Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#61

Post by bserge » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

jetrink wrote: post #52

MiddleEndian wrote: post #18

uBlacklist is a great tool to block sites you don't want from showing up on your search results on google (and a couple others including bing and duckduckgo). It supports regular expressions as well, I use /pinterest\..*/ to block all pinterest-related content. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...

I wish Google would add that feature natively. Google could even use it to help detect spam sites.

Oh dear God, no. Don't need Google to have even more control. Imagine blocking something and it shows up anyway because Google decided so.

Oh wait, you don't have to imagine, just use Gmail on Android. "Spam? That's not spam" - Google.

Or just Android with it's fucking "notifications" from all the garbage news sites. Tbf, my fault for using Google apps.

Honestly, blocking shit you don't want to see locally is the best solution. Decentralized, under your control, no need to trust BigCorp number 294.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#62

Post by dgb23 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

This is an obvious case of SEO spam. But there are tons and tons of other examples worth mentioning.

For example many news sites have soft paywalls that can easily be circumvented with a few clicks. The reason they don't have an _actual_ paywall is likely to come up in search results. So essentially they spam search results and obscure the content for technical illiterate users instead of just paying for ads. They want their cake and eat it too.

Now this whole dynamic is super weird. We often talk about these issues as if Google was some kind of public service that should make useful and fair search suggestions. Sure they have the incentive to do so, but they have conflicting interests at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#63

Post by bserge » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

terafo wrote: post #35

Sites that do auto translate of original SO threads and pretend that it's their original content are the worst. Google sometimes prefers to give me that results instead of the actual SO thread because I'm not in English-speaking country. I have to waste some time to understand that it's just stolen SO thread. And it's not even that useful because some of them AUTO TRANSLATE CODE .

Lol. Google's absolute insistence that you must want local language results has been a pain in the ass for years.

It's impossible for them to understand. Clearly they have zero people working and living in countries other than their own. /s

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#64

Post by UweSchmidt » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

pupppet wrote: post #9

Really ticks me off that Google allows itself to be so easily gamed, it's your core business for christ's sake.

We have to assume that Google devs see these crappy spammy code websites too on a daily basis, right? What's up with the incredibly strong programmer culture over there, gone already after 20 years? You'd think someone would take these weak search results personally...

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#65

Post by stevesimmons » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

Rastonbury wrote: post #60

Somewhat tangential but I believe Google Search is going downhill, they seem to be losing the content junk spam SEO fight. Recently, I've had to append wiki/reddit/hn to queries I search for because everything near the top is shallow copied content marketing.

> they seem to be losing the content junk spam SEO fight

Google clearly isn't even trying.

So many of these sites are polluting search results for months. It isn't a case of sites that pop up for a few hours until Google notices and blacklists them.

Google Search has gone so far downhill. I'm not sure what they're optimising for. Long-term irrelevance, it seems.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#66

Post by sam0x17 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

It's quite simple. SO has a huge easily indexable database of answers, and SEO scammers can make a quick buck by copying it all and making it seem like they have an answer for unanswered questions. Nothing to see here, blame your search engine.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#67

Post by enobrev » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

jetrink wrote: post #52

MiddleEndian wrote: post #18

uBlacklist is a great tool to block sites you don't want from showing up on your search results on google (and a couple others including bing and duckduckgo). It supports regular expressions as well, I use /pinterest\..*/ to block all pinterest-related content. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...

I wish Google would add that feature natively. Google could even use it to help detect spam sites.

Google used to make it possible to filter domains from results. I was sad to see it disappear

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#68

Post by coryrc » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

yumraj wrote: post #43

nickthesick wrote: post #28

Not only SO threads, I particularly hate the ones that mirror GitHub Issues. They don't even link back to the original thread, for Christ's sake!

And as I had mentioned in another thread, DDG so far ignores them, at least in my 1 case, but Google has those GitHub issues mirror sites as the first results. So they are clearly gaming Google SEO.

I'm getting lots of these in DDG too. Right now I'm doing searches about home renovation and I see lots of pages which are just a rip off of an online forum page (which I find elsewhere in my results, usually). Which, unlike SO, is not licensed for people to copy.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#69

Post by leephillips » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

enobrev wrote: post #67

jetrink wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Google would add that feature natively. Google could even use it to help detect spam sites.

Google used to make it possible to filter domains from results. I was sad to see it disappear

You can still do "-site:spam.com".

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#70

Post by deadbunny » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

yumraj wrote: post #43

nickthesick wrote: post #28

Not only SO threads, I particularly hate the ones that mirror GitHub Issues. They don't even link back to the original thread, for Christ's sake!

And as I had mentioned in another thread, DDG so far ignores them, at least in my 1 case, but Google has those GitHub issues mirror sites as the first results. So they are clearly gaming Google SEO.

Sample of 1 as well but I do see them on DDG, not nearly as much as Google though.