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> That it devolved into ad-rotten mess is different topic. I'll bite. Can you take take screenshots from some sample searches to prove this point? Because I do

> That it devolved into ad-rotten mess is different topic. I'll bite. Can you take take screenshots from some sample searches to prove this point? Because I don't find it an ad-rotten mess. It's still extremely functional, and fairly clean.

sophacles 4y ago
Functional? Do a search for some term that has a few meanings. The first 60% of the page is a summary of wikipedia's article for the wrong meaning, followed by an ad for a competitor of a different meaning of the term followed by a "people also ask" section where the questions are unrelated to what you want. Then scroll down past 2 or 3 actual web links interspersed with adsense links - none of which apply. Then you have the wierd carousel with a bunch of unrelated vidos and a couple links interspersed with ads. During your scroll you'll encounter several links/buttons labeled "more", and it's unclear which of those is actually for "more link results" rather than a switch to video search or whatever. At some point (if you haven't given up in exasperation already) when you decide to refine your search terms, you get the exact same result page, completely ignoring the new terms (although occasionally the ads will change). I guess its functional for extremely basic use cases, but if you ever need to find some deep knowledge, it's literally useless in 2023. In 2008 it was "you'll find it, but it might be on page 10" rather than "good luck not getting mislead on your way to find that page 10 is literally all bot spam".
oceanplexian 4y ago
Search for any kind of product review for an appliance. i.e Best microwave, washing machine review, anything like that. Virtually all of the results are astroturfing spam.
- abenga 4y ago
  On my browser (with an adblocker), "best air fryer" gives me a list of review articles and best-of articles from relatively reputable outlets (Good housekeeping, homes and gardens, etc). On my phone, everything above the fold is an ad (a widget with some direct links to places I can purchase one near me - this is arguably the most useful as links to American stores are useless to me, a review article from a newspaper, and the other Amazon) and tagged as such ("sponsored"), and everything after that is relatively the same results. I don't see how these could be better. A specific article from some "best appliances" ombudsman who can be trusted?

sophacles 4y ago

Functional? Do a search for some term that has a few meanings. The first 60% of the page is a summary of wikipedia's article for the wrong meaning, followed by an ad for a competitor of a different meaning of the term followed by a "people also ask" section where the questions are unrelated to what you want. Then scroll down past 2 or 3 actual web links interspersed with adsense links - none of which apply. Then you have the wierd carousel with a bunch of unrelated vidos and a couple links interspersed with ads. During your scroll you'll encounter several links/buttons labeled "more", and it's unclear which of those is actually for "more link results" rather than a switch to video search or whatever. At some point (if you haven't given up in exasperation already) when you decide to refine your search terms, you get the exact same result page, completely ignoring the new terms (although occasionally the ads will change). I guess its functional for extremely basic use cases, but if you ever need to find some deep knowledge, it's literally useless in 2023. In 2008 it was "you'll find it, but it might be on page 10" rather than "good luck not getting mislead on your way to find that page 10 is literally all bot spam".

oceanplexian 4y ago

Search for any kind of product review for an appliance. i.e Best microwave, washing machine review, anything like that. Virtually all of the results are astroturfing spam.

abenga 4y ago
On my browser (with an adblocker), "best air fryer" gives me a list of review articles and best-of articles from relatively reputable outlets (Good housekeeping, homes and gardens, etc). On my phone, everything above the fold is an ad (a widget with some direct links to places I can purchase one near me - this is arguably the most useful as links to American stores are useless to me, a review article from a newspaper, and the other Amazon) and tagged as such ("sponsored"), and everything after that is relatively the same results. I don't see how these could be better. A specific article from some "best appliances" ombudsman who can be trusted?