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For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

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Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#451

Post by yeuxardents »

gambiting wrote: post #370
yeuxardents wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that for technical results, and niche programming, and anything really to do with IT, google gives top results. For just about everything else, use any other search engine.

Absolutely opposite of that in my experience. Search for anything technical and Google gives me pages selling programming courses, or it just omits the technical part of the query(like the name of the class) and serves pages upon pages of generic results that have absolutely nothing to do with what I'm searching for. It used to be the top engine for programming-related searches, now it's easily the worst.

Its possible that the VPN I am typically on changes my results from yours, as my VPN is quite specific to a research institution, and it is known how google curates results based on that information.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#452

Post by falcor84 »

mmind wrote: post #446
falcor84 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ad blockers are piracy and kill jobs {{citation needed}}

Just ask Google, how much money do ad blockers steal from content creators, lots of people reporting how their sites now produce way less money than they used to.

>Just ask Google I don't think that the company that made a quarter of a trillion dollars from ads in 2021 is an objective source on ad blockers.

>less money than they used to So many things changed on the internet in the last few years; I don't see how you can reasonably attribute lower total incomes by creators specifically to ad blockers, as opposed to stronger competition or different consumer behavior.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#453

Post by CRConrad »

tomatofrank wrote: post #211
gundmc wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the lyric?

"like you didn't care I don't know why lyrics r&b" was my query

What, did you really have 'lyrics r&b' inside the double quotes? That's not part of the phrase in the lyrics (I'd guess), so your own fault then.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#454

Post by CRConrad »

dorgo wrote: post #429
moron4hire wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we are to believe advertisers are so great at their jobs, why can't they produce any meaningful metrics that don't commit egregious sins of statistical analysis? Here's a thing that I am absolutely convinced happens. Ad network tracks purchases. Ad network track ad impressions. Ad network correlates the two and finds that 90% of people who saw the ad also bought the product. But they conveniently "forgot" to check…

If 1 out of 100 impressions leads to a purchase it's alredy a good performance. The effort to improve this rate is not always worth it. That's the reason we are spammed with ads.

> If 1 out of 100 impressions leads to a purchase it's alredy a good performance.

But do they at all take into account the fact that probably about 50 out of 100 ad impressions lead to an "I'll NEVER purchase anything from the purveyor of this ad-spam shit!" reaction?

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#455

Post by CRConrad »

tonguez wrote: post #294
phreack wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your intuition is correct. According to [1] it can take 2 hours of browsing and interacting with transphobic content to get straight into neo-nazi content. Many people don't ever see such videos, and don't think it's on the platform - it does become a very hypertuned hyperfocused echo chamber. [0] https://www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/tiktoks-algorithm-leads-...

The web page you linked seems like it was written by someone who lives in a basement and has never logged off of Twitter. “ We defined “prominent far-right figures/prominent far right talking points” posts as those that contain prominent far-right figures such as Ben Shapiro, Alex Jones…” “ We defined “racist/white supremacist” posts as those which… support white supremacy by using white supremacist talking points su…

Bravo, best self-own I've seen in a while. And thanks for letting us know you're the kind of poster who unironically echoes white supremacist talking points.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#456

Post by [deleted] »

gtirloni wrote: post #306
jdrc wrote: post #160

it s really a mess. Searching for 'viper' brings up 'Viber' as the first result, the rest is cars except for a link to 'viperidae'. It's a goddamn snake, google

Just add another word "viper snake" and the problem is solved. I don't see the problem. You wouldn't shout "viper" at a random person and expect them to correctly guess you're talking about a snake at first guess.

[deleted]

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#457

Post by CRConrad »

ViViDboarder wrote: post #327
gtirloni wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just add another word "viper snake" and the problem is solved. I don't see the problem. You wouldn't shout "viper" at a random person and expect them to correctly guess you're talking about a snake at first guess.

I mean, I’d assume it was a snake. Not sure what else I’d assume they were talking about. Also, Google isn’t a person. I wouldn’t expect someone to understand what I’m trying to say if I yelled “site Colin stackoverflow.com fizz buzz” at them either. The bigger issue is that Google didn’t even interpret “viper” as any form of “viper” at all and instead corrected it to a nonsense word that’s a company name.

> I mean, I’d assume it was a snake. Not sure what else I’d assume they were talking about.

Shout it at me and I'd be fifty-fifty whether it's a snake or a car (the Dodge V-10) you mean. But I'm a car nut; I'd assume for normal (English-speaking) people the snake would be the obvious default meaning.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#458

Post by CRConrad »

ufo wrote: post #412
jdrc wrote: post #160

it s really a mess. Searching for 'viper' brings up 'Viber' as the first result, the rest is cars except for a link to 'viperidae'. It's a goddamn snake, google

For me it's a different results bubble, but still a mess: Dodge Viper, a brand of booze, a tattoo parlor, two different video-game characters called "viper", a "tactical clothing" store, a Go library, a bar, a TV series, an iOS design pattern. To get actual snakes I have to search for "vipers".

Gaming mice?

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#459

Post by CRConrad »

jacquesm wrote: post #245
lolinder wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that even the small sites are playing the same SEO game. If you remove the top X, you might just end up cutting out what you're looking for and still end up with a bunch of SEO'd results.

Ok, let's make an SEO detector and ban every site that plays that game.

Like Google used to have and do, back in the day when they were still not evil, AFAICR.

Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads

#460

Post by CRConrad »

jhoechtl wrote: post #409

I am not so much concerned about a search engine, which is superficially free to the end user, displaying adds. I am totally concerned though that the non-adds results are those where the interests of the company behind the search results and my interest are deeply leaning towards the interest of the company instead of mines. In clear text: Content of sites disguised as original content yet serving no other purpose b…

Ads. It's short for advertisement, not addition.
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