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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

#541

Post by seviu »

thenthenthen wrote: post #418
leakycap wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know if curation is really the problem. A lack of oversight is what I see as the problem, and the solution would require a significant human element. Expecting a retailer to know/inspect the product they collect margins on shouldn't be a big ask. The retailer has to know what they're selling, but Apple seems to turn a blind eye to shady listings because of the way Mac App Store results are shown and the lac…

Lack of care, like previous commenters mentioned, each sale is a sale, and 30% to Apple. It does not matter what you sell. One step deeper and it does matter what you sell: it seems to incentivise spammy apps, why block these money makers?! It is all about money. Nothing else.

When we propose alternatives the answer is that they want to protect customers.

But they don’t protect their cash cow from massive daily influxes of scam apps. It’s better one million scam apps generating 50k per month and drowning my two or three apps for which I spent months of work than a few thousand quality apps from which everybody would profit.

Let’s be real it takes a special kind of mad developer to try to make a business that relies on the AppStore. First if you are unlucky you get rejected on day one or two. And if you aren’t and are wildly popular you risk Apple copying your business model.

Because deep down some people at Apple despise the App Store developers and think they can do much better. This has been at the core of Apple culture for ages.

Anyway we legit indie developers who care about our products get drowned in irrelevance. Who cares.

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

#542

Post by rkomorn »

distances wrote: post #520
rkomorn wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have access to any data that supports my vibes, but it just feels like any business that sells stuff has very little incentive to actually give you what you're searching for. I can't think of a single online store that's good at search and it seems like it's because the thought is "don't miss anything that might come close to the search terms". Whether it's Amazon, IKEA, the supermarkets where I live, etc, an…

Ikea is different though: they only sell their own products so there's so earning incentives from paid product placement. Of course they want to improve their own sales but I feel that's a very different, less nefarious goal.

I think it's ultimately the same, though: they're not optimizing for you to get what you're looking for.

At the same time, I know it's a hard problem to solve. Users also aren't good at finding what they want either.

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

#543

Post by racecar789 »

It’s likely that Google has tested how many ads it can place in search results before users lose patience and turn elsewhere.

On paper, the approach makes sense: push profitability as far as possible. But in practice, it can leave customers feeling squeezed and resentful, much like the increasingly nickel‑and‑dimed atmosphere visitors now complain about in Las Vegas, and the proliferation of tip screens.

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

#544

Post by squigz »

rchaud wrote: post #207
miladyincontrol wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is. I fear for the older generations and less tech minded people who google their bank, and get some random phishing site. Or similarly google what should be libre software and get some random malware on a site that looks 'close enough'. Lets call it what it is, a cancer, one that literally enables countless bad actors and purely for a search engine's own profit. In theory theres a time and place for ad…

It's already happened to an elderly family member who was trying to troubleshoot a printer problem. The top results were 1-800 hotlines run by scammers looking to get remote access to their machine to "fix" the issue. Google has hordes of these companies padding their pockets and won't lift a finger to remove them.

As my parents get older, I worry more about this.

Are there any good, easy-to-understand resources for spotting and avoiding phishing scams and such things for non-tech audiences?

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

#545

Post by smcin »

nottorp wrote: post #481
smcin wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Searching for official manufacturer manuals/user guides for appliances is also another goldmine for third-parties.

But they deserve it when the manufacturer has one of those enterprisey sites where you need to go through 10 searches to maybe reach your manual, when the 3rd party site just shows it directly.

Not really, and the third-party sites almost never show the PDF directly without first trying to harvest your email or phone number or subscribe you to spam, sometimes they try to steer you towards unaffiliated 800 numbers tricking you that those are associated with the manufacturer, sometimes they bundle the download of manufacturer's PDF with malware, browser cleaner app installers etc.

Sometimes the third-party sites are helpful and benign, sometimes they are merely spammers trying to upsell you, occasionally they are malicious.

Agreed, the manufacturer site behavior is also annoying.

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

#546

Post by smcin »

smcin wrote: post #235
endgame wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FBI agrees with you: https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-b...

No, the previous admin's FBI did [0]. But then that alert page (on ic3.gov, Internet Crime Complaint Center) was taken down almost immediately after the 11/2024 election, before even the director was replaced. I genuinely expected this sort of basic alert should remain non-partisan. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008235322/https://www.ic3.g...

(at minimum, a search for "ad blocker" on ic3.gov should turn up some authoritative and useful advice page, not a random jumble of articles and press releases)

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

#548

Post by ozgung »

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…

So they are actually Ad Search engines.

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

#549

Post by _superlevure_ »

remus wrote: post #445
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you in principle sue people buying these ads for trademark infringement? (I realize in practice the answer is that it's not worth the game of whack-a-mole.)

Where is the trademark infringement? It's like honda buying an advert outside a VW dealership.

No, it's like searching for the location of a VW dealership on your phone and Google Maps taking you to an Honda one instead.

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

#550

Post by soco »

cryptoz wrote: post #538
xg15 wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user, I'm still baffled that the interface to view and manage the apps I have installed on the system - which is 90 out of 100 times why I'm opening the play store - is tucked away in some obscure corner of the app. The other 10 times, it's because I want to install some specific app that I already know and I just want to get to the page of that exact app - either through a direct link or through the store's sea…

Opening the App Store to download a bunch of apps - in general - is probably the #1 thing people are doing when they open the App Store. Of course, installing a specific app is a top use case. But I think you're just not the average user. Lots of people open the App Store frequently to just check out what's available. ~10 years ago I would do this all the time. It's fun, kind of like surfin' the net was back in the o…

I'm surprised to hear this, as I am in the same boat as the other poster. Of course it makes sense, they wouldn't build that junk if there weren't junk consumers on the market. But I still can't grasp the concept of "just installing apps".
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