4 ms·

I appreciated the recommendations, but from a tech perspective related most with this sentence in the opening paragraph: "when I tried to research mitigations f

by dmart 6y ago

I appreciated the recommendations, but from a tech perspective related most with this sentence in the opening paragraph: "when I tried to research mitigations for any of these it was 100% SEO listicles". I've found this to be true as well. Searching for impressions/reviews on literally any type of product is impossible now - the entire first page of results are just spammy sites either regurgitating PR for a specific product or paraphrasing Amazon reviews. In order to get real human opinions on anything, you have to suffix your search with "reddit". All of these sites are clearly bogus and should be banned. How did search become so broken?

beervirus 6y ago
Google still makes money on them and has no incentive to crack down.
encom 6y ago
>you have to suffix your search with "reddit". Still, exercise scepticism. Reddit is heavily astroturfed.
powersnail 6y ago
I've found that it's not just for product review. For any generic life topics (pet, plumbing, etc.), web searching is not an effective choice anymore. It's a mixture of PR, useless home remedies, and a small number of helpful information. I either do site:reddit.com, or some other more specific forum/website that I already know. Another option is to search YouTube, and only choose the videos in which I see the video maker actually perform the plumbing, or get along with a cat.
underwater 6y ago
I don't think the type of content you're looking for even exists any more. Even if someone has the desire to create a high quality, old-school, interest-based site, they're going to be dealing with the fact that Google won't surface the content because SEO magic, there is no community of similar sites who will link to them, and their content doesn't fit the format preferred by social media. I think the web has firmly shifted to being about commercial entities having a way of plugging content into Google. The initial premise, a web of carefully curated links between long-lived documents, is dead. And the people who would have created websites if they grew up in the 90s and early 2000s have moved onto other formats.
- novok 6y ago
  Sadly you have to go to youtube outside of a few dedicated niche review sites like cnet / rtings / the wirecutter. Or forums.
  - beervirus 6y ago
    Consumer Reports is still a thing. I’m happy to pay them a subscription fee for the content they create.
colonelanguz 6y ago
I just wanted to say that thoughtful posts like this are the reason I come to this site. Well-said, friend. I had never even explicitly acknowledged this in my own mind until I read your post.
bagacrap 6y ago
for my money I trust niche sites more than reddit. I know subreddits are "niche" but they tend to attract neophytes interested in a topic. For example, hn is better for programming, paceline is better for bike stuff, erowid is better for ... erowid stuff. As far as product reviews, has there ever been a reliable source? Either find an expert reviewer you trust, or a niche retailer (not Amazon). But yeah it's a good question, why can't Google do a better job surfacing these higher quality sources. Business opportunity!

by dmart 6y ago

beervirus 6y ago

Google still makes money on them and has no incentive to crack down.

encom 6y ago

>you have to suffix your search with "reddit". Still, exercise scepticism. Reddit is heavily astroturfed.

powersnail 6y ago

I've found that it's not just for product review. For any generic life topics (pet, plumbing, etc.), web searching is not an effective choice anymore. It's a mixture of PR, useless home remedies, and a small number of helpful information. I either do site:reddit.com, or some other more specific forum/website that I already know. Another option is to search YouTube, and only choose the videos in which I see the video maker actually perform the plumbing, or get along with a cat.

underwater 6y ago

I don't think the type of content you're looking for even exists any more. Even if someone has the desire to create a high quality, old-school, interest-based site, they're going to be dealing with the fact that Google won't surface the content because SEO magic, there is no community of similar sites who will link to them, and their content doesn't fit the format preferred by social media. I think the web has firmly shifted to being about commercial entities having a way of plugging content into Google. The initial premise, a web of carefully curated links between long-lived documents, is dead. And the people who would have created websites if they grew up in the 90s and early 2000s have moved onto other formats.

novok 6y ago
Sadly you have to go to youtube outside of a few dedicated niche review sites like cnet / rtings / the wirecutter. Or forums.
- beervirus 6y ago
  Consumer Reports is still a thing. I’m happy to pay them a subscription fee for the content they create.

colonelanguz 6y ago

I just wanted to say that thoughtful posts like this are the reason I come to this site. Well-said, friend. I had never even explicitly acknowledged this in my own mind until I read your post.

bagacrap 6y ago

for my money I trust niche sites more than reddit. I know subreddits are "niche" but they tend to attract neophytes interested in a topic. For example, hn is better for programming, paceline is better for bike stuff, erowid is better for ... erowid stuff. As far as product reviews, has there ever been a reliable source? Either find an expert reviewer you trust, or a niche retailer (not Amazon). But yeah it's a good question, why can't Google do a better job surfacing these higher quality sources. Business opportunity!