Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
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Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#2This is the subtle truth that I've seen a few folks on Twitter talking about for the past year or so: That Google has slowly but steadily reduced both the outbound clicks to other websites, but also the portion of their revenue that's based on ads hosted by other websites, while bringing both the "results" and the ad placements in-house, where they no longer have to pay out a share to site owners.
Whereas Google was previously a way for sites to be discovered and for sites to generate revenue, it is increasingly becoming the sole source system where data is scraped and imported into Google, and Google keeps all of the revenue to itself.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#3I don't think I understand this concept.
If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'?
Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credit)
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#4The presumption here, as I understand is, is that a zero-click search happened because Google used one of their inline apps to answer a question. (For example, if I search "population of new york city", I get a big and bold answer along with a graph that shows NYC's population over time, as well as LA and Chicago.)
But I'm not convinced that's necessarily true. I frequently search for things to get a general idea of what is out there, and I only skim the results. This is also something I do when I'm refining my search terms. It may take me several iterations to refine my terms until I find something I want to click through to. In this process, I may have three or four no-click searches before I land on a good query, and then I start clicking.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#5I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…
I mean that’s could be one explanation for no clicks. But if that would be the primary cause it would imply google’s results are getting worse, which would lead to someone else increasing market share. The primary reason is that google shows you information scraped from other sites directly on the results page so you never have to click on any links for a lot of queries.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#6I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…
Google can preview results for clicks by exposing a site's content in the search results.
E.g if you google Obama you will see a wiki blurb about him on the right
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#7I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…
If you're searching for a quick piece of information, that might be included in the description text, or one of the cards that google might generate for your query (like when doing a calculation, unit conversion, weather query, stock ticker query...)
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#8I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…
> If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless?
No, it could mean that Google itself provided an acceptable answer for you in an infobox.
For example, if you search for "San Francisco temperature," the top-of-the-page result is an interactive box showing the current conditions and 24-hour forecast for the city.
That's reasonably likely to answer the implied question without redirecting you to another site, so it is an example of a successful "zero-click search."
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#9I don't think I understand this concept. If I search for something using Google, and don't click on a link, doesn't that mean my search was fruitless? What else do we mean by 'zero-click searches'? Edit: Unless it's the simple '6 x 10' or 'What is the time in London', in which case, are we surprised these queries are handled by $SearchEngine? DDG does the same thing (albeit, uses a third party website and gives credi…
Google scrapes the info and then displays it on the search page, meaning you get your question answered without needing to click through. So basically denying anyone else traffic, while still being useful to end users.
Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
#10This is the subtle truth that I've seen a few folks on Twitter talking about for the past year or so: That Google has slowly but steadily reduced both the outbound clicks to other websites, but also the portion of their revenue that's based on ads hosted by other websites, while bringing both the "results" and the ad placements in-house, where they no longer have to pay out a share to site owners. Whereas Google was…
Honestly, the second google started owning and promoting their own properties on search results, anti-trust regulators should have jumped on it.
I'm really not sure how Google can be protected by Section 230 and at the same time control and publish so much directly. Last time I read an article on the topic, google controls 23% of the top 100 sites.