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For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

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Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#132

The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…

I think the risk here is that adblocking can only grow (and maybe Manifest v3 is the only answer Google has had to that so far). As people become more frustrated with Google they either complain to their friends/family or search online for help and inevitably learn about adblocking.

Once they do that they become lost to Google forever.

Perhaps the only holdout is mobile. But otherwise ad-tech is poisoning the well for themselves.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#133
google.com/maps is also a pain nowadays, with almost half the space of my (smallish laptop) screen being ads and controls. I'm glad I don't own stock in this company, because they are on the wrong side of the advertising Laffer curve, and moving back will be difficult because customers have choices and are unlikely to come back.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#134
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line… Reading that line I just realized that google lost me as a YouTube viewer in the past two weeks. I used to follow a bunch of ~100k subscriber channels that produced content every couple of weeks on building things and how to build things. I'd generally watch one or two 10-30 minute videos a day. They've cranked the ads…

Have you tried Youtube premium? We always say companies should move out of the ad revenue model and start charging for the services instead of pushing more ads. For me, paying Youtube premium has been a great decision.

I want to support the content creator first and foremost. That's not how premium works.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FB used outrage as a way to increase engagement with their product and it worked for a while, but now FB is increasingly a non-desirable place to hang out. > Instead you can go to TikTok where you will find mostly amusing and at times informative content. Tiktok does this very well. I usually end up feeling good after using TikTok. On the other hand Twitter makes me stressed, FB is not much used by my friends age g…

Should we be concerned if the goal of a social network is to just make people feel well? (This is a serious question to ponder as a society perhaps (or just for me).) The goal of these products of course is to keep people around.

Not to feel good as a goal but certainly as an effect of positive human interaction and experience. It's a desired outcome that interaction with the product makes you happy.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#136
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how search results for "car rentals new york" look like on my display, there are no organic results above the fold. https://i.imgur.com/CFeWDY1.png As for your question, there is no point in trying to replicate results for the same query, search results and the displayed ads can wildly differ for the same query based on a large number of factors.

Quoted post unavailable.

So if I have a 2000px tall browser I'm going to see a dozen ads? Why?

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#138
post #85
post #47

I feel like using search engines has become a "jargon arms race" where you have to be smart enough to figure out the right combination of synonyms for what you want, that advertisers, seo spammers, and regulators haven't figured out how to stimey yet. Jargon is almost like a different language at this point, where if you know how to speak in esoteric jargon you have unfettered access to information, and if you don't,…

Even that doesn't help in cases as Google will interpret your jargon filled query to something that's a lower common denominator and return irrelevant results regardless.

Absolutely. It will either ignore the terms, or claim that no results are found.

Perhaps it no longer indexes as much as it used to, at least for noncommercial content.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Youtube premium? We always say companies should move out of the ad revenue model and start charging for the services instead of pushing more ads. For me, paying Youtube premium has been a great decision.

I want to support the content creator first and foremost. That's not how premium works.

I know the creators get at least some of it. I have no idea if it's more or less than they would get with ads. I also pay for premium, and I'm fine with Google getting some of it. After all, it's not free to host and stream millions of petabytes of data. I really enjoy YouTube without the ads. It might actually be one of the last videos streaming services I'd get rid of.
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