Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#11

Post by codazoda » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 10:57 PM UTC

wk_end wrote: post #2

I'm not using an ad blocker; when I search for Midjourney on Google the real thing is my first result; I don't even see any sponsored content. Not sure what's happening for OP. (Please don't read this as a defense of Google on the whole.)

I get the same results as Op, but on mobile, where there are 4 sponsors above the link. It’s about two screen scrolls to the real result.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#12

Post by jsheard » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 10:58 PM UTC

They do the same thing on the Play Store, for example I just searched for Firefox and the first result is a sponsored spot for Opera. Does Apple do that on the App Store?

A funnier example: searching for Amazon gives Temu as the first result. Searching for Temu gives Shein as the first result. Searching for Shein gives Shein as the first result! ...but only because they outbid everyone else for the ad spot on their own name, resulting in Double Shein: https://i.imgur.com/0buR8Hq.png

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#13

Post by miltonlost » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 10:58 PM UTC

wk_end wrote: post #2

I'm not using an ad blocker; when I search for Midjourney on Google the real thing is my first result; I don't even see any sponsored content. Not sure what's happening for OP. (Please don't read this as a defense of Google on the whole.)

odd, I also don't see any sponsored content any longer for any search whereas I definitely remember seeing what OP has for other searches. But I also now see a tab for AI mode next to ALL which is new... but I also switched to DDG a while ago

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#14

Post by lowdownbutter » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:00 PM UTC

That's not everything that's wrong.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#15

Post by irrational » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:00 PM UTC

jsheard wrote: post #12

They do the same thing on the Play Store, for example I just searched for Firefox and the first result is a sponsored spot for Opera. Does Apple do that on the App Store? A funnier example: searching for Amazon gives Temu as the first result. Searching for Temu gives Shein as the first result. Searching for Shein gives Shein as the first result! ...but only because they outbid everyone else for the ad spot on their o…

I just searched "Firefox" in the app store. The top result is Google Chrome with an Ad indicator (Google paid for higher placement). Second is Firefox.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#16

Post by libraryofbabel » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:01 PM UTC

Relevant (800 comment!) 2024 HN discussion on how we got here with Google Search: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#17

Post by adammenges » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:01 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #7

They still get away with it as ‘only’ 1% complain and Google thinks they don’t matter. We built our entire company for that 1%.

Kagi is so good

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#18

Post by frakt0x90 » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:02 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #7

They still get away with it as ‘only’ 1% complain and Google thinks they don’t matter. We built our entire company for that 1%.

And we are very grateful

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#19

Post by CSMastermind » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:03 PM UTC

I'm old enough to remember when a big selling point of Google was that it didn't do this.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#20

Post by beckthompson » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 11:04 PM UTC

Its sad but I think at this point its kind of a safety issue not to use an ad blocker. Those results are not clearly ads and I've clicked on fake links in the past when they were.