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Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

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Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#281

Post by AstroJetson »

johnfn wrote: post #249

Can anyone reproduce this? When I search "Midjourney", I get an ad for Midjourney (from Midjourney), followed by Midjourney, the site. After that, I get the Midjourney Discord, the Midjourney subreddit, the Midjourney Wikipedia page, and then (inexplicably), another Midjourney ad. That seems about as good as it could be. Edit: I guess I should say that I do agree that the quality of Google Search is pretty poor these…

It was number 1 when using the "Web" link, it was also the number 1 when I clicked "all"

Not sure why they get very different result.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#283

Post by smt88 »

hwc wrote: post #40
amatecha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to dig up this link, 1999 review[0]: "Google (www.google.com) is a pure search engine - no weather, no news feed, no links to sponsors, no ads, no distractions, no portal litter. Nothing but a fast-loading search site. Reward them with a visit." [0] https://i.redd.it/uea6u7c4oje31.jpg

How did they make any money at all without ads?

They licensed the engine for a while. Yahoo Search was powered by Google, for example.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#284

Post by smt88 »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #277
ha-shine wrote: post #272

I made the mistake of agreeing to undertaking that I would not use the trademarked brandname of one of my competitors' keyuwords in our Google ads bidding. Talking with a lawyer after the fact, I learnt that we can freely use the keywords but agreeing to the undertaking is a more serious and legally binding corporate promise. Now they are bidding on my brand names but we can't bid on them. So, I do agree Google searc…

Why did you agree to this without it being mutual?

Possibly part of an agreement to avoid a lawsuit. I think Dropbox and Box had a similar arrangement, because their names are so similar and they do exactly the same things.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#285

Post by wk_end »

driverdan wrote: post #121
wk_end wrote: post #2

I'm not using an ad blocker; when I search for Midjourney on Google the real thing is my first result; I don't even see any sponsored content. Not sure what's happening for OP. (Please don't read this as a defense of Google on the whole.)

> I'm not using an ad blocker How do you tolerate the web without an ad blocker?

I use an ad blocker on my personal machine, but corporate doesn't let me install random software and is mostly used for HN, so it's fine ;)

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#286

Post by apprentice7 »

irrational wrote: post #15
jsheard wrote: post #12

They do the same thing on the Play Store, for example I just searched for Firefox and the first result is a sponsored spot for Opera. Does Apple do that on the App Store? A funnier example: searching for Amazon gives Temu as the first result. Searching for Temu gives Shein as the first result. Searching for Shein gives Shein as the first result! ...but only because they outbid everyone else for the ad spot on their o…

I just searched "Firefox" in the app store. The top result is Google Chrome with an Ad indicator (Google paid for higher placement). Second is Firefox.

I did the same and my first result was NordVPN, lmao.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#287

Post by condiment »

jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

I pay for Kagi for search, my family uses Kagi. I pay for NextDNS to block ads, all of my family's devices use NextDNS. I pay for credits on OpenRouter and host an OpenWebUI instance, all of my family's AI is private. I pay for the news - The Economist, the WSJ, FT, NewScientist, etc. Lies are free, the truth is behind a paywall.

The only thing money can't buy, yet, is a phone network free of robocalls.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#288

Post by zamadatix »

firejake308 wrote: post #276
zamadatix wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait long enough and it seems like almost any company tries anything to increase its bottom line, but the main difference between ChatGPT and Google is at least ChatGPT attempts to give a paid option. Again, I don't think that'll stop them from ever getting to that point... but it'll go farther than "here's search, we pay for it via adtech". Kagi is a similar boat - the product is what you pay for, not what they can…

> at least ChatGPT attempts to give a paid option. Again, I don't think that'll stop them... Netflix also attempted to give a paid option, but now we have an "ad-supported" plan. I think that same logic of maximizing profit means that even if there are some people paying for ChatGPT, the amount of free money that is sitting on the table means that we will see "ad-supported" ChatGPT pretty soon once the low-hanging fr…

I think the coexistence of ad supported plans is orthogonal to the above. E.g. Netflix still has an ad free plan, regardless of the other plans, but Google gives you no option.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#290

Post by tourist2d »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #260
jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

Kagi, as others have mentioned. Google search is dead.

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