4 ms·

Doesn’t help that Google often de-ranks non-corporate content. They used to ensure a mix of results: some blogs, some forum posts, some reviews, some videos. N

Doesn’t help that Google often de-ranks non-corporate content. They used to ensure a mix of results: some blogs, some forum posts, some reviews, some videos. Now it’s just the bigger players. If I search for a big Canadian bank, the first page is entirely their own website and their own social media properties. Even Wikipedia is toward the bottom of the page…

superkuh 4y ago
Yep. My biggest peeve is that google never returns more than 400 search results now. Either you find it on the first 3-4 pages of 100 results or it stops and gives you no more. You can go 36 pages at 10 results per page but it's still only ever <400 results. It makes serendipitous web search and surfing nearly impossible and like you said, the first pages of results are stuffed with corporate sites and things that changed in the last week. Bing, btw, will only ever return <900 results.
- 082349872349872 4y ago
  are you aware of https://search.marginalia.nu https://search.marginalia.nu ?
jefftk 4y ago
> If I search for a big Canadian bank, the first page is entirely their own website and their own social media properties. My expectation is that most people searching for the name of the bank are doing it because they are trying to find the official bank pages. If searches like [bankname fraud] etc also mostly got the bank's own pages, that would be a problem, but this sounds like giving people what they're looking for?
- wolpoli 4y ago
  I just did a Google search on a [big canadian bank with 4-letters fraud] and got all the bank's own pages. The bank created specialized pages for different fraud related scenarios, and they monopolized the first result page.
  - jefftk 4y ago
    Hmm, I forgot that "fraud" in this context will often be things like identity theft, and the bank's own materials might be relevant. But yeah, trying that search I agree there's too much of the bank's own results in the response. [big canadian bank with 4-letters criticism] is better, though
dehrmann 4y ago
> If I search for a big Canadian bank, the first page is entirely their own website and their own social media properties. There might also be an ad for a competitor in the top position.
ljm 4y ago
I remember when Google said their results wouldn’t include adverts, but now out of maybe 12 results on the first page, 8 of them are ads or some kind of sponsored result. It’s more of a search engine for adverts now than it is a search engine for content, like corporate classifieds. I imagine what the landscape would be like if they had any kind of formidable competition in the earlier years.
knighthack 4y ago
This is where I think Kagi helps. They've always got a nice tidbit section out for personal blogs. Very useful for tech work, nostalgia and personal touches/viewpoints on many tech (and non-tech) related things.
- faizmokhtar 4y ago
  Do you mean this site? https://kagi.com/ https://kagi.com/

superkuh 4y ago

Yep. My biggest peeve is that google never returns more than 400 search results now. Either you find it on the first 3-4 pages of 100 results or it stops and gives you no more. You can go 36 pages at 10 results per page but it's still only ever <400 results. It makes serendipitous web search and surfing nearly impossible and like you said, the first pages of results are stuffed with corporate sites and things that changed in the last week. Bing, btw, will only ever return <900 results.

082349872349872 4y ago
are you aware of https://search.marginalia.nu https://search.marginalia.nu ?

jefftk 4y ago

> If I search for a big Canadian bank, the first page is entirely their own website and their own social media properties. My expectation is that most people searching for the name of the bank are doing it because they are trying to find the official bank pages. If searches like [bankname fraud] etc also mostly got the bank's own pages, that would be a problem, but this sounds like giving people what they're looking for?

wolpoli 4y ago
I just did a Google search on a [big canadian bank with 4-letters fraud] and got all the bank's own pages. The bank created specialized pages for different fraud related scenarios, and they monopolized the first result page.
- jefftk 4y ago
  Hmm, I forgot that "fraud" in this context will often be things like identity theft, and the bank's own materials might be relevant. But yeah, trying that search I agree there's too much of the bank's own results in the response. [big canadian bank with 4-letters criticism] is better, though

dehrmann 4y ago

> If I search for a big Canadian bank, the first page is entirely their own website and their own social media properties. There might also be an ad for a competitor in the top position.

ljm 4y ago

I remember when Google said their results wouldn’t include adverts, but now out of maybe 12 results on the first page, 8 of them are ads or some kind of sponsored result. It’s more of a search engine for adverts now than it is a search engine for content, like corporate classifieds. I imagine what the landscape would be like if they had any kind of formidable competition in the earlier years.

knighthack 4y ago

This is where I think Kagi helps. They've always got a nice tidbit section out for personal blogs. Very useful for tech work, nostalgia and personal touches/viewpoints on many tech (and non-tech) related things.

faizmokhtar 4y ago
Do you mean this site? https://kagi.com/ https://kagi.com/