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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

#421

Post by acomjean »

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…

Try searching for chrome using ma edge.

It basically intercepted said search and gave me an ad saying to keep using edge.

Thinking back it seems unbeleivable so I searched.

https://www.theverge.com/23935029/microsoft-edge-forced-wind...

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

#422

Post by zbrozek »

jsheard wrote: post #194
pitched wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Podcasts are normally plain mp3 (or similar) files that get downloaded as-is off an rss feed, as far as I understand. I don’t think anyone gets extra ads outside the sponsored/host-read ones.

The big podcast networks like iHeart are able to dynamically splice ads into episodes, so they can be targeted based on geoIP or whatever other signals they have on you.

I want a self hosted proxy for podcasts that strips the ads and compresses the audio stream harder before my phone downloads it.

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

#423

Post by notpushkin »

thwarted wrote: post #396
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 wonder how much this can end up contributing to the Kleenex-ification of a brand or a term. You search for firefox and random other browsers come up. Now browsers in general are associated with the firefox term. Of course, when it comes down to it, there isn't much difference between browsers anyway, the UI is different but they all need to work with the same websites, and people have been using specific applicatio…

> Now browsers in general are associated with the firefox term.

Pardon? I’ve never heard a human call a browser “firefox” (as a generic term), or “chrome” for that matter (though people do assume you use Chrome by default now).

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

#424

Post by Denzel »

johnfn wrote: post #401
Denzel wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google SERPs are personalized. Likely OP is a Midjourney user which is recorded in his targeting profile. When OP searches for Midjourney as a Midjourney user, Google’s algorithm infers he might want to consider an alternative because why would an existing user search for the product they’re already using. We see evidence supporting this given no Midjourney ad showed up for a direct keyword match query; and only alte…

Interesting hypothesis, but I am also a Midjourney user.

I oversimplified. :) Main gist is that SERPs are personalized and based on your targeting profile which makes the results non-deterministic, as we're experiencing. Google is the only entity who will ever truly know.

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

#425

Post by thenthenthen »

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 mean Google payed Apple 20 Billion to be the default search engine…see: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/google-s-...

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

#426

Post by hedayet »

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…

here's my repro: https://imgur.com/a/p0wBgWy

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

#427

Post by notpushkin »

derefr wrote: post #409
thwarted wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much this can end up contributing to the Kleenex-ification of a brand or a term. You search for firefox and random other browsers come up. Now browsers in general are associated with the firefox term. Of course, when it comes down to it, there isn't much difference between browsers anyway, the UI is different but they all need to work with the same websites, and people have been using specific applicatio…

…you might have an argument there for this practice of rival-brand-mark sponsored-placement squatting constituting an odd type of trademark infringement. Imaging if PepsiCo paid grocers to shelve cans of Pepsi right beside cans of Coke, sharing the same inventory tag that just says “Coca Cola”. Coke would definitely be able to sue for something about that, right? Well, isn’t this the same?

> Imaging if PepsiCo paid grocers to shelve cans of Pepsi right beside cans of Coke

I think that part is true? Inventory tag doesn’t matter too much here.

Better analogy would be putting Pepsi syrup into a Coke-branded fountain, maybe?

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

#428

Post by xigoi »

symlinkk wrote: post #371
beckthompson wrote: post #20

Its sad but I think at this point its kind of a safety issue not to use an ad blocker. Those results are not clearly ads and I've clicked on fake links in the past when they were.

Adblockers are a safety risk of their own - you’re giving @gorhill admin-level access to your browser.

You can check the source code.

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

#429

Post by gxs »

ibfreeekout wrote: post #333
gxs wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah agree 100% - this is why I’m a happy kagi customer It’s kind of cool being treated like a customer New feature releases aren’t about ad placement or SEO or personalization / tracking Instead, their product updates are targeted at me - cool nifty features that I can immediately try out Like kagi or not, just the feeling of having devs care about my actual personal experience is a breath of fresh air I know not ev…

I recently signed up for an annual subscription to Kagi on their Starter plan and I couldn't agree more. Search quality with them has been great so far, and I realize their small web search and exploration features too. I've been slowly working to find other paid services as alternatives to the free ones that I'm currently using (next big one was shifting away from Gmail and onto a personal domain for mail using Fast…

That’s awesome

Be sure to try the assistant if you haven’t and browse the settings page for all the things you can do, again if you haven’t

It’s my default on my phone through their extension it works well

I’ve contacted their support in the past and they always give me real answers to questions about he product or suggestions

Gl!

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

#430

Post by DanOpcode »

jeremyjh wrote: post #74
LorenDB wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also should just stop using Google Search. DuckDuckGo is solid, or if you don't want to use search results from Bing's index, I've been very happy with Brave Search.

I agree about DDG, but I find Kagi worth paying for.

I have been using Kagi for about a month now. Haven't had any desire during that time to go back to Google. Solid search engine!
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