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It's an interesting and fairly unique problem as highlighted by this part of the article: > there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone lo

by alehul 9y ago

It's an interesting and fairly unique problem as highlighted by this part of the article: > there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone looking specifically for vegetarian food to come eat at their restaurant—all you would get are bad reviews and lower sales numbers. It's possible that Google could bring up a custom UI for that query, as they do with many other search queries, but it could also be an uncomfortably political statement for such a large company. Perhaps the solution lies in a private website designed to weed out those 'crisis pregnancy center' results and centralize abortion center locations? With enough traffic, it would rise to the top of search results.

paulddraper 9y ago
> there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone looking specifically for vegetarian food to come eat at their restaurant—all you would get are bad reviews and lower sales numbers. There's a difference between eating chopped salad and chopping up fetuses though. Namely, (and laying aside for a moment what Google should do) the steakhouse might not want to have vegetarians, but I suspect pro-life pregnancy clinics would want to have people considering abortions. It's a fact of life with search: you get related things. Try searching "how to commit suicide".
- alehul 9y ago
  The quote from the article supports what you're saying: it's a unique situation as they're attempting to market specifically to those who don't want to be marketed to by them.
  - paulddraper 9y ago
    No, the quote is "there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone". And I'm saying, in this case there is an advantage to the advertiser.
Eridrus 9y ago
I don't think this is a political issue - Google should be aligned with what users want in their non-ad results and these places are clearly trying to decieve users and game the results. I think Google should make it clear that this is a results quality issue and not a political issue and that they want users to be able to find what they are searching for regardless of whether it is a gun show or an abortion.
- alehul 9y ago
  You're right, and the results should definitely be better. I suppose I was imagining a system where they actually built something uniquely different, similar to when you search for a product or a celebrity's birthday and it displays it at the top. Devoting special attention in that way could be quite political. If they were to just algorithmically improve search results that are displayed and weed out CPCs without it showing on the front-end, then that's a great idea. I don't know why I was thinking of anything else at first!

by alehul 9y ago

paulddraper 9y ago

> there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone looking specifically for vegetarian food to come eat at their restaurant—all you would get are bad reviews and lower sales numbers. There's a difference between eating chopped salad and chopping up fetuses though. Namely, (and laying aside for a moment what Google should do) the steakhouse might not want to have vegetarians, but I suspect pro-life pregnancy clinics would want to have people considering abortions. It's a fact of life with search: you get related things. Try searching "how to commit suicide".

alehul 9y ago
The quote from the article supports what you're saying: it's a unique situation as they're attempting to market specifically to those who don't want to be marketed to by them.
- paulddraper 9y ago
  No, the quote is "there is no advantage to a steakhouse trying to convince someone". And I'm saying, in this case there is an advantage to the advertiser.

Eridrus 9y ago

I don't think this is a political issue - Google should be aligned with what users want in their non-ad results and these places are clearly trying to decieve users and game the results. I think Google should make it clear that this is a results quality issue and not a political issue and that they want users to be able to find what they are searching for regardless of whether it is a gun show or an abortion.

alehul 9y ago
You're right, and the results should definitely be better. I suppose I was imagining a system where they actually built something uniquely different, similar to when you search for a product or a celebrity's birthday and it displays it at the top. Devoting special attention in that way could be quite political. If they were to just algorithmically improve search results that are displayed and weed out CPCs without it showing on the front-end, then that's a great idea. I don't know why I was thinking of anything else at first!