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Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

mdubakov.medium.com

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Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#61

Post by paulpauper »

levymetal wrote: post #32
pupppet wrote: post #17

What really ticks me off are all these sites clearly scraping content from Stack Overflow that somehow end up near the top of the search results. How is there not an automated fix for this. Lemme help you out with this Googlers: If site content A == site content B, pagerank = -1.

These can be hidden using uBlock origin. I’ve got a list you can import (just use the raw link). The selector isn’t perfect in Google (sometimes leaves some unattached content) but the link is always removed. Feel free to submit a PR if you find any other SO clones - there seems to be no end to them. https://github.com/levymetal/filter-lists/blob/main/filters/...

buuh bye Investopedia

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#63

Post by fleddr »

_cs2017_ wrote: post #55
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a fix already and applied it to the Wikipedia clones. They intentionally ignore other content scrapers because they drive ad impressions.

> because they drive ad impressions. Could you explain why? If Google replaces SEO trash with decent results, the ads they will show on the Search page will remain unchanged. How would the impressions suffer? Or rather, since Google charges per click not per impression for search ads, how would ad clicks suffer? In fact, I thought low-quality organic search results are purely a negative for Google profits, since user…

It's about the ads on the SEO trash pages. Those pages are typically loaded with ads which increases the likelihood you click on them.

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#64

Post by smnrchrds »

paulpauper wrote: post #61
levymetal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These can be hidden using uBlock origin. I’ve got a list you can import (just use the raw link). The selector isn’t perfect in Google (sometimes leaves some unattached content) but the link is always removed. Feel free to submit a PR if you find any other SO clones - there seems to be no end to them. https://github.com/levymetal/filter-lists/blob/main/filters/...

buuh bye Investopedia

Is Investopedia a clone? What is the original?

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#66

Post by permo-w »

reaperducer wrote: post #62

Why would Google fix anything? Google makes money from keeping you clicking. If it shows you want you want right away, then it loses money. Keeping you on a treadmill chasing bits of cheese is how it became a billion-dollar company.

it became a billion dollar company by having a better index and search algorithm than anyone else

the carrot on a stick came later

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#67

Post by izacus »

helph67 wrote: post #18
miguelazo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To what? I'm unaware of any decent alternatives, unfortunately. I have all my defaults set to DuckDuckGo, but as soon as I search anything remotely uncommon, I end up having to switch to Google (although at least you can block the ad results with Ublock Origin browser extension).

There are search engines that value your privacy. Qwant https://www.qwant.com/ Ecosia https://www.ecosia.org/ and Start Page https://www.startpage.com/ This page may also help... https://www.kylepiira.com/2020/02/07/which-search-engine-has...

How does their value of privacy fix the SEO and spam problem?

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#68

Post by permo-w »

helph67 wrote: post #18
miguelazo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To what? I'm unaware of any decent alternatives, unfortunately. I have all my defaults set to DuckDuckGo, but as soon as I search anything remotely uncommon, I end up having to switch to Google (although at least you can block the ad results with Ublock Origin browser extension).

There are search engines that value your privacy. Qwant https://www.qwant.com/ Ecosia https://www.ecosia.org/ and Start Page https://www.startpage.com/ This page may also help... https://www.kylepiira.com/2020/02/07/which-search-engine-has...

valuing my privacy is brilliant, and I’ve tried all these engines, but on all occasions I’ve had to go back to google because they’re just not good enough:

poor results from anything longer than 2 keywords, no (consistent) quote search - which is a huge dealbreaker for me, no maps equivalent, no or little info about local businesses, and more.

google is successful because it’s very, very good, and if it was easy to beat it, it would have happened by now. yes there’s a lot of seo spam, but 99 times out of 100, Google knows what I’m looking for, which I can’t say for the others

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#69

Post by 0x5345414e »

imagetic wrote: post #3

Can't say I'm ever surprised to see another "WTF Google" post. The search has degraded a lot over the years. With that said, I've tried to switch on more than one occasion and Bing might be the only alternative that worked for me. DuckDuckGo is always way off the mark, no matter how many chances I've given it over the years. Google still wins, even with the ads and spammy stuff.

Kagi has been great for me

Re: Google, please do something with your ads and SEO-spam

#70

Post by crazygringo »

tlogan wrote: post #14

I looked the results for “remote work best practices” and they all seems a valid articles. Not really SEO spam. Which article is considered as not spam? HRB one? Really?

I came here to say the same thing.

They're a bunch of lists of exactly what the search term was looking for. And I've found these kinds of lists to be great jumping-off points in terms of getting an overview, whether I'm looking for remote work practices or humidifiers or types of mindfulness.

If you want long, in-depth articles those usually come up when your search terms become more specific. For example, the first link includes a bullet point "One-on-ones and check-ins" for remote work... throw that into Google and it's a bunch of useful articles (not lists), the fourth one is from Harvard Business Review.

As far as I can tell, Google's doing a great job in terms of organic results, and then it's adding ads on top and bottom because obviously it's got to pay the bills. I don't get the complaints at all.

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