4 ms·

This is a great example of why "Google sucks!!11" is mainly FUD. Let's say you're looking for the SO link, which is #2 for Google. Let's compare: Google ("code

• tyingq 5y ago
  I'm not sure it's a good example, really. It's an "exact phrase search" with quotes, which doesn't happen much in real life. It was helpful solely to show what some of these leech sites are. Searching for (without quotes): What does if __name__ == "__main__": do? Is probably a better test of which search engine has better results for the real-life query. Google might still win, but it should do a better job of screening out the spammy sites. It used to be better at this.
  • endisneigh 5y ago
    All the search engines have seen massive increases in SEO and consequently, spam. Do you believe Google et al isn’t working on it? It’s obviously a very difficult problem.
    • tyingq 5y ago
      I believe they've become more complacent since there is no competitive pressure, yes.
      • endisneigh 5y ago
        I don't know, a lot of people have claimed this but no one has any proof.
        • tyingq 5y ago
          What would proof be? Over a period of time, they have clearly de-prioritized organic search results by pushing them down the page with ads, widgets, and so on. They used to engage more directly with content producers. Matt Cutts was often called the "Head of Web Spam". When he left, they dissolved his role and spread it around to several other people.
          • endisneigh 5y ago
            Your claim regarding deprioritized search results for example - where’s the proof? If what you are saying is true it should be trivial to give sample queries so we can test across all search engines and see if it’s true.
            • tyingq 5y ago
              "Deprioritized" means moved down the fold of the page. Like, for example, the 3-4 ads at the top that used to not be there. And various other widgets that used to not be there. Ads in SERPS started out in the right hand sidebar only. Such that organic results were at the top. They were slowly moved down over time by a slow rollout of more ads and widgets. There are many queries now with ZERO organic results above the page fold. None of this is in dispute, so I don't feel compelled to dredge up old screenshots or examples. Comparing the page layout to competitors isn't especially helpful when Google has 90%+ market share in search. Google is defining the standard for others.
• Terry_Roll 5y ago
  I have noticed that Google and Bing seem to present results which link to sites like stackoverflow.com where the questions and solutions are absolute FUD. I think someone or an entity has been engaged in a consertive effort to manipulate the results if its not something more nefarious in Google and Bing's domain. Very few entities have the resources to do this either, its not something a ragtag band of goat herders could, thats for sure!
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• code2life 5y ago
  In my experience, the you.com apps and overall search results aren't affected by SEO the same way that some of the other engines are, which is why I think their results work for me