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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

#251

Post by creamynebula »

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.

Indeed, recently I tried Yandex for the first time and the results were way better for everything I had to search in the past 2 months since discovering it.

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

#253

Post by Const-me »

reaperducer wrote: post #148
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 results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. A lot of people say this is because Google is worse at returning the desired search results for various reasons (algos, ads, spam, etc). I've come to suspect it is more deliberate on the part of Google. I've said it before, so I'll belt out the chant again: "Google doesn't make money from providing the right search results. Google makes money from k…

And another reason, Google makes money when you click on low-quality machine generated search results, because these pages are almost always monetized with google ads. This causes a conflict of interests: when they improve search, they earn less money.

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

#254

Post by ekianjo »

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…

For coding questions it still works relatively well. For "reviews", or anything remotely tied to commercial interests, it's indeed pure garbage: pages and pages of low quality links.

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

#255

Post by dschuessler »

zip1234 wrote: post #159
typon wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

and reddit has gotten much less useful with all their push for login and using their app...

Use the Teddit frontend (https://teddit.net/) and the Redirector extension (https://einaregilsson.com/redirector/) to redirect all Reddit links to Teddit and view the content there. You won't be bothered by pushes for login again.

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

#256

Post by thaumasiotes »

I'm confused by the top comment using this headline to complain about the quality of results. The quality of results is obviously irrelevant to the fact that most searches do not result in clicks. Google specifically tries to answer your question on the result page:

"nifarious" - oh, it's spelled "nefarious"

"1000 USD in CHF" - aha, about 1000 swiss francs

4 tablespoons in cups - 1/4 cup

"how old is taylor swift" - 31 years; this shows up in the suggested search dropdown, so you don't even need to hit the result page

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

#257

Post by Const-me »

bick_nyers wrote: post #109
dawnerd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was kinda thinking the same too until I went back and gave bing and DDG a shot and well, Google is still way better for my searches. I think its more of the seo spam that popping up thats making the results look less useful.

That would be an interesting problem, how do you algorithmically filter out SEO and focus on useful information? A signal vs. noise problem, but on human text, with the added challenge that the noise is trying to outsmart you. Maybe an adversarial ML network with an SEO-generating bot working against you?

Technically, trivially simple: detect and penalize ads. You can even reuse an ad.blocker's database for the detection.

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

#258

Post by notahacker »

screaminghawk wrote: post #189
1f60c wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

For those that are curious it displays a Quora answer that states: >Thomas Running >Running was invented in 1612 by Thomas Running when he tried to walk twice at the same time. It's actually quite and interesting post if you follow the link. Obviously it's not correct in the purest form but there is justification for this answer.

On the other hand "who discovered running?" quotes a tweet telling a variant of the same joke.

I wonder if GPT-3 has learned about Mr Running yet?

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

#259

Post by jader201 »

cmckn wrote: post #248
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 don't think the "problem" here is bad search results -- I think the lack of clicks is thanks to search results becoming much richer. The "card" style answers that show up more and more often mean I don't have to actually visit the site where the information originated (which publishers despise, for good reason). Take a common search I made last year as an example, "covid king county" -- I almost never ended up visi…

Yeah, the parent and most its children are focusing on something not even related to the article — this is about providing what the user is looking for without the need for more clicks.

While it’s an unpopular opinion on HN, there’s no denying that from a user perspective, that’s only a good thing.

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

#260

Post by shortstuffsushi »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #166
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the government should be raiding Google offices I can't get behind this. Suggesting that corporations be raided by the government is not a good idea. To my knowledge, Google has not denied any information requests they've received (or been subpoenaed for), and actively work with law enforcement in circumstances required of them. If we get to a point where they stand in contempt of court ordered information requests…

> To my knowledge, Google has not denied any information requests they've received Your knowledge stops very short in this area then. Google is utilizing the entire playbook to delay and obscure information from antitrust regulators. For example, Google almost always responds to requests for response from regulators on the last legally permissible day to do so, often after requesting multiple extensions. Here's an ar…

I started to write up a whole thing, but your hn history and linked twitter shows you're very openly rabidly anti-google. That's fine, and in general I'd even mostly agree with you. I draw the line at suggesting government raids of private companies, though. That won't ever be a good idea.
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