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Who even "gets content" through searching? I'm sure many people here are all basically using the internet through link aggregators (reddit, fb, HN etc). Has th

by rtpg 5y ago

Who even "gets content" through searching? I'm sure many people here are all basically using the internet through link aggregators (reddit, fb, HN etc). Has the web ever been much beyond that? Have people ever really been just hitting "give me a random web page about X"? Of course search engines are very useful, just that these conversations about content and "the web", I feel like there's not much focus on how so much traffic is guided through link aggregation.

dgb23 5y ago
I often search for articles/books about X, or reviews about Y. The top results for those things is a mix of SEO spam, Amazon links etc. which I all try to avoid. I use search for information, but I often have to dig quite deep to find something worth clicking on or reading. And that's true for Google and DDG (which I mostly use). When it's raw, basic knowledge, then I'm using !wiki or !mdn etc. in DDG to search those sites directly. Note: Wikipedia and Mozilla Developer Network are two of my favorite sites. But when it's something more subtle and specialized that I'm not very familiar with then often my only hope of finding something useful is to search via aggregators and forums like HN, Reddit etc. because then I can gauge the quality of the links via the discussion around it and the people who post them. Or in some cases I know about a specialist or journalist and can use their name to filter out spam. Discovering these kind of things via search is really hard, especially if their authors are not known. It's the spammers and low effort creators that get rewarded the most, partly because of search engines, partly because of visitors who are content with that kind of quality.
- godshatter 5y ago
  Whenever I'm searching for something (using DDG, too) I usually scroll down the results page until I see a website that I don't recognize or one I remember as being small and targeted. The big company websites usually have shortest blurbs on the topic and the worst "NoScript minigames". Smaller websites usually have more information and less reliance on massive ad networks. This is especially true if you are looking for reviews on games.
  - dgb23 5y ago
    I don’t get to play video games anymore as often as a couple of years ago. Then I was naturally informed about interesting titles (typically indie). Now when I have a couple of hours to kill and would like to play something new/original I usually give up after 20min of searching and grab a book. I wish I knew some decent curators or magazines, but most of the stuff I come across is just too far from what I‘m looking for. Search engines don’t help much here either.
    - marginalia_nu 5y ago
      If you find yourself looking for a game in the future, just get "Vampire Survivors". Trust me. It's the pinnacle of casual gaming. $3 and as simple as it is plain fun. Can easily spend 10 hours on it if you want to, or 10 minutes if you don't have any more time.
      - dgb23 5y ago
        Thank you, will check it out! Some of these raw looking indie games have turned out to be gems. Thinking of Faster than Light, Loop Hero etc. It's hard to gauge the game-play from a quick look. Not even "similar to" searches help too much. It's not really about the money spent, but rather about the time both finding and then playing. I wish I had a list of curators that I really dig. So far, hit and miss.
    - godshatter 5y ago
      I keep an eye on r/gamingsuggestions on reddit for game discovery. Follow that for long enough and you'll hear some more interesting games talked about upon occasion enough times that you'll seek them out. If you can stand reddit, that is.
      - dgb23 5y ago
        Thank you for helping me to waste my time :)
marginalia_nu 5y ago
I can't tell you the number of times I've wished there was a subreddit or a facebook group for the types of content I'm interested in, only to find that there isn't. Not because the content doesn't exist, mind you. Link aggregators are also very much part of the problem. Besides the astroturfing, they tend to favor the lowest common denominator in content. Popular vote just doesn't seem to be a good way of surfacing quality content, especially not with the social incentive of winning internet acclaim for submitting a good result. HN does surface the odd gem, but why can't I pick one of those and say "Hey, this topic interests me, show me more like this"? I'm currently working on build something to that effect, and so far it seems at least reasonably possible. RSS was good in one way, but it also sort of turns everything it comes into contact with into a blog.
- fishtacos 5y ago
  >> I can't tell you the number of times I've wished there was a subreddit or a facebook group for the types of content I'm interested in, only to find that there isn't. Not because the content doesn't exist, mind you. Why not start it? One of the beauties of reddit subgroups is that not only do you find random very specific ones, but if you don't, you can start your own.
  - marginalia_nu 5y ago
    I've started subreddits for niche topics. Only visitors I got were spambots.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      What search engine were people using to find your niche topic's thread. Oh, wait

