Removing my site from Google search • Hacker News Board

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#41

Post by larrymcp » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:40 PM UTC

The first sentence grabbed my attention, and I was looking forward to learning about the "threat that surveillance capitalism poses to democracy and human autonomy". But then the article fell flat: he gave no examples of that threat, and neither did the linked article in The Guardian.

Are there specific examples of this type of harm? The only complaints that he made were that Google makes a lot of money (which I have no problem with), and that Google's conduct feels "creepy" to him (which is merely an emotional reaction).

He did hint at Google "modifying your off-screen behavior", and I was eager to learn about that as well... but then he left that unexplored too, and gave no follow-up or examples of that intriguing scenario.

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#42

Post by freediver » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:42 PM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #32

freediver wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if there is relevant traffic from Google to begin with, which is highly unlikely for a site like this. A high percentage of results in almost every Google search comes from the closed circle of the same top 10,000 sites or so. This is the beauty of a protest like this, because this site does have valuable content, and if enough sites like this joined the protest it could actually hurt the relevancy of the Google…

I don't think that's so unlikely: on my blog ~30% of visitors come from searches

Sorry my statement was both generalized and specific at the same time, and that did not turn out well. How many visits does your blog have daily? And what would it take you to remove your site from Google index?

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#43

Post by swills » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:46 PM UTC

thih9 wrote: post #23

Animats wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you think that mighty Google would pay attention to your puny "noindex" tag? Ha!

According to google's own docs, this should work. > You can prevent a page from appearing in Google Search by including a noindex meta tag in the page's HTML code, or by returning a noindex header in the HTTP response. Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/...

Until they change the rules again...

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#44

Post by nicce » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:52 PM UTC

antattack wrote: post #39

JimWestergren wrote: post #30

Imagine wikipedia and the top newspapers doing this ... users will start to use another search engine.

Wikipedia should do this as Apple and Google are showing Wikipedia results as their own, robbing, IMO, Wikipedia of importance. Wikipedia is large enough that it should have their own search engine, likely with more relevant results.

Identical situation when Facebook was asked to not show previews of the news articles, because of the ePrivacy directive. Could this go for the same legistlation?

https://www.mysk.blog/2021/02/08/fb-link-previews/

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#45

Post by walshemj » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC

bouke wrote: post #2

Why not use robots.txt instead of littering your html with googlebot instructions?

robots.txt stops crawling - you can get indexed via other mechanisms.

You want no index robots tags on all your pages and let google see those.

You can use GSC (Google search console) to remove a site / page from the index

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#46

Post by pydry » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #34

Alternatively just use EFF's privacy badger and duckduckgo to stop feeding the beast? Those are active steps you can take - I am not convinced a few metatags will stop Google spidering your site (even if it is invisible in results), and is of questionable value if you are still using Google search and not blocking their scripts.

It's not either/or. you can do both.

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#47

Post by thih9 » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #26

thih9 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to google's own docs, this should work. > You can prevent a page from appearing in Google Search by including a noindex meta tag in the page's HTML code, or by returning a noindex header in the HTTP response. Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/...

I mean technically that says that your site won't appear in search results, not that your site won't be used to profile people, determine other site ratings based on your site's content etc. they won't show your site's content, but that doesn't mean they won't use your site's content.

I thought that (i.e. removing the site from google search) was the goal.

I'd review the other usage on a case by case basis; e.g. determining ratings of other sites seems fair use to me. I'd guess you're allowing others to use your site's content when you're making your site public (TINLA).

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#48

Post by cubano » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 9:13 PM UTC

So if "surveillance capitalism" is apparently the new scare, would "surveillance socialism" be better?

Or are we supposed to imagine that under socialism, there would be no need for Big Tech surveillance? This I most certainly disagree with.

I'm just noticing a trend lately where the word "capitalism" is being attacked on many fronts, and I personally find that troublesome.

Like Churchill said..."Capitalism is absolutely the worse system there is, besides everything else of course"

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#49

Post by jefftk » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 9:14 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #42

jefftk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's so unlikely: on my blog ~30% of visitors come from searches

Sorry my statement was both generalized and specific at the same time, and that did not turn out well. How many visits does your blog have daily? And what would it take you to remove your site from Google index?

> How many visits does your blog have daily?

~200k sessions in the past year, so ~550/d. Breakdown:

* ~30% search

* ~30% no referer

* ~25% HN

* ~7% Twitter/FB/etc

* ~8% other

> what would it take you to remove your site from Google index?

I don't see why I would want to exclude my site from any index? Being in indexes helps people find my writing, which I like!

Re: Removing my site from Google search

#50

Post by michaelt » Sun, Oct 03, 2021, 9:17 PM UTC

cubano wrote: post #48

So if "surveillance capitalism" is apparently the new scare, would "surveillance socialism" be better? Or are we supposed to imagine that under socialism, there would be no need for Big Tech surveillance? This I most certainly disagree with. I'm just noticing a trend lately where the word "capitalism" is being attacked on many fronts, and I personally find that troublesome. Like Churchill said..."Capitalism is absolu…

Presumably the "capitalism" in "surveillance capitalism" is to make it clear they're talking about private companies - as distinct from the traditional concerns about government surveillance.