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Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

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Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#161

Post by eproxus »

antihero wrote: post #124
JonathanBuchh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve also been using https://kagi.com for the past couple of days and have found the search results to be unparalleled to both Google and DuckDuckGo. I haven’t come across any SEO spam and the results seem to be of better quality overall. They have all of the same bangs DDG uses and get results from Bing, Google, and a bespoke index. Because they query Bing and Google, it will be pretty expensive when it launches (it…

Hmm, annoyingly some bloody invite based thing instead of just being able to try the damn thing. What is this, 2004?

Apparently their invite, once you receive it, is free to share with anyone. Enjoy:

https://kagi.com/signup?invite_code=adfreesearchengine

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#162

Post by lacksconfidence »

nixcraft wrote: post #152
travisporter wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but dot biz is associated with spam in my head for what it’s worth

A couple of years ago, I was at Google's office, and I talked with someone who works on search about .biz extension. They said domain extension doesn't matter. At that time, they said backlinks is one of the most vital signals apart from some PR. That was like eight years ago. So I never changed the domain name despite owning the .com version too. It will break too many backlinks.

Sure, google might be fine with a .biz. As a human consuming googles responses, my eyes typically glaze over seeing .biz and jump to the next search result. It's not that there is anything particularly wrong with .biz, but this is the first legitimately useful site (to me, probably plenty for others) i've heard of using .biz.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#163

Post by nemosaltat »

fouc wrote: post #123
nemosaltat wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure you’re using “xxx” as “some generic search term” but if you include literal xxx as a search term, you’re almost definitely going to get some skewed search results.

xxx ** ??? same thing, it's obvious by context

As I indicated in my comment, I was “pretty sure” from context, but fowkswe enclosed their whole search term in backticks. I’m not familiar enough with ruby to know if there’s some valid package called “xxx.” Based on fowkswes response to another comment, it’s clear they meant “some variable search term” and not literal “xxx.” Out of curiosity, I tried a few $language xxx searches on Google & DDG. I get mostly porn results for Rust, Ruby, Julia, Bash, Java in both engines with xxx appended. Interestingly, on Google, Python xxx returns mostly programming results.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#164

Post by chiefalchemist »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #128
pluc wrote: post #75

Use a search engine that doesn't fuck up your results instead of trying to unfuck the results it gives you. Why go through this much effort to still give your money to google?

Fully agree, its an endless cats'n'mice game, as SEO spammers create new pages on new domains with automated wordpress deployments in no-time. Instead of a blacklist, a whitelist like a curated list of links à la Yahoo would be better approach, or something with upvote/reputation/karma as on HN.

Funny enough. Years back I poked around Google Custom search. As a laugh I used it to index and search Quora (which was still a high quality site then). But I contemplated setting up a series of specialty search engines (e.g., JavaScript) such that I would feed Custom Search a list of URLs and/or rules for what to index.

I never took any further than "what a cool idea".

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#165

Post by chasebank »

pluc wrote: post #75

Use a search engine that doesn't fuck up your results instead of trying to unfuck the results it gives you. Why go through this much effort to still give your money to google?

Considering this method would be through an ad-block extension, it doesn’t seem as if they would be giving their money to google.

Side question, is there a max number of sites you can block on that list?

Edit: fruedian misread. I thought this was through ublock origin.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#166

Post by andrewnc »

omnicognate wrote: post #84
pluc wrote: post #75

Use a search engine that doesn't fuck up your results instead of trying to unfuck the results it gives you. Why go through this much effort to still give your money to google?

Any recommendation? I use ddg but it's Bing based and the results are no better.

You.com has actually been really good for me.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#168

Post by tobyjsullivan »

ahurmazda wrote: post #82
tyingq wrote: post #55

>become worse lately thanks to all those StackOverflow and Github clones A google search showing some of these leech type sites: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22code+that+protects+users+... For me, "farath.com" is outranking stackoverflow.

I tried you.com[1]. The first few results seem quite relevant. Best part is that you can actually personalize the weights to assign to your search (your very own bubble) https://you.com/search?q=code%20that%20protects%20users%20fr...

This isn't the same search. The parent post had quotes around the phrase. You.com returns identical copy-cat results if you do the same search.

To be fair, not sure what other results we'd expect if we're going to search for a specific, plagiarized phrase.

Edit: actually, upon review, you.com does indeed give one extra useful result within the top three. So one point to gryffindor.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#169

Post by javajosh »

fowkswe wrote: post #102
javajosh wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with ddg has been very positive over the years. Although I think my eyes have gotten good at skipping over the noise in the search results. It might be nice to offload that effort to software.

DDG has no idea of the intent of your search based on your previous searches and unfortunately this generates abysmal results for me when searching for something like `ruby xxx`. Those terms rarely return results about the programming language. I unfortunately end up using Google in these situations, always to immediate success.

I really like that it doesn't "know" me. I've come to appreciate starting from a well-known shared state, often quite empty, and then ranging out from there in my own unique way. I don't want my view of the world to change; I want my behavior to change, which ultimately yields a view of the world that is under my indirect control.

Re: Ask HN: Let's build an HN uBlacklist to improve our Google search results?

#170

Post by xwdv »

throwawayboise wrote: post #154
xwdv wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. It has nothing to do with race. Even in societies where blacks didn’t exist, black has symbolized bad, evil things. It is ridiculous to say a color cannot mean something negative just because it has the same name as a race of people. I also doubt the rest of the world feels using black this way is racist. It seems to be an opinion held only by coddled American minds still trying to cope with the trauma of…

> everything they enjoy about their country was built on the backs of black slave labor. And that isn't true either, and to the extent it is, you can point to any other country and find something terrible in its past if you go back far enough. Man's inhumanity to man is universal, not exclusive to America.

So the point is, using the term blacklist isn’t problematic.
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