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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

#281
Google's only way to seriously grow revenue is to throw more ads in front of their users. This always, eventually, hits a breaking point where the ads become too much and erode the user experience.

Any company that relies primarily on ad revenue is built on a house of cards. It can be highly profitable, but it is fragile.

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

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite experience most of the time. I’ve been trying to use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine but I end up clicking my Google bookmark a lot of the time because the DDG results are so low quality. I have no doubt there are edge cases where Bing/DDG outperform Google, but most of the time I have better luck with Google.

Yeah, Google is still my default browser, though I haven't used other engines enough to develop a strong opinion here. I'll add that I could have been more clever with my query. For instance, if I surround the lyric in quotes, Google returns the right result first. Original query: like you didn't care I don't know why lyrics r&b Improved query: "like you didn't care I don't know why" lyrics r&b At the end of the day,…

I'm still on dogpile. It gets me where I need to go most of the time.

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

#283

Just as I saw this link a notification popped up on my Pixel phone: > Trending: "Turkey inflation rate" > See search results I've already put a lot of effort into purging as many categories of Google spam notifications from my phone as possible, but they just keep adding new categories that I have to track down and opt out of individually. And the only way to silence them from the notification itself is to block all…

I like my pixel phone. It runs GrapheneOS, and it only took a few hours of futzing to get the camera to perform like stock.

(The wireless charging stand is a different story. It has a fan, and the only way to disable the fan involves running some system extension that requires deep kernel integration with the factory version of Android. Other than that, it's been remarkably trouble free.)

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

#284
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.

Honestly I’ve been interrupted by relentless pleas so many times for YouTube premium that I just don’t consider it a “positive” thing. I could cancel my Patreon payments to the content creators and redirect that money to Google, who would then give a small fraction of it to the creators. That doesn’t seem like I’m dealing with an ethical hosting service.

I’ll probably look through the Patreon pages in a few weeks, see who I still care about, and see if they have alternative video feeds that aren’t so ad littered. Those can remain, the rest I’ll cancel.

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

#285
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. Onl…

This is the summary of the second hit on Duck Duck Go (the first hit is a troubleshooting article about the feature):

> A built-in load sensor automatically detects the laundry load and a microprocessor optimizes washing conditions such as ideal WATER LEVEL and washing time. Turbo drum washing (option) When "Punch + 3" washing wings turn, the washing tub turns in the opposite direction.

I accidentally searched for this:

load sensing algorithm work on my LG washer?

Adding "how does the" to the beginning of the search gives this as the second hit:

> Water level sensing in LG washers is done differently from how you may be used to seeing it done in other brands. Whirlpool, GE, Electrolux and others use an air tube connecting an air dome on the tub to a pressure sensor with a physical diaphragm or transducer that "feels" the water level increase as an increase in pressure inside the air tube.

Which seems more promising, but I didn't click through.

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

#286
post #7

Try neeva . com it's really similar to google but with none of the garbage experience from ads and SEO Spam. I switched from duckduckgo to neeva recently and have enjoyed it wayyy more.

What do you like about Neeva vs DDG

Unlike DDG, Neeva is ad free. It also has a bunch of additional features.

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

#288

Last night I watched a YouTube video that had a song in the background that I hadn't heard but really liked. I pulled up Shazam but it didn't recognize the song, so I took to Google. I entered the lyric and added the search terms "lyrics" and "r&b" at the end. Google returned 4 YouTube videos to songs that didn't contain the lyric, a link to a Boyz II Men song on Genius that didn't contain the lyric (good job Google,…

I'm still bitter that they've deprioritized results from SongMeanings.net in favor of garbage like Genius. The former is one of the only sources for lyrics from smaller acts, especially from the 90's to early 2010's. Since it's from the pre-Web 2.0 era, it's disappeared from Google's search results.

I don't know anything about google internals, but in many other applications the search engine is optimized on long-term engagement and profit data. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out google optimized page rankings based on the profit google earns from it's ad business on the page.

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

#289
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still bitter that they've deprioritized results from SongMeanings.net in favor of garbage like Genius. The former is one of the only sources for lyrics from smaller acts, especially from the 90's to early 2010's. Since it's from the pre-Web 2.0 era, it's disappeared from Google's search results.

I don't know anything about google internals, but in many other applications the search engine is optimized on long-term engagement and profit data. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out google optimized page rankings based on the profit google earns from it's ad business on the page.

The evidence supporting this is the 4 YouTube videos at the top of the list, followed by 3 of those 4 YouTube videos on page 2 (LOL).

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

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Since the end of WW2, Germany has made spreading Nazi propaganda and denying the holocaust illegal.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-ant...

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