by rtpg 5y ago

dgb23 5y ago

I often search for articles/books about X, or reviews about Y. The top results for those things is a mix of SEO spam, Amazon links etc. which I all try to avoid. I use search for information, but I often have to dig quite deep to find something worth clicking on or reading. And that's true for Google and DDG (which I mostly use). When it's raw, basic knowledge, then I'm using !wiki or !mdn etc. in DDG to search those sites directly. Note: Wikipedia and Mozilla Developer Network are two of my favorite sites. But when it's something more subtle and specialized that I'm not very familiar with then often my only hope of finding something useful is to search via aggregators and forums like HN, Reddit etc. because then I can gauge the quality of the links via the discussion around it and the people who post them. Or in some cases I know about a specialist or journalist and can use their name to filter out spam. Discovering these kind of things via search is really hard, especially if their authors are not known. It's the spammers and low effort creators that get rewarded the most, partly because of search engines, partly because of visitors who are content with that kind of quality.

godshatter 5y ago
Whenever I'm searching for something (using DDG, too) I usually scroll down the results page until I see a website that I don't recognize or one I remember as being small and targeted. The big company websites usually have shortest blurbs on the topic and the worst "NoScript minigames". Smaller websites usually have more information and less reliance on massive ad networks. This is especially true if you are looking for reviews on games.
- dgb23 5y ago
  I don’t get to play video games anymore as often as a couple of years ago. Then I was naturally informed about interesting titles (typically indie). Now when I have a couple of hours to kill and would like to play something new/original I usually give up after 20min of searching and grab a book. I wish I knew some decent curators or magazines, but most of the stuff I come across is just too far from what I‘m looking for. Search engines don’t help much here either.
  - marginalia_nu 5y ago
    If you find yourself looking for a game in the future, just get "Vampire Survivors". Trust me. It's the pinnacle of casual gaming. $3 and as simple as it is plain fun. Can easily spend 10 hours on it if you want to, or 10 minutes if you don't have any more time.
    - dgb23 5y ago
      Thank you, will check it out! Some of these raw looking indie games have turned out to be gems. Thinking of Faster than Light, Loop Hero etc. It's hard to gauge the game-play from a quick look. Not even "similar to" searches help too much. It's not really about the money spent, but rather about the time both finding and then playing. I wish I had a list of curators that I really dig. So far, hit and miss.
  - godshatter 5y ago
    I keep an eye on r/gamingsuggestions on reddit for game discovery. Follow that for long enough and you'll hear some more interesting games talked about upon occasion enough times that you'll seek them out. If you can stand reddit, that is.
    - dgb23 5y ago
      Thank you for helping me to waste my time :)

marginalia_nu 5y ago

I can't tell you the number of times I've wished there was a subreddit or a facebook group for the types of content I'm interested in, only to find that there isn't. Not because the content doesn't exist, mind you. Link aggregators are also very much part of the problem. Besides the astroturfing, they tend to favor the lowest common denominator in content. Popular vote just doesn't seem to be a good way of surfacing quality content, especially not with the social incentive of winning internet acclaim for submitting a good result. HN does surface the odd gem, but why can't I pick one of those and say "Hey, this topic interests me, show me more like this"? I'm currently working on build something to that effect, and so far it seems at least reasonably possible. RSS was good in one way, but it also sort of turns everything it comes into contact with into a blog.

fishtacos 5y ago
>> I can't tell you the number of times I've wished there was a subreddit or a facebook group for the types of content I'm interested in, only to find that there isn't. Not because the content doesn't exist, mind you. Why not start it? One of the beauties of reddit subgroups is that not only do you find random very specific ones, but if you don't, you can start your own.
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  I've started subreddits for niche topics. Only visitors I got were spambots.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    What search engine were people using to find your niche topic's thread. Oh, wait