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> Last year, we kicked off a series of updates to show more helpful, in-depth reviews based on first-hand expertise in search results. I find myself searching

by mdmglr 4y ago

> Last year, we kicked off a series of updates to show more helpful, in-depth reviews based on first-hand expertise in search results. I find myself searching <product name> + "review reddit" to find real honest reviews. My anecdotal experience is that everything else is written by content creators who are given the product for free to use for a few days/weeks/months w/o going in depth.

spaceman_2020 4y ago
I can assure you that 90% of these product review sites have never even used the product, and the content is almost always written by a $25/article writer from Upwork.
- ThalesX 4y ago
  Awhile ago the company I used to work for used a local service that does 2 pieces of content per week for you for lime 50€ / month. Quality was shit but it did get us views and paying customers.
permarad 4y ago
Yeh I find myself adding 'reddit' a lot to my search queries. I'm looking for someone asking the same question, and someone answering it.
marttt 4y ago
Same here. For more niche stuff, <product name> + "site:news.ycombinator.com" is standard practice. Or Algolia's HN search. Another one is <product name> + "forum" or <product name> + <some trusted forum>. I train myself to use DDG, but, to my own dissapointment, I end up with "!g <query> site:something-trustworthy.com" way too often. For regular Google searches, I've had the feeling of being "scammed" for years, though. The "fishing devil" on the no-results page also feels like buttering up the user. I always subconsciously interpret this as a lightly humiliating, but cowardly way to say "we decide what you see, bro". But, YMMV. Never wanted to bash anybody, but this has got to be the most negative post I've ever written on HN. Please, please, please, Google, give me the search results of around 2008-2010. Pages, pages, pages of results for almost any query. I worked as a journalist then, and googling was actually useful, even educational, in real life.
- visarga 4y ago
  I use the "Search the current site" Chrome extension. You can just hop to a YC or Reddit page and click the search icon, but it works with all websites. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-the-current-site/jliolpcnkmolaaecncdfeofombdekjcp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-the-current...
- monort 4y ago
  Here is a what you should add to search request to find mostly old style forum discussions: inurl:forum|viewthread|showthread|viewtopic|showtopic|comments|"index.php?topic" | intext:"reading this topic"|"next thread"|"next topic"|"send private message"
  - marttt 4y ago
    This is a really useful tip, many thanks. It has probably largely been a personal comfort zone, but I haven't dug much deeper than site: or ext: operators in recent years. A lazy habit. Also, strangely, I have always had doubt as to the real efficiency of the OR operator in web search (maybe it has yielded unsatisfactory results in some distant past, and for different engines, not only Google; hence the prejudice). I didn't even know that the "pipe" symbol should actually work for that. Your example is a really good one, because it illustrates the power of OR remarkably well. The key is using it to combine several different operators, not just duplicating a single one, e.g. "query site:a.com | site:b.com". That has been my main way of digging deeper over the years, along with "#" to specify a date range. Interestingly, in case of "query site:firstsite.ee|secondsite.ee" the "|" doesn't seem to work, I get zero results. Why is that? To narrow down the results based on both the domain name and top level domain, I have to add the inurl: operator. E.g. "query inurl:firstsite|secondsite site:.ee" Strangely, "piping" is the essential thing I do on the Unix command line every day. I haven't put (that) much thought into using Google's "|" operator in a similar vein, that is, to combine several (3-4) different operators. Possibly partly because one used to get pages and pages of results even with very simple, single-operator queries. Time to refresh my memory about Google's search operators, I guess. Thanks again for sharing this example.
    - 4y ago
throw10920 4y ago
At this point, I'm not sure how many of the Reddit reviews are valid, either. Marketers may be dumb, but they're not stupid - all it takes is a few people to notice Google starting to add "reddit" to their autocomplete, start looking around, figure out what's going on, and then suddenly the whole "SEO"/marketing spam sphere is aware of it and will start making sockpuppet accounts.
- mdmglr 4y ago
  I agree. It's a cat and mouse game. At some point Reddit reviews will no longer be trustworthy. I have some techniques to weed out some reviews. For example I was considering a Synology ds220j for home use so I looked for negative reviews on /r/nas /r/synology and /r/homelab.

by mdmglr 4y ago

spaceman_2020 4y ago

I can assure you that 90% of these product review sites have never even used the product, and the content is almost always written by a $25/article writer from Upwork.

