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For all that Google search has been utterly crap for going on a decade now, I have to admit part of the reason is that they get targetted relentlessly by SEO sp

For all that Google search has been utterly crap for going on a decade now, I have to admit part of the reason is that they get targetted relentlessly by SEO spam operations like this. I like DuckDuckGo for now, but I imagine as they get bigger they're going to be a target for these kinds of spam just the same.

beebeepka 5y ago
Google search has been a brochure for a long time now
raverbashing 5y ago
Even worse, getting this kind of spam through to DDG (Bing?) seems easier than on Google It seems DDG is worse at finding the more authoritative sites about a subject compared to Google.
- shuger 5y ago
  That's an advantage. Since google tuned up their engine to treat authoritative results as better their searches became absolute dogshit. You search for a very specific thing and all the results are big sites that have said something that contains two of the 6 words you search for in a completely generic article that helps you none. My favorite is when your query contains a word that is the very essence of what you search for and google chooses to display results without it so you have to do extra click "yes I actually want to search for what I said I want to search for".
fauigerzigerk 5y ago
Is there really any difference between DDG and Google when it comes to SEO spam? If there is, I sure haven't noticed in spite of using both, often for the same search terms. It seems to me that the techniques used to spam Google's index work just as well on Bing's index.
rvba 5y ago
Because they automated anything and you cannot contact any human from quality assurance.
boomlinde 5y ago
> they get targetted relentlessly by SEO spam operations like this. Why, though? There is an arbitrary ranking system that seems increasingly independent of what I actually searched for. Google had created a game where the winner isn't necessarily relevant or at all useful. It's inevitable that spammers will play that game.
skinkestek 5y ago
> I have to admit part of the reason is that they get targetted relentlessly by SEO spam operations like this. A bit of it is probably that. Outright ignoring my queries: +, doublequotes, "verbatim" and all takes more than SEO tactics, it takes someone inside Google, either malicious or more probably incompetent on the inside. Or more probably: someone was so busy trying to use AI in searches that no they haven't had time the last ten years to consider if it was smart.
- logicchains 5y ago
  >Or more probably: someone was so busy trying to use AI in searches that no they haven't had time the last ten years to consider if it was smart. Or maybe Google started applying "We know better than the users", the driving principle behind their software and libraries, to their search.

beebeepka 5y ago

Google search has been a brochure for a long time now

raverbashing 5y ago

Even worse, getting this kind of spam through to DDG (Bing?) seems easier than on Google It seems DDG is worse at finding the more authoritative sites about a subject compared to Google.

shuger 5y ago
That's an advantage. Since google tuned up their engine to treat authoritative results as better their searches became absolute dogshit. You search for a very specific thing and all the results are big sites that have said something that contains two of the 6 words you search for in a completely generic article that helps you none. My favorite is when your query contains a word that is the very essence of what you search for and google chooses to display results without it so you have to do extra click "yes I actually want to search for what I said I want to search for".

fauigerzigerk 5y ago

Is there really any difference between DDG and Google when it comes to SEO spam? If there is, I sure haven't noticed in spite of using both, often for the same search terms. It seems to me that the techniques used to spam Google's index work just as well on Bing's index.

rvba 5y ago

Because they automated anything and you cannot contact any human from quality assurance.

boomlinde 5y ago

> they get targetted relentlessly by SEO spam operations like this. Why, though? There is an arbitrary ranking system that seems increasingly independent of what I actually searched for. Google had created a game where the winner isn't necessarily relevant or at all useful. It's inevitable that spammers will play that game.

skinkestek 5y ago

> I have to admit part of the reason is that they get targetted relentlessly by SEO spam operations like this. A bit of it is probably that. Outright ignoring my queries: +, doublequotes, "verbatim" and all takes more than SEO tactics, it takes someone inside Google, either malicious or more probably incompetent on the inside. Or more probably: someone was so busy trying to use AI in searches that no they haven't had time the last ten years to consider if it was smart.

logicchains 5y ago
>Or more probably: someone was so busy trying to use AI in searches that no they haven't had time the last ten years to consider if it was smart. Or maybe Google started applying "We know better than the users", the driving principle behind their software and libraries, to their search.