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Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

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Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#101

Post by cwkoss »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #88
cletus wrote: post #15

So a common trope in the startup world is the difference between a feature and a company, the idea being that lots of features are masquerading as companies. This inevitably leads to them being shocked--SHOCKED--when some bigger player adds that feature, eating their lunch. I feel the same way about a lot of outbound sites on Google. There are a bunch of things I just don't want to go to another site for. Off the top…

Song lyrics really ought be from a rights holders site and not j random site with questionable translations - I have seen some lyrics sites that totally mangle the meaning of basic English words.

They "ought" to be, but I fear that regulation censoring these low quality sites would be worse for society in the long run.

Monopolization of cultural information is antisocial.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#102

Post by C1sc0cat »

rabidrat wrote: post #13
laputan_machine wrote: post #3

I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…

How many times does your first search query result in a page you want to click on? It usually takes me a couple of tries for anything interesting I'm looking for.

Even more with mobile as mobile search with auto complete tends to generate partial queries you then refine to the query you really wanted

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#103

Post by zuuow »

jnaddef wrote: post #65
jnaddef wrote: post #61

When I read the title I thought it was going to be an article praising Google, but the author seems to actually think less clicks is bad? I remember back in the early 2000s when I had to click through 1st to 10th result trying to find what I was looking for, sometimes even having to go to 2nd page of results. Now I use search for everything : name of a built-in function, quick calculation, checking the spelling or wo…

I would still recommend clicking on the link for coding issues, sometimes the algorithm will get you a snippet of SO's accepted answer even though it is not correct : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20149304/how-to-set-the-...

The correct answer in SO questions is always the most voted one, not the accepted one. I always check for that. I think I've seen SO recently sort the answers of a certain question by number of votes by default but I might be wrong

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#104

Post by netwanderer3 »

Ok so Google is a monopoly in this sector that's pretty clear, but what's the real problem here? Their competitors offer inferior products so we don't really have a case. Until they can develop better technology or offer superior products than Google's and still are unable to gain market shares then that's when we will have a real case.

Besides, for any business to continue leading long-term in modern days it's inevitable it must seek to become a monopoly, or at least part of a duopoly.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#105

Post by wongarsu »

luckylion wrote: post #30
michaelmrose wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you once communicated the fact that 2+2 is 4 and Joe makes very good spaghetti you own the copyright to the text you published but neither the fact nor the opinion belongs to you in any meaningful way nor should it.

That's true, but a collection of facts ("a database") falls under copyright.

Not sure why you are downvoted. In the EU databases fall under copyright, which indeed leaves the question how google legally deals with this (technically database right isn't copyright, but in this context that's a technicality).

Also, to quote from the Wikipedia article [1]: An owner has the right to object to the copying of substantial parts of their database, even if data is extracted and reconstructed piecemeal

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_right

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#106

Post by ska »

buboard wrote: post #43

Just remove your microdata and other site-specific metadata. HTML was fine to begin with, its not our problem if facebook or google can't read a tag properly. Everyone forgives the transgressions that google does because "it's Google", but when Elsevier does the same thing (appropriating and locking other people's IP for huge profits), they 're starting riots.

> but when Elsevier does the same thing [... ]they 're starting riots

To be fair, that's a slow burn. Academics have been talking about this for decades now.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#108

Post by nostromo »

SilasX wrote: post #52
puranjay wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your stand, but what Google did with its featured snippets is essentially a form of bait and switch. It encouraged entrepreneurs and creators to create content that could answer specific queries with the promise that Google will drive traffic to their sites. Now Google is using the same content and depriving them of the traffic. That's pretty scummy in my opinion.

Hm, I think there's scumminess on both sides, since (as GP noted) even simple sites (e.g. for lyrics) are bloated and unusable. Before: User: Hey Google, what's the monthly payment on a 20-year mortgage with 3.9% APR? Google: Oh, MortgateSite would know, go there. MortgageSite: Here's your calculator. User: Okay, let me put in the numbers ... awesome, thanks! Oh, neat, they can hook me up with lenders. Let me take a…

Google could fix that if they wanted to.

I remember when Google used to push content developers to be better: no paywalls, no overlays, faster response times, no scammy ads, no content farms.

Those days seem to be over. Google is constantly sending me to content behind paywalls and under pop up content.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#109

Post by sli »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #86

I think what folks are missing is that a lot of these "zero-click" searches happen as a result of Google scraping your website, and displaying the results as a "featured snippet." Yes, they link to you below the featured snippet. No, more people don't click, because they've taken the answer from your website and displayed it right in their search results. For example: If I'm searching for "best nail for cedar wood" G…

On top of all that, Google's snippets aren't curated and therefore, aren't always correct. They can be (and almost certainly are) gamed. Users that don't click through open themselves up to carrying on being misinformed.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#110

Post by concert-gilled »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #31
cletus wrote: post #15

So a common trope in the startup world is the difference between a feature and a company, the idea being that lots of features are masquerading as companies. This inevitably leads to them being shocked--SHOCKED--when some bigger player adds that feature, eating their lunch. I feel the same way about a lot of outbound sites on Google. There are a bunch of things I just don't want to go to another site for. Off the top…

If I want exchange rates I type xe.com in the address bar

I don't know about Google but DuckDuckGo pulls conversions from Xe. It is much quicker to duck the conversion than to find it after hitting Xe's homepage.
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