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Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

bbc.com

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Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#11

Post by nycdatasci »

skilled wrote: post #3

Honestly, bravo at BBC for whoever green-lighted this story. It puts the finger right on where it hurts for small publishers and illustrates Googles new way of thinking. I am sad but also frightened for small creators and those who simply share interesting information once in a while. Google is bulldozing these people away from anywhere near the AI answers or the ten blue links below it. The article didn’t mention it…

This was inevitable. Traditional search is an inefficient way to access information in a world with large AI models. Google is being forced to do this due to competition from openAI, meta.ai, perplexity, etc.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#12

Post by dherikb »

david-gpu wrote: post #4

Over the past several months I find Google search has become completely useless to find anything other than online retailers. I thought it may have been just something about my profile, but this article suggests it may have been an update on their end. Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

I have a different perception, really. They are promoting more the Reddit results in the last months and, at least for me, I'm able to find faster what I want.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#13

Post by joshstrange »

> A spokesperson for Google tells the BBC that the company only launches changes to Search after rigorous testing confirms that the shift will be helpful for users, and that the company gives website owners help, resources and opportunities for feedback on their Search rankings.

If you believe this I've got a bridge to sell you. The idea that Google does anything other than to improve its bottom line (in the _shortest_ possible timeline) is lunacy. Just look at Google constant short-sightedness and their parasitic ad team pushing the search team (before taking it over effectively) to find ways to increase the searches (which means a worse user experience).

Of course Google doesn't care about quality sites, they care about what makes them the most money, the user be damned. Anyone with an ounce of morality or care about the actual user experience was run out or relegated long ago.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#14

Post by jmyeet »

So I'm normally skeptical of the anecodata you see on HN and elsewhere ("Google is now useless, I switched to DuckDuckGo 23 years ago") but it seems like Google has done rather big things here:

1. Greatly increased the weight of doamin authority. This... seems desperate;

2. Increased the weight of reddit. Google have probably noticed how many people add "reddit" or "site:reddit.com" to search terms. I do this too. It's true for a lot of topics with all the AI-bot and affiliate astroturfing out there, Reddit can often be the only source for genuine commentary.

But Reddit has a dirty little secret: it's really easy to complete change the content and character of a subreddit. You see this on controversial topics. It only takes 100-200 people (or less with bots) to completely transform a subreddit.

User generated content sites have techniques to find socket puppets, brigading and the like but it's an arms race. 80% of my Tiktok follows come from crypto scam and p0rn bots. I imagine Twitter is the same way. The bots continue to get better too. Those same algorithms can be used to keep bot activity below the threshold for detecting voting rings.

So Google's increased reliance on Reddit will probably escalate the astroturfing and botting on Reddit and honestly, I don't think Reddit is up to the job of defending against this.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#15

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

predictsoft wrote: post #10

Didn't Peter Norvig used to be director of search quality? And now Head of research? Maybe they should bring him back to increase that search quality.

Or the executive/management team could start using Google search themselves so they can see how bad the results are for their users. Pretty common to dogfeed in the software business yet Google seems to ignore this approach.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#16

Post by anonzzzies »

predictsoft wrote: post #10

Didn't Peter Norvig used to be director of search quality? And now Head of research? Maybe they should bring him back to increase that search quality.

Shareholder ROI is all you need to know that they won’t let Norvig decide anything outside purely tech stuff.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#17

Post by beretguy »

david-gpu wrote: post #4

Over the past several months I find Google search has become completely useless to find anything other than online retailers. I thought it may have been just something about my profile, but this article suggests it may have been an update on their end. Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

> Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

I’ve been using ddg since around 2016, but in the past few months I realize that brave gives me better results and Kagi even still better. So I’m switching to brave/Kagi combo. Brave for when i need to find easy stuff and Kagi when really need to find something.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#19

Post by viraptor »

michelb wrote: post #8

This is good. Because it now will make way more sense to compete with Google on searching the internet, since they screwed it up. They’re are panicking and defending their bottom-line instead of innovating and leading. I think internet search is now ripe for disruption. Still need deep pockets but it’s now increasingly easier to be much better at search than Google.

I do like the competition starting to happen again. A lot of the articles seem to concentrate on how Google should do better. But there are so many sites that any change they do will break someone random. With best possible checks, it's just not realistic that there will be no mistakes.

We'd be better with 5 players doing things slightly differently. Nobody would get completely wiped by a single change.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#20

Post by sedatk »

beretguy wrote: post #17
david-gpu wrote: post #4

Over the past several months I find Google search has become completely useless to find anything other than online retailers. I thought it may have been just something about my profile, but this article suggests it may have been an update on their end. Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

> Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience. I’ve been using ddg since around 2016, but in the past few months I realize that brave gives me better results and Kagi even still better. So I’m switching to brave/Kagi combo. Brave for when i need to find easy stuff and Kagi when really need to find something.

Agree on that Kagi's better.
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