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I reject the author's conclusion. Either this is a non sequiter, or I'm missing a major piece of the puzzle. How is it that a search giant like Google, wit

I reject the author's conclusion. Either this is a non sequiter, or I'm missing a major piece of the puzzle. How is it that a search giant like Google, with thousands of brilliant minds, can’t help me find good products to buy? I think the answer is because it’s not in their best interest to do so. They like that most consumers will look at these reviews, click through to Amazon and make their purchase with little hesitation. Sorry, but what am I missing here? How does Google benefit from a clueless user thinking this article is reliable, clicking on an affiliate link, and buying a bike at Amazon? As I understand it, Google derives value from their search engine in the following ways: 1. Directly, via paid ads and product placement. 2. Indirectly, by simply being useful, which means people will enjoy using Google search results, which means they will use them again in the future, which is what allows them to sell ads and gather data on users. So as far as I can see it's definitely in Google's interest to provide good and useful search results.

WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
> So as far as I can see it's definitely in Google's interest to provide good and useful search results. A shame Google didn't get this memo, or buried it somewhere.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  It's so fundamental to their business though, right? They are fundamentally a data mining and advertising operation and that only works if people find them useful and therefore use them so that they can be data-mined and advertised to. I guess maybe Google just feels it's an unsolvable problem, or has a backdoor agreement with Amazon, or feels they are so synonymous with search that only a fraction of users would ever user another search engine even if the quality of their results has become awful
  - WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
    How many hairs do you need to remove from a man's head before you can call him bald? Many chain restaurants follow this scheme: when they appear and need to make a good name for themselves, they are hell bent on the quality of food and the the customer experience. It's important for them to get the word of mouth marketing. But after they establish themselves firmly and start to grow, the bottom line becomes a priority, and they start cutting corners ever so slightly. The portions become smaller but the prices hike up. They start skimping on sauces. One day you discover that the garlic sauce is no longer made in house, but is of the same variety that is purchased in bulk for hot dogs at gas stations. But the momentum is still going. And many other chains in the same price range either don't make the same kind of food, or are worse still. So you have no choice until a new restaurant starts that needs to carve a niche and beat it's competition.
- gundmc 5y ago
  It's almost as if it's a really hard problem to solve.

WesolyKubeczek 5y ago

> So as far as I can see it's definitely in Google's interest to provide good and useful search results. A shame Google didn't get this memo, or buried it somewhere.

JohnBooty 5y ago
It's so fundamental to their business though, right? They are fundamentally a data mining and advertising operation and that only works if people find them useful and therefore use them so that they can be data-mined and advertised to. I guess maybe Google just feels it's an unsolvable problem, or has a backdoor agreement with Amazon, or feels they are so synonymous with search that only a fraction of users would ever user another search engine even if the quality of their results has become awful
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  How many hairs do you need to remove from a man's head before you can call him bald? Many chain restaurants follow this scheme: when they appear and need to make a good name for themselves, they are hell bent on the quality of food and the the customer experience. It's important for them to get the word of mouth marketing. But after they establish themselves firmly and start to grow, the bottom line becomes a priority, and they start cutting corners ever so slightly. The portions become smaller but the prices hike up. They start skimping on sauces. One day you discover that the garlic sauce is no longer made in house, but is of the same variety that is purchased in bulk for hot dogs at gas stations. But the momentum is still going. And many other chains in the same price range either don't make the same kind of food, or are worse still. So you have no choice until a new restaurant starts that needs to carve a niche and beat it's competition.
gundmc 5y ago
It's almost as if it's a really hard problem to solve.