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Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

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Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#141

Google is so unbearable because they are no longer interested in you finding the answer to your query; they're interested in selling your query and its context to the highest bidder. That conflict of interest manifests in what Google has become.

I'm using Google less and less in favor of Youtube. It's not always convenient to get answers in video form, but I'm finding it's better for more involved answers. Also, google is just littered with Answers/Quora/StackOverflow/etc dodgy clones that make searching questions a nightmare.

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Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#142
In this specific case, it's a great example of how Google's attempts to keep people on Google has made search worse.

It's showing this result as a featured snippet because it's easy to distil into steps, and Google is hoping you'll just read the result and not leave Google.

The real 'no.1 result' is this much better article from a trusted UK-based motoring organization: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/car-maintenance/how-to-ch...

Of course, Google's attempts to stop you leaving, and hoover up as much of the ad market as possible, also drives publishers to ever more desperate things to make money.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#143
This is a great idea. I tried doing this with all of the .edu domains on the former DMOZ and created this for simple searches: https://locserendipity.com/edu.html?q=astronomy

Also, I created a pure JavaScript (no dependency, tracking, or downloads!) bookmarklet that kills all the links in a page and turns it to plain text with a visual optimization algorithm applied to make it easier to read: https://locserendipity.com/Hyper.html

The internet is much better without all the cruft.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#145

Well whether you add “site:.edu” or not, Google still does the thing where they just spit out a pile of extra “matches” that don’t contain your search phrase AT ALL . Just thrown into the list, as if they have any business being there (oh wait, they do have business: Google’s business). Frankly, if it’s not reliable as a tool, it has no real value and I can’t believe it has come to this. Imagine if every time you ran…

Open source alternatives are the cure (in the case of Mac hacking their search results to drive some arbitrary metric so some random PM gets promoted somewhere)

A lot harder to track me using linux instead and constantly pushing my company to allow people to use linux machines for dev

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#146

I feel like Google could filter out a lot of SEO spam by simply ignoring or downranking heavy sites. Everything that loads more than "n MB" is probably bloated and made to trick you into buying something or generating traffic without providing value. Another method could be to analyze how many external requests a page makes and put that into the calculation. Of course, there are exceptions, but I think this might hel…

generating traffic without providing value

Those sites generate plenty of value ... for Google. Even if they're not showing Google adverts, those sites normalize the idea that "websites have adverts", so users don't question it on other sites.

If Google started returning sites with low numbers of adverts first then users would start demanding more sites with fewer ads. Google really don't want to show fewer adverts.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#147
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who do you expect will provide that content for you, for free?

The millions of people that write and produce content without being tied to this Protestant mentality that something is only worth doing if it is profitable. In fact, I'd wager that if we had a way to filter for content that is written without the goal of being monetized, we'd have a better web and us consumers would be more inclined to reward and give back to the creators generously.

The Kagi search engine which is close to entering public beta has lenses which tailor the search experience. There is a non-commercial lens. The lenses are basically on or off all the time and affect the overall search results.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#148
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ban their old businessmodel, and they will come up with a new one. Or let Musk buy them.

How do you propose to bring about such a ban?

There are many ways laws could be written to would effectively ban the current online advertising business model. One could be to require written permission each and every time a company wants to transfer user data of any kind to anyone else. Google could try keeping all Google site collected data internally but all analytics data collected from non-Google sites would be forbidden without written permission for each and every instance.

Every site would have to run their own data analysis and sell their own ads. Advertisers would be unlikely to take Google or anyone else's word, so audits would be necessary but difficult to conduct. It wouldn't completely end online advertising but would turn it back into something closer to the old traditional model where those selling ad space had a handful of semi-generic personality models for their readers/users and advertisers would select one that best matches the profile of their target customer. It destroys the economics of centralized data collection.

There are many other laws that could accomplish a similar end but through different means. The biggest barrier would be getting politicians to not care about the demands of huge tech companies that dump endless amounts of money into lobbying and campaign funding.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If other content that doesn’t have those annoyances matches my search query then I would absolutely want to see it first. This would also put pressure on content creators to tone down the ads or explore alternative monetization models.

Do you pay for Consumer Reports?

I paid for Which? which is the UK equivalent. Would've subscribed again when I needed it (and there's been a few times since) but their dark pattern upon unsubscription put me off from going anywhere near them again.

I also spend 50£/month on Patreon to support the creators I watch regularly.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. What the search space needs is a different business model. I have no idea what it could be. I'm quite sure a subscription model would fail. Micropayments have not taken off. How can we fund meaningful search divorced from an ad business?

I've been using Kagi[1] in private beta; they plan to launch a subscription model very soon. I hope it works out. [1] https://kagi.com/faq

I just searched "how to fix a flat tire" on both Google and Kagi and got pretty similar results. Different in display but no .edu links in sight.
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