Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image • Hacker News Board

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

#631

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:06 PM UTC

CodingJeebus wrote: post #610

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this kind of thing I'm an LLM skeptic, but People said the same thing you're saying about Google in the late 90s, early 2000s before their IPO (and immediately afterwards). There was a sense in which people didn't really think search -- which seemed more like a public utility -- could ever be profitable. Yahoo and AltaVista and Excite blanketed theirs in ads and junk. The search itself was seen merely as a draw i…

The big difference with Google monetizing in the 90’s is that they owned their platform, which gave them control to build out a search and ad network that scaled. Perplexity uses frontier models under the hood, it doesn’t own all core aspects of its platform. They’re extremely dependent on frontier models and therefore reliant on underlying model pricing remaining sustainable.

Yeah I don't think Perplexity in particular is all that interesting.

But these days I do do a lot of 'research phase' stuff right in Claude Code. If looking at a technical issue, etc. I'll give it URLs and terms to search for and let it do some research for me. Mixed results.

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

#632

Post by rhetocj23 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:07 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #478

zeroq wrote: post #373

One of my "sales pitches" is "I can find answers online, I know kung-fu". I've been using internet since '98, and I somehow developed this elusive skill of knowing how to navigate all these ads, seo farms, paid content, murky websites, and getting straight to the answer, no matter what the question was. For a long time I didn't thought of that as a special power. I thought it was natural, like driving a car, or speak…

> I genuinely think Google is finished as a search engine for the web. Google Search is garbage, but highly unlikely to be "finished". Millions of people still find it useful, and Google is adopting "AI" on the results page just like any other "AI" web search service. The reason the UX is not good is, first of all, subjective, and second of all, because Google is in the advertising business, and they've found it more…

I think youre giving Google too much credit.

They did not expect the public to react to chatGPT the way they did and for OAI to capture mindset and marketshare of Internet Search Queries.

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

#633

Post by cuu508 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:07 PM UTC

shomp wrote: post #608

cuu508 wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Kagi partners with Yandex https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integratio...

Why do we not like Yandex?

For me personally the issue is that some of my money would go to Yandex, and, by extension, to Russian government. I understand it is only a symbolic amount per user, but still, for me, this is unacceptable (I was a happy Kagi subscriber before I found out about this).

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

#634

Post by otterley » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:08 PM UTC

hungryhobbit wrote: post #51

Can we be honest here? This isn't (really) Google's fault, because ANY company in the same position would do the same. It's our fault, for letting them. We could pass a law preventing this nonsense tomorrow, and Google would have no choice in the matter. However, "we the people" don't have strong advocates fighting for us, while Google has both (very strong) legal and political contributions (ie. bribery) teams ensur…

This is a completely valid (if perhaps fanciful) perspective; I’m not sure why it’s being downvoted.

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

#635

Post by gtowey » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:10 PM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #524

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…

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…

Of course they know the UI doesn't really do what you want. But they also know they make more money when it's filled with manipulative anti-patterns.

Companies love algorithmic content because because it's the ultimate shield from criticism. "Don't blame us for bad content! It's just the algorithm and we can't control it! Maybe if you interact with it more it will give you better results." Or course in practice it means they have plausible deniability when they shove a stream of ads in your feed.

The one that kills me is on YouTube: "show fewer shorts". fewer than what? Why isn't zero an option? It just means they will shove them in your face again and again. Don't want them at all? Too bad! We need to increase metrics so the PM of shorts can get their promotion!

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

#636

Post by ChaoPrayaWave » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:16 PM UTC

I think future app stores should offer users an ad control panel. Let us choose whether to see ads, what kinds we prefer like tools, games, or education, and even which recommendation algorithm we want to use.

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

#637

Post by array_key_first » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:16 PM UTC

yifanl wrote: post #622

squigz wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The only real difference that matters between a fake site and a real site is that the information on it is genuine, the form doesn't really factor into it. Which makes this a very tricky problem: You can't tell if the data is genuine before you have the genuine data.

Domain names is how you do this reliably. This is why everyone should use a password manager. It makes phishing much, much harder to do.

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

#638

Post by AtNightWeCode » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:17 PM UTC

johnfn wrote: post #249

Can anyone reproduce this? When I search "Midjourney", I get an ad for Midjourney (from Midjourney), followed by Midjourney, the site. After that, I get the Midjourney Discord, the Midjourney subreddit, the Midjourney Wikipedia page, and then (inexplicably), another Midjourney ad. That seems about as good as it could be. Edit: I guess I should say that I do agree that the quality of Google Search is pretty poor these…

Historically. If you are logged in you get better results. I got no ads when logged in. Not logged in I got 8 ad links in total before the real site.

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

#639

Post by rhetocj23 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:19 PM UTC

racecar789 wrote: post #543

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.

Yes its purely economics and profit maximizing behaviour from Google.

Marginal benefit vs Marginal cost.

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

#640

Post by array_key_first » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 3:21 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #609

squigz wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

My parents were highly computer literate and taught me how to use them growing up. These days they can barely even send emails and spend 30-60 minutes looking for files that are either on their desktop, download folder or in Recent Documents menu in Word/Excel. At some point in the aging process computer skills are one of those things that seem to go.

I don't think they go at all, I think software development is just bad all around. Almost all software is really, really bad and we just put up with it or are used to it.

Most software does not value consistency or UX maintenance AT ALL.

What I mean is, a lot of those older programs arguably had much better user interfaces in terms of usability. More contrast, more text instead of glyphs, and often still simpler.

UI is like fashion, it changes because change is good. Not because those particular changes are good.

Compare Windows 11 and 7, or XP, or even in a lot of ways 95. What's the prettier experience? 11, I guess. But which one doesn't make me scream at the computer? Not 11.

But it's not just Microsoft, Apple does it too. We throw away literal YEARS of user understanding and memory for nothing. Users get tired over time. They can't keep up, nobody can, and it gets frustrating when things just get worse and worse over time.