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And how google allowed it to happen. Even after they said they are opposed to the behavior.

mbesto 5y ago
Non evidence based conspiracy incoming - how much do you wanna bet there are some individuals who personally profit/profited from Pinterest's success who made these decisions?
handrous 5y ago
They clearly don't give a shit about this problem. Similar issues with Giphy & friends. If they cared they'd de-list sites that present different data to a real user than they do to the Google bot, so that all image search results are directly accessible. Like other bad Google behavior related to controlling web spam, I reckon this drives more people to see Google ads on these sorts of sites, so they've taken an anti-user position. Same reason much of the "legitimate" web turned up in Google results now looks like a low effort click farm—if the clicks are making Google money, who cares if it's coming from garbage content?
- aigo 5y ago
  Couldn't agree more about the final sentence. Searching for almost anything (how to guides and recipes are the most obvious examples) returns a SERP of utter rubbish, all clearly designed to farm SEO and clicks. This seems to be what Google wants and desires, because it keeps getting worse.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    Alternatively, maybe they do give a shit, but it's easier for 10,000+ companies to hack your SEO than it is for 10,000+ employees to come up with a way to mitigate it.
  - coldpie 5y ago
    This is why using ad blockers is more ethical than not. The sooner we destroy ad-based business models, the sooner we can find a model that works.
  - kjs3 5y ago
    Agreed. These days it seems in all of my Google searches, after the first third of a page of results, everything is dominated by garbage pages on (presumably) hacked sites filled with SEO bait. They're so obviously gaming the system, I can only presume Google is intentionally looking the other way.
- dTal 5y ago
  >If they cared they'd de-list sites that present different data to a real user than they do to the Google bot I'm sure they used to do exactly this. Now, not only do they not do this, but they commit the same sin themselves! Recently I was clicking around Google Images looking for some chart data when I found a promising Google Docs link. Alas, "you must sign in to access this document". Get bent, Google.
khazhoux 5y ago
It's frankly shocking that Google Product Manager allows this to happen. I'm not exaggerating to wonder if the PM even looks at their own product.

Non evidence based conspiracy incoming - how much do you wanna bet there are some individuals who personally profit/profited from Pinterest's success who made these decisions?

handrous 5y ago

They clearly don't give a shit about this problem. Similar issues with Giphy & friends. If they cared they'd de-list sites that present different data to a real user than they do to the Google bot, so that all image search results are directly accessible. Like other bad Google behavior related to controlling web spam, I reckon this drives more people to see Google ads on these sorts of sites, so they've taken an anti-user position. Same reason much of the "legitimate" web turned up in Google results now looks like a low effort click farm—if the clicks are making Google money, who cares if it's coming from garbage content?

aigo 5y ago
Couldn't agree more about the final sentence. Searching for almost anything (how to guides and recipes are the most obvious examples) returns a SERP of utter rubbish, all clearly designed to farm SEO and clicks. This seems to be what Google wants and desires, because it keeps getting worse.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Alternatively, maybe they do give a shit, but it's easier for 10,000+ companies to hack your SEO than it is for 10,000+ employees to come up with a way to mitigate it.
- coldpie 5y ago
  This is why using ad blockers is more ethical than not. The sooner we destroy ad-based business models, the sooner we can find a model that works.
- kjs3 5y ago
  Agreed. These days it seems in all of my Google searches, after the first third of a page of results, everything is dominated by garbage pages on (presumably) hacked sites filled with SEO bait. They're so obviously gaming the system, I can only presume Google is intentionally looking the other way.
dTal 5y ago
>If they cared they'd de-list sites that present different data to a real user than they do to the Google bot I'm sure they used to do exactly this. Now, not only do they not do this, but they commit the same sin themselves! Recently I was clicking around Google Images looking for some chart data when I found a promising Google Docs link. Alas, "you must sign in to access this document". Get bent, Google.

khazhoux 5y ago

It's frankly shocking that Google Product Manager allows this to happen. I'm not exaggerating to wonder if the PM even looks at their own product.