Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

ixns.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 437 posts

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

#371

Post by deltree7 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #63
Beltiras wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I might be a target audience for them and willing to pay a nominal fee monthly for good search I'm quite sure there isn't a market for it.

Just 1% of Google's market might be enough to sustain a non-bloated, VC-free company and make a good product. The Bloomberg Terminal is extremely expensive and yet companies pay for it because it makes their traders' jobs so much more efficient. I don't see why companies wouldn't do the same for a search engine that filters out all the bullshit so their employees don't have to waste their time wading through it.

If I had a nickel 1% of the time some naive dude said, "we only need to capture 1% of the market to become rich", I'd be very rich.

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

#372

Post by fils »

dostojevski1 wrote: post #356
guerrilla wrote: post #316

How come nobody is doing social search yet? Why can't I up and down vote results and maybe even comment on them or something? I don't want to ever see some of these recipe sites that show up again... I can't imagine I would if people were helping curate. Seems like an "easy" solution to SEO crapola?

I don't think there is the need of curating content in a social search way, if the SE itself is just good and alternative SE's that are coming up seem very promising. e.g., you.com lets you pick preferred sources, so that you can tailor your search experience to your needs. They've also done a great job on recipes. https://you.com/search?q=oven%20roasted%20broccoli Neeva and Kagi also seem promising, though their bot…

Actually I think Neeva is fully open now for all to try at https://neeva.com/

I don't work for them, but I have gone the paid route with them and I am very pleased with them as my default search now.

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

#373

Post by fils »

darinf wrote: post #110

This is why I left Google to join Neeva. Check us out. Unlike the alternatives, we are truly investing in our search stack. Unfortunately there’s just too much inertia with the ads-based business model making it too hard for Google to not let itself get this way. Similar challenges with other ads supported businesses.

I think this is part of the issue with Google. They are almost too afraid to innovate in search (for the user) for fear it would impact advertising.

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

#374

Post by fils »

bkobren wrote: post #164
Beltiras wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I might be a target audience for them and willing to pay a nominal fee monthly for good search I'm quite sure there isn't a market for it.

Give Neeva a try (disclosure I work with them). We offer a freemium model (free basic and premium version for $5/month that includes paid versions of VPN and password manager), it's ad-free and private, it's available to anyone in U.S. and we are building our own independent stack to make the search experience unique and better.

Just a user of Neeva here but a happy one. Also very excited to hear about the work toward an independent stack! Enjoy the spaces and immersive search UIs for various types of searches. Neeva make search fun again. ;)

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

#375

Post by Retric »

kempbellt wrote: post #346
bobsomers wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would be willing to bet substantial sums of money that Google tracks metrics for these alternative results and has concluded that they add value to the user. And I would be willing to be substantial sums of money that any metrics Google has with respect to "adding value to the user" are actually more directly track "adding value to the business".

I would imagine that "adding value to the user" translates to "adding value to the business" in a lot of ways for Google. If, on average , users perceive more value from Google, they use Google more, and Google earns more ad rev. Even if this lowers value substantially for the "relative few". It's basic utilitarianism, and it sucks to be in the "relative few"... I too, wish that quotes were respected, and Google woul…

That assumes people consider alternatives to Google viable.

Right now maximizing the number of searches people preform even if it degrades overall search quality is probably the goal.

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

#376

Post by WalterBright »

sokoloff wrote: post #367
WalterBright wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the word you want I was watching a new movie yesterday (The Lost City) with closed captioning on. The character said "synonym". The cc text said "cinnamon". I see a lot of homonyms in the cc, but that one was the funniest.

In a presentation yesterday, I noticed “Jews” appear in the live closed caption stream of my talk. It threw me off for a few seconds and I went back to the recording to figure out it took the word “choose” completely out of grammatical context to form a new clause of just “Jews”, as if I’d been speaking in complete sentences, then suddenly just decided to interject a random word between two half-sentences.

"There's a bathroom on the right"

"Wrapped up like a douche"

"When the rain washes you'll clean your nose"

The entertainment never ends!

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

#377

Post by Phrodo_00 »

bentcorner wrote: post #299
CaptainZapp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it really matter if it was a writing assignment, or a class in tire changing, provided that the information is correct?

Yes, it matters - a writing assignment would be graded on writing quality and style. I would assume the writing professor is not a tire changing expert. You're there because you don't know how to change a tire, so there's no way to know if the information is correct. It's certainly better than nothing but there could be specific gotchas for your situation. Most common would be needing certain tools or techniques for…

I know this isn't the point of the discussion, but any car's owners manual likely has a section on how to change a tire in case anyone needs it.

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

#378

Post by tonguez »

mlom wrote: post #226

"Nothing wrong with that, making money is noble" this right here is why you never make any progress and never fix anything and you never understand why everything sucks, you keep rewarding perverse incentives and greed and then try to work around it as if greed were not the central problem. making money is not noble, making money does not represent increasing value, it only represents cornering tokens of others' labo…

thank you

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

#379

Post by [deleted] »

fils wrote: post #372
dostojevski1 wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is the need of curating content in a social search way, if the SE itself is just good and alternative SE's that are coming up seem very promising. e.g., you.com lets you pick preferred sources, so that you can tailor your search experience to your needs. They've also done a great job on recipes. https://you.com/search?q=oven%20roasted%20broccoli Neeva and Kagi also seem promising, though their bot…

Actually I think Neeva is fully open now for all to try at https://neeva.com/ I don't work for them, but I have gone the paid route with them and I am very pleased with them as my default search now.

[deleted]

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

#380

Post by kionce »

s__s wrote: post #272
baxuz wrote: post #77

It's not a Google problem, it's a web problem. Everything is based around SEO spam. If someone has a website, and they're producing content, their point is to monetize the browsing of the website itself, or promote their main product via the website. This incentivizes a certain kind of content, which is marketing content. These days I'm back to searching social networks like Reddit or Hacker News for (at least somewh…

The SEO spam exists in part because Google does a really bad job at surfacing any site that isn’t content heavy. This leads to sites needing to churn out keyword rich fluff content in order to get any organic traffic. I have first hand experience with this. My niche, hyper local online service (of which everyone loves) was completely undiscoverable through Google despite the niche having nearly zero relevant results…

What is a hyper local online service, like services for someone you closely relate to geographically or socially?

Could you give an example?

Post reply on HN