ThalesX 4y ago
Awhile ago the company I used to work for used a local service that does 2 pieces of content per week for you for lime 50€ / month. Quality was shit but it did get us views and paying customers.

permarad 4y ago

Yeh I find myself adding 'reddit' a lot to my search queries. I'm looking for someone asking the same question, and someone answering it.

marttt 4y ago

Same here. For more niche stuff, <product name> + "site:news.ycombinator.com" is standard practice. Or Algolia's HN search. Another one is <product name> + "forum" or <product name> + <some trusted forum>. I train myself to use DDG, but, to my own dissapointment, I end up with "!g <query> site:something-trustworthy.com" way too often. For regular Google searches, I've had the feeling of being "scammed" for years, though. The "fishing devil" on the no-results page also feels like buttering up the user. I always subconsciously interpret this as a lightly humiliating, but cowardly way to say "we decide what you see, bro". But, YMMV. Never wanted to bash anybody, but this has got to be the most negative post I've ever written on HN. Please, please, please, Google, give me the search results of around 2008-2010. Pages, pages, pages of results for almost any query. I worked as a journalist then, and googling was actually useful, even educational, in real life.

visarga 4y ago
I use the "Search the current site" Chrome extension. You can just hop to a YC or Reddit page and click the search icon, but it works with all websites. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-the-current-site/jliolpcnkmolaaecncdfeofombdekjcp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-the-current...
monort 4y ago
Here is a what you should add to search request to find mostly old style forum discussions: inurl:forum|viewthread|showthread|viewtopic|showtopic|comments|"index.php?topic" | intext:"reading this topic"|"next thread"|"next topic"|"send private message"
- marttt 4y ago
  This is a really useful tip, many thanks. It has probably largely been a personal comfort zone, but I haven't dug much deeper than site: or ext: operators in recent years. A lazy habit. Also, strangely, I have always had doubt as to the real efficiency of the OR operator in web search (maybe it has yielded unsatisfactory results in some distant past, and for different engines, not only Google; hence the prejudice). I didn't even know that the "pipe" symbol should actually work for that. Your example is a really good one, because it illustrates the power of OR remarkably well. The key is using it to combine several different operators, not just duplicating a single one, e.g. "query site:a.com | site:b.com". That has been my main way of digging deeper over the years, along with "#" to specify a date range. Interestingly, in case of "query site:firstsite.ee|secondsite.ee" the "|" doesn't seem to work, I get zero results. Why is that? To narrow down the results based on both the domain name and top level domain, I have to add the inurl: operator. E.g. "query inurl:firstsite|secondsite site:.ee" Strangely, "piping" is the essential thing I do on the Unix command line every day. I haven't put (that) much thought into using Google's "|" operator in a similar vein, that is, to combine several (3-4) different operators. Possibly partly because one used to get pages and pages of results even with very simple, single-operator queries. Time to refresh my memory about Google's search operators, I guess. Thanks again for sharing this example.
  - 4y ago

throw10920 4y ago

At this point, I'm not sure how many of the Reddit reviews are valid, either. Marketers may be dumb, but they're not stupid - all it takes is a few people to notice Google starting to add "reddit" to their autocomplete, start looking around, figure out what's going on, and then suddenly the whole "SEO"/marketing spam sphere is aware of it and will start making sockpuppet accounts.

mdmglr 4y ago
I agree. It's a cat and mouse game. At some point Reddit reviews will no longer be trustworthy. I have some techniques to weed out some reviews. For example I was considering a Synology ds220j for home use so I looked for negative reviews on /r/nas /r/synology and /r/homelab.