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Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

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Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#91

Post by Prickle »

occamrazor wrote: post #70
beefield wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about ability but it is obvious they are not willing to even try. Why? If search result quality was anywhere in their radar, there would be a button next to all search results letting me block the domain from my personal search results. One day they might even figure how to use the information about blocked domains to help ranking results while not being gamed.

Some years ago there was the option to remove a domain from search results (I don’t remember if it was a default or an option). Google removed it without giving a reason. I assume that it was not working as expected. But the web has changed in these years. It would be interesting to have it again.

Wait, really?

I still use the basic -websitename to exclude websites when I search.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#94

Post by whiplash451 »

dom96 wrote: post #68

Today while I was searching it was a double whammy because Stackoverflow was down. So Reddit content was gone and StackOverflow too. That's basically the two resources for coding knowledge gone.

Come on, you still had geeks4geeks! /s

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#95

Post by tester756 »

neovialogistics wrote: post #9
2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #4

It's really disturbing just how bad Google search has become. For so many cases Google actually is only useful as a search interface for Reddit, StackOverflow, and other sites that accumulate (and actually garbage collect) knowledge. Without such a qualifier Google will just give you absolute SEO trash results for many types of searches.

I'd love the following combination: * A search engine that only crawls and searches a whitelist of sites. * Community functionality to vote on the contents of the whitelist.

>* A search engine that only crawls and searches a whitelist of sites.

Great way to kill neutral, organic web?

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#96

Post by qwertyforce »

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #4

It's really disturbing just how bad Google search has become. For so many cases Google actually is only useful as a search interface for Reddit, StackOverflow, and other sites that accumulate (and actually garbage collect) knowledge. Without such a qualifier Google will just give you absolute SEO trash results for many types of searches.

Yep. Most of my google queries are prepended with "reddit" or "stackexchange". I particularly like stackexchange, lots of useful information there.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#97

Post by jraph »

faangsticle wrote: post #85
jraph wrote: post #5

Maybe this is a good time to mention the Web Archives browser extension [1] that offers links to various cache / archive providers for any page you visit from a toolbar button. There are many such extensions, this is the one I've been using occasionally. Simple but very useful. I haven't tried since the beginning of the Reddit strike though, I don't use Google and I only very occasionally run into Reddit pages. I kno…

Didn't google used to show a link to their cached version for every result?

They definitely did. I don't know if it's still there, maybe in some (hamburger) menu attached to the results, if any? In any case I think their cache is still readable, but their googlebot is fast and may be quick to get rid of the cache if a page disappears… Recently, I've had bad luck with search engine caches when trying to read a page that does not exist anymore.

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#98

Post by Y_Y »

dageshi wrote: post #50
vesinisa wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would certainly be an interesting next turn of events if Google made an offer to buy out Reddit - just for the user-generated content and to stop the site from self-destructing, i.e. the golden goose offing itself. It's unlikely given current capital interest rates, but at this point this drama has pretty much crossed the borders of plausible fiction anyway.

No major company can buy reddit because it's full of porn and a lot of the user base is there for the porn and will riot if it goes.

But Conde Nast did buy them

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#99

Post by JohnFen »

sshine wrote: post #74
buildbot wrote: post #17

Actually though, is SEO/spam so out of control that allegedly the best software engineers in the world are unable to counter it? Are bad results actually good for google in some perverse ad-based way? Do people at google actually use their products at all?

> Are bad results actually good for google in some perverse ad-based way? Not when you frame it like that. But I always google when I need to buy something. And when I search for anything non-commercial, I use a private search engine. Google is good for search results which generate money, e.g. when you intend to buy things.

> Google is good for search results which generate money, e.g. when you intend to buy things.

I think how true that is depends on where you want to buy from. Google is good at referring you to certain other websites to buy from. If you're looking for broader search results than that, it's not really any better than for other sorts of searches (at least, that's how it was a couple of years ago).

Re: Tell HN: Google search sucks even more during Reddit blackout

#100

Post by JohnFen »

dageshi wrote: post #41
buildbot wrote: post #17

Actually though, is SEO/spam so out of control that allegedly the best software engineers in the world are unable to counter it? Are bad results actually good for google in some perverse ad-based way? Do people at google actually use their products at all?

It's not that they can't counter it, it's that there's less and less to find...

I don't think so. One of the things that made me start avoiding google was that it had developed a really huge blind spot for great sites that aren't "name brand". They're still there, but google won't tell you about them.
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