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Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

arstechnica.com

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Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#21

Post by jpmattia »

deafpolygon wrote: post #11

Well, fortunately, I never click the "Ad" sponsored links and most of the time I don't see them anyways (uBlock). That doesn't help the other 90% of users online though.

Like many here, I have a sysadmin side gig for my aging dad: uBlock is essentially required as anti-virus software.

While it's great that google figured out how to monetize search by inserting ads, it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result. Now? Not so much.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#22

Post by rcthompson »

deafpolygon wrote: post #11

Well, fortunately, I never click the "Ad" sponsored links and most of the time I don't see them anyways (uBlock). That doesn't help the other 90% of users online though.

Except when they do the thing where the real search results appear first, but then the ad pops in a split second later under your mouse right before you click.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#23

Post by unity1001 »

GavinAnderegg wrote: post #2

Google's search product has become a shadow of its former self. Every year it seems harder to find what I'm looking for. The top half of the first search result page is now (potentially malicious) ads, and what follows is likely SEO spam. I need to add "reddit" or "stackoverflow" to half my searches these days so I'm not served nearly useless results. It's a sad decline from 10+ years ago when I'd type a half-formed…

> It's a sad decline from 10+ years ago when I'd type a half-formed thought into the search box and I'd get the answer.

Incidentally the first algorithm updates to 'combat spam' came around by then, starting with 'Penguin'. They were supposed to cut the spammy sites from search. All that they did ended up being removing small sites, blogs and ecommerce businesses from search results for the benefit of mega companies at the cost of search quality...

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#24

Post by mschuster91 »

azangru wrote: post #5

Took me a while to understand what "using Google to download software" means. Was there a hidden functionality I wasn't aware of? Turns out, what they mean is "don't use Google to search for software you wish to download".

It describes perfectly what users use Google for. Look at your non-IT colleagues over the shoulder while asking them "hey, can you log in to Netflix?"... 60% chance, 90% for older folks, they'll type "Netflix" into the browser bar and click on the first link because they don't realize "Netflix" is not a domain name. Or ask them to "download VLC" - they'll type "download vlc" into the bar and click on the first link, which is what led to a ton of malware in the past [1] (at the moment, at least for me, the top result is clear though).

[1] https://www.chip.de/news/Vorsicht-bei-Windows-11-und-VLC-Fak...

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#25

Post by coldpie »

macintux wrote: post #19
coldpie wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I love Ars, but Dan is definitely their weakest writer. The article is about scammers buying ad space on google to rank their malware above the legitimate google search results. Installing an ad blocker is a great solution.

Typical ad blockers surely don’t filter out Google search results.

The search results are not the problem. The ads are. Ads are placed above search results, so users are more likely to be mislead by them. Installing an ad blocker removes the misleading ads, leaving only the legitimate search results.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#26

Post by dahdum »

GavinAnderegg wrote: post #2

Google's search product has become a shadow of its former self. Every year it seems harder to find what I'm looking for. The top half of the first search result page is now (potentially malicious) ads, and what follows is likely SEO spam. I need to add "reddit" or "stackoverflow" to half my searches these days so I'm not served nearly useless results. It's a sad decline from 10+ years ago when I'd type a half-formed…

> I need to add "reddit" or "stackoverflow" to half my searches these days

It feels truly absurd how many queries I need to append "reddit" to get something useful. The web has changed but Google isn't keeping up.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#27

Post by htrp »

> It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

- Upton Sinclair

Google doesn't exactly care about this because they still get paid for the click. The malware companies are willing to bid extremely high for that single click (since they end up pwning your computer).

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#28

Post by coldpie »

rcthompson wrote: post #22
deafpolygon wrote: post #11

Well, fortunately, I never click the "Ad" sponsored links and most of the time I don't see them anyways (uBlock). That doesn't help the other 90% of users online though.

Except when they do the thing where the real search results appear first, but then the ad pops in a split second later under your mouse right before you click.

Please install an ad blocker.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#29

Post by vehemenz »

It boggles my mind that neither macOS nor Windows has an official, comprehensive package manager. Sometimes the only way to get software is to download binaries from a Google search like it's 2003.

On macOS, 90% of what you'd ever need is on Homebrew—this is more or less a solved problem—but it's still unofficial and Apple promotes their pointless App Store instead.

In Windows land, the unofficial package managers are nowhere near comprehensive (understandable, I guess), but you'd think with Microsoft's approach toward WSL and GitHub, they would have an officially supported HomeBrew-like alternative.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#30

Post by capableweb »

jpmattia wrote: post #21
deafpolygon wrote: post #11

Well, fortunately, I never click the "Ad" sponsored links and most of the time I don't see them anyways (uBlock). That doesn't help the other 90% of users online though.

Like many here, I have a sysadmin side gig for my aging dad: uBlock is essentially required as anti-virus software. While it's great that google figured out how to monetize search by inserting ads, it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result. Now? Not so much.

> it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result

I think the ads used to be more distinct as well, with a different background color even, if I remember correctly. I guess it's a fine line to walk between "It should be obvious what is advertisement" vs "Users should be confused enough to sometimes click the advertisement", and Google chose to go for the latter in order to raise click rates.

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