For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads • Hacker News Board

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

#391

Post by telesilla » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:43 AM UTC

wakeupcall wrote: post #377

Closi wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am on Kagi Beta but IMO they do not have a valid monetisation strategy that I would pay for. Their current pricing model is planned to be $30 a month for an 'all you can eat' subscription, or $10 a month for a 'lite' membership that gives you 20 searches per day and then charges you $0.02 per search after that on a pay-as-you-go model (but if you check your search history, you may be suprised how many searches you…

I've been using kagi for a while. I was using google+ublacklist, and (mostly) searx prior to that. I only care about search, every other feature (maps, listicles, etc) is worthless to me. So far I've been quite pleasantly surprised. I didn't need to de-prioritize anything yet, and most of my queries are technical. I would pay for it, but like you say, I'm not sure how much. 5$ for unlimited searches is something I'd…

I'm also trialing kagi and have been very happy. $30 might seem steep but I'm happy to be supporting future enterprise for competition in the field.

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

#392

Post by shaky-carrousel » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:43 AM UTC

Hah, you don't even need to do a search now. In my iPhone, as soon as go to google, two thirds of the screen are covered by obnoxious google ads about their crapware "google app".

Guess nobody wants it on iOS and they are going with the "spam the user until they comply", like they do with YouTube Pro. They are the digital equivalent of an abusive partner that doesn't accept "no" as an answer.

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

#393

Post by Thev00d00 » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:44 AM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #386

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #298

I'm just gonna throw this out there as I'm noticing it more and more at this point since switching languages. What the actual F has happened to google search results for programming issues? I used to be able to google a question and get, more or less, a right answer from a forum or stack overflow. Recently, many coding tutorial websites have clearly figured out how to hack googles pageranks and now instead of one 'ri…

100%. Spurious garbage SEO programming sites showing unhelpful code snippets in particular have had a big productivity hit on my coding. I wonder what the people working on those sites think about what they’re doing.

Making money from Ads?

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

#394

Post by ddalex » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:50 AM UTC

systemvoltage wrote: post #25

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.

I'd pay $10/month for a nerd-only, developer-friendly, pro-small-biz, precision search that works like 2008 version of Google. Something that I use dozens of times a day, is totally worth paying for. It is inevitable. It's coming. Algolia? Please?

But would you pay $120 / month ? Because AFAIK that's what Google makes using the current version.

Disclaimer: I work for Google but in no way related to search, business models, or product decisions. My words are my own.

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

#395

Post by tyingq » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:51 AM UTC

mv4 wrote: post #204

tomatofrank wrote: post #201

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,…

but they reported great financial results.

Now that they are taking every spot above the fold for ads for any lucrative query, it will be much harder to maintain YoY % revenue growth figures that exceed viewership growth. Or bigger video monitors, I guess, that make the 'fold' taller.

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

#396

Post by montag » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 10:59 AM UTC

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.

It does feel like a bargain, all things considered. Plus you get YouTube Music.

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

#397

Post by zelphirkalt » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 11:03 AM UTC

ryantgtg wrote: post #273

tomatofrank wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Most of the time duckduckgo doesn’t even acknowledge quotations. I can’t tell if it’s because there aren’t results for when the query contains quotations or if they simply don’t acknowledge them most of the time. Either way it’s annoying and it makes me go back to google every time.

I think you also need to put a + in front, for ddg to pay attention.

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

#398

Post by wila » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 11:10 AM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #155

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. Onl…

Google doesn't care if you buy anything... They are selling clicks to companies that are selling things.

As long as you click on an Ad, google makes money, regardless if you buy something or not.

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

#399

Post by globular-toast » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

omot wrote: post #343

I call this the squeeze. Google, even after all its attempts, is still a one trick pony. They have to grow at least 20% year over year to justify the market cap. They weren’t able to create a two pillar company like Amazon (AWS + Retail) so what do uncreative master executives naturally turn to? Of course their only cash cow. “ Rabban! I place you in charge of Arrakis. It's yours to squeeze, as I promised. I want you…

I've been thinking of that Harkonnen line more and more lately. The film reminded me of it. The unfortunate thing is, as in Dune, the squeeze can last for many years. This is why they warned us about monopolies.

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

#400

Post by trieloff » Sat, Feb 05, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

tradesurplus wrote: post #380

I would pay $10 a month for an ad free search engine that serves objective (not "personalised") query results related to what I'm looking for that doesn't sell my data, with similar features to Google Scholar and ideally even greater granularity , but for the whole web.

Try to get into the kagi.com beta, which could be exactly what you need. The results are fast and accurate, the hardest problem for me was finding the right browser extensions that would make it the default in Safari.