Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 242 posts

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

#61

Post by gumby »

csours wrote: post #52
voytec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example: music videos may require "-reaction -reacting". But it's the same or worse with DuckDuckGo.

The information landscape is hostile, your attention is valuable, so there is motivation to hijack it.

Sadly there’s disproportionate value. Your attention is only worth a few cents, the criminals' (SEOers, scammer ps etc) cost is miniscule per user, but the cost to each user of the misinformation and wasted time is larger.

Like breaking a shop window to steal something small and easily transported/resold.

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

#63

Post by Foobar8568 »

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…

Unfortunately reddit is spammed with promoters

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

#64

Post by arthurofcharn »

charcircuit wrote: post #46
arthurofcharn wrote: post #34

Google was once considered trustworthy. It never was, but we thought it trustworthy. Where can you find a trustworthy source for software? Depends on your platform. Linux: Your package manager. In my case, apt. Mac: Apple has an app store of its own. Use that, or one of the BSD package management systems ported over. Ios: Apple app store is decently curated. Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up no…

Linux package managers are not trustworthy. That is another case where everyone pretends that it is. Usually packages are created and updated by random people and can be pseudonymous.

Oh crud, you are right. Any idea how to fix this? Perhaps a more curated (and more manageable) list? That would seem to be in conflict with our bazaar model.

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

#65

Post by SysWiz »

Loughla wrote: post #31
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…

Every google search has to have either "+reddit" or "+stackoverflow" depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. And EVERY search for products needs to say "-pinterest".

I saw a Chrome extension that removes Pinterest results called Unpinterested.

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

#66

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #58
i_am_proteus wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, SEO blog spammers are learning to add these terms to their sites.

The problem is they spam the actual forums themselves. I assume all those posts such as “what did buy (for less than $x) that you find most useful” are spammers so they can reply with their own products. And I am sure they are making posts asking for product/restaurant/etc recommendations and then replying to themselves.

I remember encountering this in LinkedIn groups.

I had joined a few (like The Swift Programming Language), and would see questions like "I have this problem , how can I solve it?"

Since (in at least one case) this was a problem I had easily solved, years before, I would provide a detailed, concise, answer, showing how to deal with it in a few lines of code.

My answer would get ignored.

Instead all these replies would show up, saying things like "I added the , and it solved the problem!". These would get voted up, and the original poster would actually engage them.

After seeing a few of these, I realized that LI groups are dumpster fires, and quit them all.

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

#67

Post by justinclift »

arthurofcharn wrote: post #34

Google was once considered trustworthy. It never was, but we thought it trustworthy. Where can you find a trustworthy source for software? Depends on your platform. Linux: Your package manager. In my case, apt. Mac: Apple has an app store of its own. Use that, or one of the BSD package management systems ported over. Ios: Apple app store is decently curated. Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up no…

On windows, Chocolatey (chocolatey.org) also seems to have a decent reputation.

As does PortableApps (portableapps.com).

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

#68

Post by angelbar »

arthurofcharn wrote: post #34

Google was once considered trustworthy. It never was, but we thought it trustworthy. Where can you find a trustworthy source for software? Depends on your platform. Linux: Your package manager. In my case, apt. Mac: Apple has an app store of its own. Use that, or one of the BSD package management systems ported over. Ios: Apple app store is decently curated. Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up no…

For windows you could start with Chocolatey and check filehippo

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

#69

Post by Phrenzy »

dahdum wrote: post #26
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.

YouTube search is even worse. They could do so much to filter the results. But they don't. They don't even give you a full page of results. The give you half a dozen and go "Meh. Search is hard. Here is some completely unrelated videos you might like."
Post reply on HN