth buying in each category, with customer reviews distilled down to a brief summary (instead of a game-able star rating). Unfortunately I can definitely see how Google wouldn't be able to distinguish this from low quality affiliate spam. Also, I agree with "the UX does not make the user want to continue exploring the page they…

Do you really think this is vetted? There's no way this guy has actually tested all of these things. He's just reading Amazon reviews instead of you.

Exactly, he's reading Amazon reviews instead of me, that's the whole point. (If you don't want to call that "vetting", fine by me I guess)

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#210

Post by sombremesa »

ryan29 wrote: post #176
djitz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t this mean it’s a good market to be in right now?

I think reviews, especially something honest like the site in this article is aspiring towards, might be an ok market because the quality of those sites has declined so much in the last decade that I think there's room for a much better product. However, it's the affiliate based monetization that I was calling tough. At least for me, an affiliate link is an untrustworthy link because that link is working for the manu…

> I can't think of a decent way to monetize a review site without relying on a revenue stream that's susceptible to corruption

I can. Something like the Patreon model might work.

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