4 ms·

Maybe some PM realized: Worse search results -> more Google searches -> more ad views

by tekstar 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
handrous 5y ago
And if the spammy, garbage pages now appearing on results page #1 also use Google ads....
rafale 5y ago
Good point. Users only know about Google at this point. And won't even consider another search engine.
ahepp 5y ago
That backfired then (well, for me). I use DDG now because if my results are going to suck either way, I’d rather have privacy.
- stavros 5y ago
  I've been using DDG for years, and its quality has recently gone down too. I was accustomed to using !g to search Google, but now I'm very surprised to find that the Google results are worse! Google has completely lost the plot if DDG is the engine with the better results.
  - ahepp 5y ago
    Yeah, it’s at the point where search engines are now closer to shortcut bars for me. It’s rare that I don’t have to append “wiki” or “Reddit” to my search in order to find a decent result (which I assumed existed before I even searched it). I wonder what the consequences are for discoverability on the web. It can’t be good. Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but it seemed like there was a time I discovered new and cool web sites. Now all I discover is ad spam clogging up the tubes.
    - stavros 5y ago
      > I wonder what the consequences are for discoverability on the web. It can’t be good. Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but it seemed like there was a time I discovered new and cool web sites. Now all I discover is ad spam clogging up the tubes. I feel the exact same way too. I can't even discover blogs with solutions any more (even ones I know exist because I've seen them before), it's all just spam.
skinkestek 5y ago
I don't think it is a PM. Googlers are generally nice. I think it is a second level machine learning system that has gone haywire and nobody knows how to fix it, or they lost the keys, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397797 for a real life (or not : ) story.

Maybe some PM realized: Worse search results -> more Google searches -> more ad views

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

handrous 5y ago

And if the spammy, garbage pages now appearing on results page #1 also use Google ads....

rafale 5y ago

Good point. Users only know about Google at this point. And won't even consider another search engine.

ahepp 5y ago

That backfired then (well, for me). I use DDG now because if my results are going to suck either way, I’d rather have privacy.

stavros 5y ago
I've been using DDG for years, and its quality has recently gone down too. I was accustomed to using !g to search Google, but now I'm very surprised to find that the Google results are worse! Google has completely lost the plot if DDG is the engine with the better results.
- ahepp 5y ago
  Yeah, it’s at the point where search engines are now closer to shortcut bars for me. It’s rare that I don’t have to append “wiki” or “Reddit” to my search in order to find a decent result (which I assumed existed before I even searched it). I wonder what the consequences are for discoverability on the web. It can’t be good. Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but it seemed like there was a time I discovered new and cool web sites. Now all I discover is ad spam clogging up the tubes.
  - stavros 5y ago
    > I wonder what the consequences are for discoverability on the web. It can’t be good. Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but it seemed like there was a time I discovered new and cool web sites. Now all I discover is ad spam clogging up the tubes. I feel the exact same way too. I can't even discover blogs with solutions any more (even ones I know exist because I've seen them before), it's all just spam.

skinkestek 5y ago

I don't think it is a PM. Googlers are generally nice. I think it is a second level machine learning system that has gone haywire and nobody knows how to fix it, or they lost the keys, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397797 for a real life (or not : ) story.