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

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

#131

Post by dragonwriter »

> 2/3rds of Google Searches Now End Without a Click

Isn't that the whole point of Google providing it's own interpretation (sometimes several of them) of an answer to the search query ahead of the classic search results: give users what they are likely to be looking for without requiring another click?

> zero-click search problem

As a user, I see zero-click searches as a benefit, not a problem. It's a problem for people trying to use Google as a “clickstream” to waste my time and try to get a crack at my money, but then, that's exactly why it is a benefit to me.

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

#132

Post by kickopotomus »

Could someone here shed some light on the possible copyright implications of how Google now rips excerpts from web pages and displays them directly on the search results page? A cursory search shows that there have been a few lawsuits in the past[1][2] but they seem mostly related to the act of indexing/caching web pages and the display of thumbnails.

However, Google's new method of extracting and displaying possible answers to queries from external sources instead of simply linking to those sources feels like it falls outside of the bounds of fair use.

[1]: https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33810.html

[2]: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/copyright-law/a-b....

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

#133

Post by tompagenet2 »

monkeybutton wrote: post #127
gonehome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

IMO Google Image search has gone down hill significantly too. Getting full pages of pinterest results was bad enough but now on my phone you have to scroll past multiple screens worth of Google Shopping ads or images tagged with the "Product" icon before you see any actual, organic photos of the thing you're looking for.

I know this sounds implausible, but I find Bing image search so much better than Google.

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

#134

Post by 1f60c »

germanjoey wrote: post #118
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.

A classic example is the instant answer to "who invented running?"

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

#136

Post by ep103 »

monkeybutton wrote: post #127
gonehome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

IMO Google Image search has gone down hill significantly too. Getting full pages of pinterest results was bad enough but now on my phone you have to scroll past multiple screens worth of Google Shopping ads or images tagged with the "Product" icon before you see any actual, organic photos of the thing you're looking for.

Google Images now only returns maybe 1-200 images by default, and if you click show me more, it shows a few hundred. The top results are consistently pinterest garbage, or similar types of spam. Images are consistently diverse from what I've typed in, and results seem curated to show a diverse types of results, which, given the small number of returned relevant images, means I rarely find something that looks like what I'm looking for.

What I've discovered, though, is that what google images now does, is it is only returning a few results. If you click a result, then there's a "new-to-me" "related images" section that shows images similar to THAT image, only in that window. It is in these images that I actually see the results I was expecting to show on the main page.

Its still far worse than google images 10 years ago, but not as bad as the UI makes you believe by looking at the initial results page.

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

#137

Post by sbierwagen »

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…

I was trying to remember the name of a song. Not an obscure song: "Toe Rag" by The Rifles, a modestly well known indie band. I even remembered a chunk of the lyrics! But I got nothing. Here's let's cheat, and copy and paste exactly two lines from the song.

https://www.google.com/search?q=See+them+more+than+my+friend...

I don't know what other people see, but I just get SEO garbage listicles. Nothing even remotely relevant. Add "lyrics"? You get lyrics..... for other songs! https://www.google.com/search?q=See+them+more+than+my+friend...

You have to quote the entire string! Which won't work if you misremembered a word or two.

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

#138

Post by cryptoz »

typon wrote: post #124
gonehome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For pretty much any product or review related search I just do " reddit" and then scour the somewhat up voted posts for information. Have to deal with tons of dead links though for any post older than a couple of years. The Web really seems like it's an awful place. The original dream of hyper links is really dead. It's all about jumping from walled garden to walled garden through tricks and luck.

Google is having trouble determining the date of reddit posts and is also making their filter rules useless. You try to filter last month, a result says 3 days ago and you click, but reddit says it was 2y ago!

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

#139

Post by MAXPOOL »

Search is the most important application of AI inside Google. It's the raison d'être for data collection. So why the search quality decreases?

My current hypothesis is:

Users who click ads and generate ad revenue like this garbage. Google learns to serve this outlier group of users. Killing the experience for everyone else is just a side effect.

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

#140

Post by superasn »

This is going to be happening more and more as technologies like GPT-3 get better and better.

I remember seeing a demo which accurately answered a lot of search questions like who killed Mahatma gandhi, etc just using the GPT-3 model(1). I'm sure Google must have even better models than this and it only makes sense for them to answer the questions directly when there is sufficient confidence level.

(1) https://twitter.com/paraschopra/status/1284801028676653060?l...

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