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For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

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Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#151

Post by dillondoyle »

enumjorge wrote: post #36

The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…

I can't speak to the market, but for me personally the restrictions on ad targeting and more specifically conversion tracking is what made me think FB loses a lot of value - not the reverse in user growth. Though that's not great for a long term window.

It seems the most profitable users don't care and typically engage with the ads. Or they used to before apple came in and lowered the quality.

Arguments about ethics/ads aside

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#152

Post by jackfoxy »

slyzmud wrote: post #125
jws wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line… Reading that line I just realized that google lost me as a YouTube viewer in the past two weeks. I used to follow a bunch of ~100k subscriber channels that produced content every couple of weeks on building things and how to build things. I'd generally watch one or two 10-30 minute videos a day. They've cranked the ads…

Have you tried Youtube premium? We always say companies should move out of the ad revenue model and start charging for the services instead of pushing more ads. For me, paying Youtube premium has been a great decision.

I figured this out about a year ago. As well as ad-free viewing I get YouTube Music, so I don't need to pay for an additional music service.

Now, if they would only stop with the censorship. When in the history of mankind have the censors ever been the good guys?

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#153

Post by UnFleshedOne »

bentcorner wrote: post #132
enumjorge wrote: post #36

The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…

I think the risk here is that adblocking can only grow (and maybe Manifest v3 is the only answer Google has had to that so far). As people become more frustrated with Google they either complain to their friends/family or search online for help and inevitably learn about adblocking. Once they do that they become lost to Google forever. Perhaps the only holdout is mobile. But otherwise ad-tech is poisoning the well fo…

Adblocking works just fine on mobile too, with a few more jumps, at least on adnroid.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#154

Post by keewee7 »

enumjorge wrote: post #36

The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…

>Instead you can go to TikTok where you will find mostly amusing and at times informative content.

TikTok has by far the best recommender system I have ever tried. After an hour of use the system had correctly narrowed down my interests of exoplanets, space exploration, technology, and startups.

However that also means TikTok is the most hypertuned echochamber. I hope people don't get their political views from TikTok.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#155

Post by function_seven »

ssss11 wrote: post #2

Yeah I’ve noticed this too. But also the rest of the front page is often either seo spam (like those Pinterest links which catch whatever search term you’ve used) or shopping sites. I’ve found google search to be increasingly hostile to its customers. I guess we’re not the customers. Use duckduckgo or something else.

My biggest feature request: A check box that says, "[ ] I'm not buying anything"

I don't know how technically hard this would be to implement. Or what business model will resist adding it. I just know that most of my web searches are NOT me trying to buy stuff. They're usually looking up information.

Like, how does the load sensing algorithm work on my LG washer? No chance I'll ever find out by searching the web. Only 200 links to different places I can buy a new one. Or maybe some videos explaining that the feature exists, and "oh and would you like to buy one?"

Maybe I want to know if my GadgetMaster 3000 will work with my WidgetWanker Mark II. Nope, but here's 100 places you can buy those, or maybe the THINGDOODLE brand of knockoffs.

Ok, I'm ranting. Point is: give me a way to restrict my search to only those pages that aren't selling anything. Maybe the heuristic is that the page hasn't changed in 6 months, or uses outdated tags like , or some fancy semantic analysis of the page copy. I don't know. I just wish search results weren't so utterly dominated by e-commerce sites or affiliate spam.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#156

Post by losteric »

krackers wrote: post #67
omnicognate wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not duckduckgo's customer either (their primary revenue source is keyword based advertising), or the customer of anything else you don't pay for. The only one I know of that at least plans to have a simple two-way relationship with search users as their customers is Kagi. Currently it's in free beta with a waitlist (took a week for me). When they go live they intend it to be a paid, subscription service with n…

>Currently it's in free beta with a waitlist (took a week for me) When did you apply? I filled out their survey at the end of december and haven't even received a confirmation email. I tried again a few weeks back with a gmail address, and still nothing. So I guess at least it's already at Google-level customer service.

I got an invite within several days of waitlisting back in January. Unfortunately the invite expired before I got around to signup, so no idea how the service actually performs...

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#158

Post by SCLeo »

bentcorner wrote: post #132
enumjorge wrote: post #36

The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…

I think the risk here is that adblocking can only grow (and maybe Manifest v3 is the only answer Google has had to that so far). As people become more frustrated with Google they either complain to their friends/family or search online for help and inevitably learn about adblocking. Once they do that they become lost to Google forever. Perhaps the only holdout is mobile. But otherwise ad-tech is poisoning the well fo…

Speaking of Manifest v3, I really hope all these adblock extensions secretly work together and on the day Manifest v3 is released, they all display a gigantic red-backgrounded warning on startup telling the user Google Chrome has turned evil and suggesting them switching to Firefox or some other browser.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#159

Post by Ovah »

endisneigh wrote: post #83
cmckn wrote: post #80

To be fair, it depends on the screen. The submission makes it sound like the whole first page is ads, but there’s 4 ads at the top instead of the usual 2-3. It happens to extend to the fold in this Twitter user’s browser. I scroll past all ads out of habit[0], so honestly this doesn’t impact my Google usage. Wish I didn’t have to train that muscle, but here we are. :( [0] my pihole breaks the links anyway

UBlock Origin - available on all major browsers, including iOS (er, this has adblock, but not uBlock in particular) and Android, my friend.

It's sadly not available for the last few major releases of Safari on Mac.
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