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

In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

sparktoro.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 412 posts

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#111

Post by andrewmcwatters »

About a decade ago or so, I remember complaining about Google's search result quality having already declined then. Specifically, I think my complaint was that the search results were a lot higher quality in the mid-2000s, and then from then on, the search results ended up becoming progressively more sanitized and crafted.

So, I mean, we're way, way past Google's heyday. It's not even close. But it's interesting to me that I can recall having those discussions that many years ago, and that people still complain about the same issue today.

In fact, just about every other search engine is better in my opinion.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#112

Post by cgriswald »

prepend wrote: post #40
allochthon wrote: post #9

Often I'm looking for a Wikipedia page, and it seems that in the past year or so Wikipedia pages have been moved way down on the first page of search results, especially if the topic is a medical one.

I noticed this too and now suffix any query that I think Wikipedia is best at with “wiki.” This is faster for me that opening Wikipedia and searching.

I add “wiki” too, but I made it a keyword search command to use Wikipedia’s search and cut out the middleman altogether.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#113

Post by queuebert »

gonehome wrote: post #63
BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

When I search Google now I mostly get spam. “Product vs. Product” -> list of spam websites that just show them side by side with ads. “Product Review” -> same as above, spam. “Product referral code” -> sites with spam and no codes. Interesting web content is in Reddit (and youtube), Google exists as a tool to search Reddit since the “new” Reddit site is awful. Programming questions are mostly stack overflow, but occa…

You can search Reddit from DuckDuckGo by adding '!r' to your search terms. This is how I search most of the time these days for the exact reasons you mention above. DuckDuckGo has many other bang shortcuts like that too, like '!w' for Wikipedia. Actual search engine results are too manipulated, but they make great link aggregators.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#114

Post by shadowgovt »

sharkweek wrote: post #38

Many moons ago, I put a ton of work into a (now defunct) content site that provided specific information in a small vertical. Each post took hours, but I enjoyed writing the articles, and the revenue from the ads was enough to enjoy a little extra cash every month (we're talking just about enough to cover a car payment, for context). Google decided they liked a lot of the content and started providing it in their kno…

Will content creators stop, or will a new payment model that isn't "pay for eyeballs" arise?

The financial sources for information-collection-and-creation undertakings throughout human history have been manifold (wealthy patron and collective financing, to name two). It is entirely possible, if Google finds its data sources drying up, that Google itself will pay for data collection (they already do this with several categories of data they host).

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#115

Post by plorkyeran »

vkou wrote: post #72
bmitc wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It drives me crazy how Google never fails to remove the most unique and yet most important words of my search term. It basically does this 99% of the time now.

If you force the term to stay, you'll get two search results, neither of which answer your question. The web of 2021 sucks.

Google's search index of the web of 2021 sucks. Getting two search results which match the exact terms I got is no longer particularly strong evidence that those were the only pages with those terms, and quite a few times I've had it fail to find pages which do exist and should have matched the search I did.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#117

Post by angryasian »

moate wrote: post #27
croes wrote: post #12

At some point Google will overdo it and they will be split up.

I think that time was "a while ago" and they're still running because the US doesn't actually care that much about virtual monopolies.

Monopolies are a barrier to entry. I don't think any of google's products prevent that. As we see in most technology over the last 20 years, the companies at the top can change fast.

A company that creates a better search engine, will easily take over search. Next gen of search will be better at providing more relevant / less spam

Youtube does have some network effect and high costs but not enough to stop anyone from competing and vc money evens out the costs. Next gen in video may offer more features, or for a completely different platform like VR

The only platform I do see them having a strong ability to block out potential competition would be mobile and Android.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#118

Post by germanjoey »

sharkweek wrote: post #38

Many moons ago, I put a ton of work into a (now defunct) content site that provided specific information in a small vertical. Each post took hours, but I enjoyed writing the articles, and the revenue from the ads was enough to enjoy a little extra cash every month (we're talking just about enough to cover a car payment, for context). Google decided they liked a lot of the content and started providing it in their kno…

In my experience, "Google Instant Answers" are more often than not factually incorrect. It makes me queasy every time I see that... it speaks volumes that's so much more important to them that they keep you on the page that they'd rather give you wrong information than let you go.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#119

Post by ImpressiveWebs »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

Google doesn’t want people to find alternative sources for news, healthcare, and politics. They now force all the mainstream sources to the top, regardless of whether the search terms entered have any relation to the actual results. And this seems to have carried over to other subjects as well, because I can never find obscure pages any more.

This should destroy Google, but for some reason it doesn’t, and it baffles me that they are still surviving in this.

Re: In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click

#120

Post by purerandomness »

Arnt wrote: post #82
BitwiseFool wrote: post #15

Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional. There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic…

Dramatically worse... if that's true, then I wonder how good they were a decade ago. Because every search I've done today produced the result I wanted on the first page of the results, above the fold. I can't say I've really counted how many days that's true. I can't even say that I really remember what searches I did yesterday or the day before. But if I'm not totally weird and google searches were dramatically bett…

> every search I've done today produced the result I wanted on the first page of the results, above the fold.

Same for me, but that's because I just stopped searching for things that I know will not give me good quality results as they used to be circa pre-2010 back when search tools like +, -, and "" still worked and the results weren't filled with generated SEO texts.

Post reply on HN