I like how the HN title corrects the grammar mistake in the original title (less -> fewer).
Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
441–450 of 531 posts
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#442My main takeaway from this was where the hell are they getting that data? A little digging… apparently if you install Avast antivirus they're tracking all of this and selling /providing to Jumpshot - wow. > Baker said Jumpshot’s data comes from 100 million devices worldwide, whose users have downloaded free security software from partner Avast. The devices include smartphones, laptops and tablets. https://marketingla…
I'm sticking with my "don't install antivirus" policy. My exception is Malwarebytes which I don't consider a regular AV. Even my fave from 10 years ago AVG seems user hostile (try turning it off, it's not easy!). I'd hate to see what the other's are doing.
Windows Defender and common sense is enough on Windows based systems IMO. And on mac you don't need one.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s OK for the NYT to attempt to “prevent another Trump situation”. They have an editor and that person is legally responsible for what they publish. They don’t even pretend to be non-partisan. But Google takes a position then hides behind “common carrier” status. It’s not reasonable that they can pick and choose. Either they’re the phone company or they’re a publisher. It’s their right to be either of course, but t…
> It’s not reasonable that they can pick and choose. Either they’re the phone company or they’re a publisher. It’s their right to be either of course, but they must choose. This is 100% wrong, the opposite is true. The law explicitly protects website operators from being liable for content posted by 3rd parties while simultaneously granting them the explicit freedom to curate content that they deem objectionable.
No content on Google is posted there by 3rd parties. Google does select what is displayed and, in the case of snippets, they go out of their traditional way to promote that content.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
sometimes the blurb just has an answer to a different question. Websites are curated, unless its spam.
> Websites are curated, unless its spam. Yes, but even when they are curated the curators are usually unreliable and sometimes malicious.
snippets are just a reflection of that. how is google faring better in that respect?
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#445I think what folks are missing is that a lot of these "zero-click" searches happen as a result of Google scraping your website, and displaying the results as a "featured snippet." Yes, they link to you below the featured snippet. No, more people don't click, because they've taken the answer from your website and displayed it right in their search results. For example: If I'm searching for "best nail for cedar wood" G…
I disagree. There is an implicit contract between website publishers and search engines that it’s ok to do this. The website can set nosnippet in robots if they want to not have the snippet in search results.
> There is an implicit contract
Then why can't publishers scrape google?
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just got one of those emails for the first time about my personal site that's basically my resume. Apparently my text is small on mobile (it's not...) and some other crap I don't get why google thinks it's acceptable to critique my site without prompting. It honestly just feels rude. They want me to do a whole bunch of micro-optimizations on a site that already works fine because it doesn't fit their standard of "h…
Yeah it's amazing how rapidly and rabidly they show up when the complaint is on one of their paid features like a Google cloud (GCE) post for them or a competitor, but nada on the other products. Well no it's actually not surprising.
Google cloud employees are encouraged to go on social media to get a feel for issues users are having and to make the product better.
The rest of Google has a policy of "Engineers will probably say the wrong thing if we let them talk in public"
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#447Does anyone else use search at least a dozen times a day just for spellchecking a word or confirming a phrase? I find myself pasting phrases into the search bar when autocorrect or spellcheck just doesn't do the trick. I'd love to know what percentage of "searches" were never actually looking for a target.
Yes, absolutely. This is very common strategy among folks whom are working with different languages. Also looking for confirmation in "reverse dictionaries" because Google mistranslates some words.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#448Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If Google wants to go back to being a search engine While I understand the problems with Google scraping content, as a user these snippets help me find what I'm searching for faster. If that's all you're optimizing for, Google is fantastic. There are certainly good arguments to be made for other models, but for search, stealing content helps. I'm not advocating stealing content, I'm just saying that it produces mor…
If it undermines the websites producing the content Google is scraping by not sending through traffic then those sites may not continue to exist.
This is already happening.
Very few new blogs and content websites are being set up.
All content is moving into apps and walled gardens. Part of the reason for that is that running a well researched blog will never pay for your time, so becomes a hobby thing, and most people are fine to use Facebook for that.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#450It feels to me like the SEO optimizing folks have gotten out ahead of Google's algorithm. I've been getting back into an old hobby and looking for where to buy supplies or advice on which supplies to buy and it's just all spam, fake sites and low quality products. And it occurs to me that I've been experiencing a lesser version of this for years. Google search just isn't working for me anymore.
Yes, this is also serious threat. SEO and spamming affecting quality of search. Some years ago you could just type some scientific article's title and it would have popped up good references and maybe the pdf version. Even you could find complete books like that and a little of refinement. Now it's all spam, at least for the first pages.