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Arguably, the purpose of a search engine is to help people find sources that they don't already know about. Ideally, Google Search should present a diversity of

Arguably, the purpose of a search engine is to help people find sources that they don't already know about. Ideally, Google Search should present a diversity of results (the long-term trend of declining search quality, notwithstanding). Google News, however, isn't a search engine, it's a link aggregator curated by a multi-armed bandit that seeks to maximize clicks and minimize political blowback (i.e. via censorship). Providing a diverse set of news sources is inconsistent with these constraints. If it wasn't obvious, Google uses Search to identify topics that reach a large enough audience, and then they build specific properties around those topics curated by algorithms in order to create screen space in which to sell behavior modification products* (ads). While Google News, Maps, and Local are the obvious ones, even AMP fits this model with an attempt to monetize the "waste heat" of the lower click sites by appropriating their content. * gfodor's observation that ads are behavior modification products: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19798178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19798178

CoffeeDregs 7y ago
> Arguably, the purpose of a search engine is to help > people find sources that they don't already know about. I certainly don't want that... I want a search engine to show me a set of results likely to be most relevant to my query and to my interests. Google does some limited randomization of results to prevent winner-begets-winner outcomes (based on my SERP result research) but they're purpose is certainly not to show people sources that they don't already know about. Most of these queries are basically "navigational" anyways: is someone searching for "trump tariff" looking for interesting results or are they looking to navigate to a story about "trump tariffs"?
- politician 7y ago
  If people already know the answers they seek or where to find them, then they aren't using a search engine in the first place. At a fundamental level, the purpose of a search engine it to help people find sources they don't know about. Is Google Search used as an atlas used to navigate the Internet? Almost certainly, but it's not fit for that use case. Google knows this and steers people towards their curated experiences - Maps, News, etc.
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CoffeeDregs 7y ago

> Arguably, the purpose of a search engine is to help > people find sources that they don't already know about. I certainly don't want that... I want a search engine to show me a set of results likely to be most relevant to my query and to my interests. Google does some limited randomization of results to prevent winner-begets-winner outcomes (based on my SERP result research) but they're purpose is certainly not to show people sources that they don't already know about. Most of these queries are basically "navigational" anyways: is someone searching for "trump tariff" looking for interesting results or are they looking to navigate to a story about "trump tariffs"?

politician 7y ago
If people already know the answers they seek or where to find them, then they aren't using a search engine in the first place. At a fundamental level, the purpose of a search engine it to help people find sources they don't know about. Is Google Search used as an atlas used to navigate the Internet? Almost certainly, but it's not fit for that use case. Google knows this and steers people towards their curated experiences - Maps, News, etc.

deleted 7y ago

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