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A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

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Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#21

Post by kajecounterhack »

melvinram wrote: post #12
redthrowaway wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's ranking of Wikipedia articles is due in large part to Wikipedia's great PageRank ranking. I don't think Google is giving Wikipedia any sort of singled-out treatment, Wikipedia just ranks highly on Google's relevance metrics.

I know... but it still ranks really high and it's annoying because it's usually not the page that has the useful info when I'm searching.

I guess what works for some people doesn't work for others; most often when I'm looking for something I enjoy the wikipedia article on it and think that it's relevant. Also, a lot of times I don't actually go to google but type my query into the search bar (google is set as my default) so a search happens. It takes me to the first site, and most of the time it's wikipedia I want / get.

But I may just be an edge case. Hm.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#22

Post by ericflo »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #21
melvinram wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know... but it still ranks really high and it's annoying because it's usually not the page that has the useful info when I'm searching.

I guess what works for some people doesn't work for others; most often when I'm looking for something I enjoy the wikipedia article on it and think that it's relevant. Also, a lot of times I don't actually go to google but type my query into the search bar (google is set as my default) so a search happens. It takes me to the first site, and most of the time it's wikipedia I want / get. But I may just be an edge case.…

No, I'm in your boat too. I almost always find the answer I'm looking for in the Wikipedia article, if there is one.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#23

Post by benologist »

citricsquid wrote: post #13
Vivtek wrote: post #10

How odd that even a year ago it seemed that the search engine space was closed to new entries, even solved - and now it feels wide open again.

I don't think so, the people using DDG are still a tiny tiny minority. If they did what google did with the browser market when they released Chrome then you would be warranted in saying they blew it wide open, but for what DDG has done with search? I don't think so, not yet anyway. Maybe when they've penetrated beyond the tech "elite" they might get somewhere, but right now if I ask any of my friends (who are relati…

I think the difference is the attitude is different now - when Cuil launched the world laughed and said nothing could be as good as Google. Almost 3 years later a small, insignificant yet maybe not, number of people are starting to use alternatives.

A good parallel could be Firefox - Internet Explorer was the way to browse the internet, now they're just a way.

If Google wants to be the search engine a decade from now they may have to earn that right all over again.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#24

Post by bryanh »

DDG is supplanting labor intensive algorithmic improvements with manually manicured search results. Compared to Google's vast network of resources, it is a logical step for DDG to take. It is, essentially, a fast fix to a real problem.

Google has to do things the hard (and dare I say... proper?) way.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#25

Post by InfinityX0 »

bryanh wrote: post #24

DDG is supplanting labor intensive algorithmic improvements with manually manicured search results. Compared to Google's vast network of resources, it is a logical step for DDG to take. It is, essentially, a fast fix to a real problem. Google has to do things the hard (and dare I say... proper?) way.

DDG is supplanting labor intensive algorithmic improvements with manually manicured search results.

This sentence is a paradox.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#26

Post by zone411 »

redthrowaway wrote: post #8
melvinram wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Google's prominent ranking of Wikipedia articles usually drives me nuts unless it's the only good article around.

Google's ranking of Wikipedia articles is due in large part to Wikipedia's great PageRank ranking. I don't think Google is giving Wikipedia any sort of singled-out treatment, Wikipedia just ranks highly on Google's relevance metrics.

The problem with Wikipedia is that many of their articles are poorly regurgitated versions of other source articles from the Web and that these source articles get no Google credit at all, even if they are linked from the Wikipedia articles, since Wikipedia uses no-follow links. Wikipedia ranks near the top in Google for almost any term for which it has an article, regardless of its quality.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#27

Post by chc »

benologist wrote: post #23
citricsquid wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so, the people using DDG are still a tiny tiny minority. If they did what google did with the browser market when they released Chrome then you would be warranted in saying they blew it wide open, but for what DDG has done with search? I don't think so, not yet anyway. Maybe when they've penetrated beyond the tech "elite" they might get somewhere, but right now if I ask any of my friends (who are relati…

I think the difference is the attitude is different now - when Cuil launched the world laughed and said nothing could be as good as Google. Almost 3 years later a small, insignificant yet maybe not, number of people are starting to use alternatives. A good parallel could be Firefox - Internet Explorer was the way to browse the internet, now they're just a way. If Google wants to be the search engine a decade from now…

People laughed at Cuil because it was laughably bad, not because nobody is allowed to make a search engine.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#28

Post by benologist »

ericflo wrote: post #22
kajecounterhack wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what works for some people doesn't work for others; most often when I'm looking for something I enjoy the wikipedia article on it and think that it's relevant. Also, a lot of times I don't actually go to google but type my query into the search bar (google is set as my default) so a search happens. It takes me to the first site, and most of the time it's wikipedia I want / get. But I may just be an edge case.…

No, I'm in your boat too. I almost always find the answer I'm looking for in the Wikipedia article, if there is one.

Me too. I usually include wiki in the search to make sure I get wikipedia heh.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#29

Post by citricsquid »

chc wrote: post #27
benologist wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the difference is the attitude is different now - when Cuil launched the world laughed and said nothing could be as good as Google. Almost 3 years later a small, insignificant yet maybe not, number of people are starting to use alternatives. A good parallel could be Firefox - Internet Explorer was the way to browse the internet, now they're just a way. If Google wants to be the search engine a decade from now…

People laughed at Cuil because it was laughably bad, not because nobody is allowed to make a search engine.

Yes, I think it would be laughed at today too.

Re: A Duck & a Wiki Team Up Against the Content Farms

#30

Post by zone411 »

I'm sorry but I have big problems with calling DDG a real search engine. Their page states "DuckDuckGo is a search engine like Google." BS. It's a meta search engine that relies on other real search engines, such as Bing, to get the results. If ever becomes a threat to Bing, they'll cut them off in a second. DDG doesn't do the hard and resource-intensive work of crawling and ranking the pages, they just tweak the results of others in ways that gets them publicity on tech blogs.
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