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People do this all the time. I don’t search Google when I’m looking for restaurants near me… I just use Door Dash, Uber Eats, or Google Maps (yes I know it’s ow

People do this all the time. I don’t search Google when I’m looking for restaurants near me… I just use Door Dash, Uber Eats, or Google Maps (yes I know it’s owned by Google but it’s a separate product / UI from search) directly. For restaurant reviews, I go straight to Yelp. For used products, casual encounters, craigslist or ebay. For products I sometimes do google and sometimes go straight to Amazon. For friends, facebook. In fact this site is an example of one that is actually completely non-indexed by Google. For the certain types of products rtings.com is known for I go straight there… Of course this one only applies if you know about rtings and it’s relatively niche still. I think my usage pattern is not unique. Many people skip Google for certain verticals already, and often Google’s search coverage is not as good as the other service’s native faceted search. Google’s search is the catch-all last resort for me if I don’t know of a better alternative in the vertical I’m interested in.

TheFragenTaken 4y ago
I think this is more location (country, continent, city) dependent than you think, and you are probably more platform-savvy (being, that you are on HN), than the average person. People generally don't go to ten platforms, if they can get 90% of the way, on a single one.
- lupire 4y ago
  Imagine a search engine that only indexes quality review sites (like Rtings), and has a comprehensive database across all of commerce. It would become super popular, and would be easy because there are very few quality review sites. The hardest part is not selling out and becoming yet another shady bad review site/indexer.
  - wolverine876 4y ago
    I didn't know about Rtings and they look interesting. Who publishes them, do you know? It's not discussed on their About page. Also, in some ways they seem similar to Consumer Reports. Have you seen CR and how would you compare them? Thanks!
- chrischen 4y ago
  Sure the more savvy you are the more “better than google” services you know. But let’s be honest DoorDash, Uber, Yelp are all pretty much household names. Being able to do the right google search also requires some saviness so probably a person who doesn’t know Yelp exists also doesn’t know how to internet.

TheFragenTaken 4y ago

I think this is more location (country, continent, city) dependent than you think, and you are probably more platform-savvy (being, that you are on HN), than the average person. People generally don't go to ten platforms, if they can get 90% of the way, on a single one.

lupire 4y ago
Imagine a search engine that only indexes quality review sites (like Rtings), and has a comprehensive database across all of commerce. It would become super popular, and would be easy because there are very few quality review sites. The hardest part is not selling out and becoming yet another shady bad review site/indexer.
- wolverine876 4y ago
  I didn't know about Rtings and they look interesting. Who publishes them, do you know? It's not discussed on their About page. Also, in some ways they seem similar to Consumer Reports. Have you seen CR and how would you compare them? Thanks!
chrischen 4y ago
Sure the more savvy you are the more “better than google” services you know. But let’s be honest DoorDash, Uber, Yelp are all pretty much household names. Being able to do the right google search also requires some saviness so probably a person who doesn’t know Yelp exists also doesn’t know how to internet.