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Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

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Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#61

Post by mojuba »

marvinblum wrote: post #51

I feel like Google could filter out a lot of SEO spam by simply ignoring or downranking heavy sites. Everything that loads more than "n MB" is probably bloated and made to trick you into buying something or generating traffic without providing value. Another method could be to analyze how many external requests a page makes and put that into the calculation. Of course, there are exceptions, but I think this might hel…

Thought the same, but it would be unfair to web sites that are actual web apps and are JS-heavy.

Google is hopeless anyway, so here's something for the next search engine that wants to bring back the Web: downrank by the number of 3rd party domain requests, attempts of tracking, and possibly also popups.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#62

Post by verve_rat »

Beltiras wrote: post #45
baggachipz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Kagi[1] in private beta; they plan to launch a subscription model very soon. I hope it works out. [1] https://kagi.com/faq

While I might be a target audience for them and willing to pay a nominal fee monthly for good search I'm quite sure there isn't a market for it.

I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there is a viable business in selling a quality search engine.

Maybe not dominate the market, take over the world, but not every thing has to be that.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#63

Post by Nextgrid »

Beltiras wrote: post #45
baggachipz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Kagi[1] in private beta; they plan to launch a subscription model very soon. I hope it works out. [1] https://kagi.com/faq

While I might be a target audience for them and willing to pay a nominal fee monthly for good search I'm quite sure there isn't a market for it.

Just 1% of Google's market might be enough to sustain a non-bloated, VC-free company and make a good product.

The Bloomberg Terminal is extremely expensive and yet companies pay for it because it makes their traders' jobs so much more efficient. I don't see why companies wouldn't do the same for a search engine that filters out all the bullshit so their employees don't have to waste their time wading through it.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#64

Post by fotta »

einr wrote: post #48
fotta wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yep, Google makes it hard to copy the original link too which is annoying

Sidetrack, but I can recommend the Firefox/Chrome extension "Don't Track Me Google" which cleans up Google result links to be the actual URL, without Google's tracking redirect.

ha! nice, thanks for that

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#66

Post by Nextgrid »

nikanj wrote: post #43
baggachipz wrote: post #13

Google is so unbearable because they are no longer interested in you finding the answer to your query; they're interested in selling your query and its context to the highest bidder. That conflict of interest manifests in what Google has become.

Corollary: Web page creators are no longer interested in answering your query; they're interested in getting you to 1) view their page for ads 2) click on their affiliate links 3) buy the product they're selling. Google has an impossible task in trying to answer a query like "Portable air mattress reviews", because 99.99999% of the results are SEO-optimized crap

> 1) view their page for ads 2) click on their affiliate links 3) buy the product they're selling.

1 and 2 are trivial to detect. 3 is harder but still not impossible given Google's machine learning capabilities and existing datasets.

Downrank or ban ads & affiliate links and you remove any incentive for creating spam sites in the first place.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#67

Post by pbz »

Beltiras wrote: post #33
baggachipz wrote: post #13

Google is so unbearable because they are no longer interested in you finding the answer to your query; they're interested in selling your query and its context to the highest bidder. That conflict of interest manifests in what Google has become.

I agree. What the search space needs is a different business model. I have no idea what it could be. I'm quite sure a subscription model would fail. Micropayments have not taken off. How can we fund meaningful search divorced from an ad business?

It doesn't matter what new model you come up with. As long as capitalism is around and pushing for ever increasing profits this kind of behavior will always be on the menu.

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#69

Post by chii »

Beltiras wrote: post #33
baggachipz wrote: post #13

Google is so unbearable because they are no longer interested in you finding the answer to your query; they're interested in selling your query and its context to the highest bidder. That conflict of interest manifests in what Google has become.

I agree. What the search space needs is a different business model. I have no idea what it could be. I'm quite sure a subscription model would fail. Micropayments have not taken off. How can we fund meaningful search divorced from an ad business?

> How can we fund meaningful search divorced from an ad business?

The only way you have not listed is gov't funding. And i dont think i would trust a gov't run search engine either. May be a well meaning librarian institution could make it work.

> I'm quite sure a subscription model would fail.

this hasn't really been tried yet - it could work, who knows?

Re: Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it

#70

Post by greybox »

I switched to using kagi.com a while ago, and I've never looked back. I've tried to use duckduckgo before but just ended up using '!g' most of the time.

Kagi is in a whole other league. It's on par with, if not better than google search. I highly recommend it. When they introduce the paid tier I'm sure as hell going to subscribe to it. At this point I would trade my Netflix subscription for it.

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