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Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

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Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#81

Post by winrid »

dharmab wrote: post #21
yuy910616 wrote: post #19

I never worked in search, curious what are the technical difficulties of implementing a YouTube-style "Don't Recommend This Channel" are? From the outset, the YouTube recommendation can be an offline process, and much easier to scale. Google pretty much has "F-you" level developer man-power to throw at this problem, so I'm somewhat surprised they haven't implemented it yet (the "bad result is good for Google" reasoni…

I'm using Kagi search that allows you to raise, lower or block websites from your search results.

It would be neat to auto block sponsored content. Setup honey pots and just start blocking sites that are notorious for it.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#82

Post by siva7 »

jraph wrote: post #10
neovialogistics wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love the following combination: * A search engine that only crawls and searches a whitelist of sites. * Community functionality to vote on the contents of the whitelist.

Or have it crawl anything but be able to provide allow lists the way uBlock Origin allows picking block lists. But I'm not sure I would want an allow list approach. How to you run into new interesting websites? How would people find your new website? A block list would be good though.

when was the last time you found a new interesting website over google search? i can’t even remember and i used google daily.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#84

Post by whiplash451 »

neovialogistics wrote: post #9
2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #4

It's really disturbing just how bad Google search has become. For so many cases Google actually is only useful as a search interface for Reddit, StackOverflow, and other sites that accumulate (and actually garbage collect) knowledge. Without such a qualifier Google will just give you absolute SEO trash results for many types of searches.

I'd love the following combination: * A search engine that only crawls and searches a whitelist of sites. * Community functionality to vote on the contents of the whitelist.

I think you.com is close to your first bullet point

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#85

Post by faangsticle »

jraph wrote: post #5

Maybe this is a good time to mention the Web Archives browser extension [1] that offers links to various cache / archive providers for any page you visit from a toolbar button. There are many such extensions, this is the one I've been using occasionally. Simple but very useful. I haven't tried since the beginning of the Reddit strike though, I don't use Google and I only very occasionally run into Reddit pages. I kno…

Didn't google used to show a link to their cached version for every result?

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#86

Post by moneywoes »

asdff wrote: post #29
neovialogistics wrote: post #2

I think there is a third cause: the low visibility of high quality non-Reddit forums on Google against the tide of low-quality results. There's some kind of SEO exploit that Google is unable to counter. Apparently, by creating bot accounts on a semi-reputable social media platform like LiveJournal, Baidu or Reddit and having them post endless links to each other from website X, website X is inflated on Google even if…

Google loves to group results by domain too. Say you search for something related to your hobby. Somewhere on the page is going to be a hit from the forum for that hobby, but just below it in a smaller font will be like a half dozen sub hits from that same domain, then that's all there is for that domain in the search results. Never mind that all the relevant knowledge online on this something might be contained in t…

Doesn’t it depend on the domain authority of the back links?

Sites like Reddit are no follow so I don’t understand why a bot reposting links there would bolster its ranking

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#87

Post by jraph »

siva7 wrote: post #82
jraph wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or have it crawl anything but be able to provide allow lists the way uBlock Origin allows picking block lists. But I'm not sure I would want an allow list approach. How to you run into new interesting websites? How would people find your new website? A block list would be good though.

when was the last time you found a new interesting website over google search? i can’t even remember and i used google daily.

I don't use Google, but I certainly want my search engine to return interesting and relevant stuff I don't know about.

I don't keep track of my discoveries, but I found some cool recipes even recently hosted on (sometimes independent) websites I didn't know.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#88

Post by [deleted] »

neovialogistics wrote: post #9
2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #4

It's really disturbing just how bad Google search has become. For so many cases Google actually is only useful as a search interface for Reddit, StackOverflow, and other sites that accumulate (and actually garbage collect) knowledge. Without such a qualifier Google will just give you absolute SEO trash results for many types of searches.

I'd love the following combination: * A search engine that only crawls and searches a whitelist of sites. * Community functionality to vote on the contents of the whitelist.

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#89

Post by Rapzid »

olalonde wrote: post #63
Rapzid wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get a ton either which is odd because I OFTEN add "reddit" onto my search and get way better results for what I'm looking for. Kinda odd how Google search hasn't learned yet that Reddit results are higher quality, at least for me? Almost like it's not optimizing for quality of results... It's almost like Google's optimizing for revenue on results has created the Reddit situation. Can't find better results wit…

> I don't get a ton either which is odd because I OFTEN add "reddit" onto my search and get way better results for what I'm looking for. Could you give some example queries?

Yep! Here is a classic false consensus effect that's very prevalent on the internet: What temperature should you cook a chicken breast to?

If you search "what temperature should I cook a chicken breast to" I'm actually surprised that one of the top 10 results is from The Spruce Eats and gives good advice, but the rest are flooded with sites parroting USDA recommendations. A problem in general I personally face searching for anything food or health related is that top results are all sites regurgitating the same information with nothing new added.

Now search "what temperature should I cook a chicken breast to reddit". First hit has a post with some really good info in the top two comments. Second hit is "Stop Cooking Chicken Breasts to 160°F (71°C)". Excellent advice right in the title.

I'll give examples of other topics I get better info faster on via Reddit:

* Fixing just about anything; troubleshooting appliances, home repair, video card issues, linux laptop compat issues, etc

* Hobby related stuff; RC cars, electronics, etc

* Home improvement/repair related stuff; flooring, HVAC issues, and this could go on the first point but it's really its own world

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