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Google Search Is Dying

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Re: Google Search Is Dying

#281

Post by rhacker »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #184
eloeffler wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the "dead internet conspiracy" - I've worked in writing how-to articles for a fairly large "help" website. They paid very little attention to the quality of the articles. I was paid for each piece and thus had about 30 minutes to write an article and later integrate feedback from internal review. Otherwise the payment became too low. The most important factor was cramming SEO terms and links to keep people on t…

That job is probably months away from being automated by GPT-3 and its ilk, supposing it hasn't yet been. Right now, I don't think you can tell it to use some specific terms in the text it generates, but it doesn't sound like a difficult extension.

I mean then is DIT really a conspiracy theory? I know that people in HN have already started doing replies with AI in some threads. (only because they tell people). Wait a few more years and there will be no way to know if forums are just bots generating content.

I guess HN would be a weird outlier, because there are no ads. Except maybe the bots would be useful after all when various "Show HN" or "Launch HN" and have the bots cheer those companies and get random publicity.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#283

Post by gear_envy »

locallost wrote: post #250

I have a slight contrarian viewpoint although there is some common ground. There is nothing technically wrong with Google's search, it's that the content online is not authentic anymore. And this is what people find on Reddit -- real opinions from real people. And the fact people append reddit to their google searches is a testament to the fact that Google will actually find it. And that Reddit's search won't, and I…

It’s definitely easier for people to froth at the mouth and blame Google, but I believe that the issue of pervasive SEO is a chicken-and-egg situation.

There’s no actual incentive to produce quality and authentic content. Quantity is the name of the game in the click economy.

On the other hand, one could make the case that Google is at fault for creating the conditions necessary for this perceived decline. (dominant search engine, ad platform)

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#284

Post by techwiz137 »

There was a time I could find everything in google. Now results I would've gotten easily 10 years ago no longer appear, even worse, I get 0 results quite often, whereas even obscure keywords, number patterns or hex patterns would easily yield a blog or two about a specific thing, now not so much.

Even searching for a particular blog, having forgotten it's name, I tried every single keyword and couldn't find it.

I also find it funny that I am doing exactly what the author of the blog post argues about. Every single time I look up something about trading, ADHD or disabilities, I append reddit or even prepend it.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#285

Post by fsflover »

ballenf wrote: post #165
eloeffler wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the "dead internet conspiracy" - I've worked in writing how-to articles for a fairly large "help" website. They paid very little attention to the quality of the articles. I was paid for each piece and thus had about 30 minutes to write an article and later integrate feedback from internal review. Otherwise the payment became too low. The most important factor was cramming SEO terms and links to keep people on t…

How can you be sure that you're not a bot?

By solving a captcha obviously.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#286

Post by dodobirdlord »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #59

Still in shock that they killed reverse image search and replaced it with some useless AI tech demo. It used to use the actual image and be able to provide context from where that image was found elsewhere. Now it seems to throw the image at AI and the AI will go "Oh that's a street" then they will just show you streets with similar colors as the image you put in. Completely useless for trying to locate what movie a…

Google Image Search has been getting regulated out of existence by the EU for the last few years.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#287

Post by rhacker »

ballenf wrote: post #165
eloeffler wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the "dead internet conspiracy" - I've worked in writing how-to articles for a fairly large "help" website. They paid very little attention to the quality of the articles. I was paid for each piece and thus had about 30 minutes to write an article and later integrate feedback from internal review. Otherwise the payment became too low. The most important factor was cramming SEO terms and links to keep people on t…

How can you be sure that you're not a bot?

42

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#288

Post by jeffbee »

discreditable wrote: post #34
brimble wrote: post #5

The other day I was searching for a specific kind of jewelry and realized I don't know of a search engine that can do what I needed, which is to just find good results for my search. Searches for jewelry-related keywords triggered Google to go 90+% ads, and their results (and other search engines' results) were so junked up with spam and the same couple sites over and over that they were useless. We're back to the We…

I know normal people would never use it but I sorely wish there was a way for me to just grep the web instead of using "search" as offered by Google et al.

You don't have anywhere near the disposable funds that would be required to "grep the web" on your behalf.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#289

Post by crucialfelix »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #174
profstasiak wrote: post #148

Just a heads up if someone is searching reddit for product reviews. I believe most of them are inauthentic. I worked in marketing for several companies and we always had some budget for whisper marketing aka shilling. There are third party agency specialized in shilling on reddit and making it all look authentic.

I click on the profile of any reviewer I'm taking seriously. It's easy to spot the astroturf accounts vs the real degenerates

Sure it's easy to spot, bit this is a lot of wasted work.

Maybe we should pay herds of people to flag the bullshit, since google won't do it anymore.

Re: Google Search Is Dying

#290

Post by CapitalistCartr »

"Google increasingly does not give you the results for what you typed in. It tries to be 'smart' and figure out what you 'really meant'"

I miss Alta Vista. You had to provide your own thinking. I'd construct searches like: (word OR Word) AND (word NEAR word). I loved the NEAR command.

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