In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by kenny11 » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

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…

Same here. I can remember how refreshing it was when Google was new and you could trust it to give you results for what you actually searched for instead of what it thought you searched for, like AltaVista and the rest of its competitors were doing at the time.

I guess it's time for something new to do the same thing to Google that it did to those companies years ago.

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

#42

Post by Robotbeat » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

allochthon wrote: post #9

Often I'm looking for a Wikipedia page, and it seems that in the past year or so Wikipedia pages have been moved way down on the first page of search results, especially if the topic is a medical one.

I just put “Wiki” into the Google search because Wikipedia usually has what I’m looking for.

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

#43

Post by at-fates-hands » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:50 PM UTC

I now use google as a last resort. I start on DDG or Bing and go from there. If those are dead ends, I will reluctantly use Google as a means of last resort.

There are so many ads and now every time I search for something on Google, the first five results aren't even related to what I'm looking for. You search for "hifi headphones" and you get eight of the top ten searches are something like, "The top 10 hifi headphones." in an article from three or four years ago. Or "What you need to know about buying hifi headphones." informational articles. Not to mention the obligatory Amazon product link stuffing at the top of any product search results.

Google's results are just so convoluted, its a real PIA to try and wade through everything they're advertising in order to get to an actual product or manufacturing website these days - I just gave up a few years ago. Too much advertising and not enough organic results to be useful anymore.

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

#44

Post by irrational » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:50 PM UTC

sharkweek wrote: post #38

Many moons ago, I put a ton of work into a (now defunct) content site that provided specific information in a small vertical. Each post took hours, but I enjoyed writing the articles, and the revenue from the ads was enough to enjoy a little extra cash every month (we're talking just about enough to cover a car payment, for context). Google decided they liked a lot of the content and started providing it in their kno…

Did they scrape your content and put it into their own database? That is, if you had deleted all of your content, would it still have appeared in the Google results?

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

#45

Post by wnevets » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

As a consumer I absolutely that google provides the answers I need without having to click on any sites.

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

#46

Post by caoilte » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

sharkweek wrote: post #38

Many moons ago, I put a ton of work into a (now defunct) content site that provided specific information in a small vertical. Each post took hours, but I enjoyed writing the articles, and the revenue from the ads was enough to enjoy a little extra cash every month (we're talking just about enough to cover a car payment, for context). Google decided they liked a lot of the content and started providing it in their kno…

"The problem of course arises when content creators stop making the content for Google to scrape and index disappear, what then?"

communist revolution?

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

#47

Post by davide_v » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

It's actually something good (expecially for Google) since the information found is now usually in the results itself instead of inside a website. If you notice, in the last years, Google shows you lists extracted from articles, makes calculations directly, answer simple questions like age, shows a lot of Wikipedia info for any person/movie on the right, etc, etc. It's not because there is more ads or because the results are irrelevant, actually I'm never disappointed by the results.

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

#48

Post by Robotbeat » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #35

Google provides tons of data itself. I search stock prices on it. No clicks there. I search weather on it. No click there. There are all sorts a little utilities that are now just part of Google.

Yup. Weather, stocks, various bits of statistical info like GDP and population, and image searches. Image searches are super awesome for learning some things in ways you didn’t expect.

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

#49

Post by akkartik » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

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…

Yeah. I wonder what fraction of searches actually end with no clicks, just the requestor bouncing from the search results page. Anecdotally, I suspect that metric is also trending in the wrong direction.

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

#50

Post by minikites » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

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'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing drove this decline

It's the switch from lexical/syntactic search to semantic search. There are benefits and drawbacks to each and it would be nice for Google to give you the option to try each.