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Google's gotta make money off Pinterest somehow, based on the most blocked domains on Kagi: https://kagi.com/stats https://kagi.com/stats Pinterest is a scour

by RajT88 3y ago

Google's gotta make money off Pinterest somehow, based on the most blocked domains on Kagi: https://kagi.com/stats https://kagi.com/stats Pinterest is a scourge on the modern web, worse than any other.

ask_b123 3y ago
Might these stats be biased by the demographics that use Kagi? I don't use Pinterest, and never really encounter it on a daily basis, but some of my friends really like the site. Tbf, they might use stackoverflow more, but seeing Hacker News on the top 5 doesn't seem to reflect the average web user's usage...
- climb_stealth 3y ago
  I wonder if it is also biased in the sense that it's only certain people who customise these things. And that it's only the most common ones. You would never see my favourite car forum listed here, but bumping it in search results is where I see value with the feature.
- tayo42 3y ago
  There was a time where Google image search was dominated by Pinterest results but clinking through never took you to the photo. And most of the photos were rehosting of the original so you wouldn't get that either.
- hnben 3y ago
  > Might these stats be biased by the demographics that use Kagi? yes, obviously. but also: Selection Bias Is A Fact Of Life https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/selection-bias-is-a-fact-of-life https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/selection-bias-is-a-fact-of...
- dwighttk 3y ago
  Do your friends who use it use Google to use it? Or do they go to the site itself. I don’t use the site itself but the irritating thing is a first page full of useless Pinterest links when searching for something.
- super256 3y ago
  I only recently discovered pinterest as a useful site, but only because a friend convinced me to create an account. It only becomes usable with an account and it even makes fun, but most people are probably like I was and don’t want to create an account and are annoyed of pinterest hijacking the „save image“ function, redirecting you when you don’t have an account and nagging you with a login wall. It really only becomes great if you give in (only took me 5 years or so).
- janandonly 3y ago
  Of course they are biased. Just look at how NYTimes is both blocked and upvoted on Kagi. Some people like a source and others don’t, it’s that simple really.
  - d0gsg0w00f 3y ago
    For me, I ignore NYT because I'm not a subscriber and it's annoying to always hit the paywall.
    - xeromal 3y ago
      It's worth checking your library for a digital pass to the NY times and other papers.
- EricMausler 3y ago
  I used pinterest and still hate(d) when it popped up on search. Without too much conjecture I think the problem is search-related web crawlers and users have very different experiences with pinterest. To the web crawler, the information is there and easily accesible. To a user, it might be behind a login, or part of an image description, or a sidenote, or whatever. The page doesn't exactly load with what you are looking for front and center Additionally, I don't use it through a browser, I use it in an app, so im not logged in on my browser.
CynicusRex 3y ago
It is indeed, hence “https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=%s https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=%s -site:quora.com -site:pinterest.com” as my default search syntax.
- WhrRTheBaboons 3y ago
  same here
- laserlight 3y ago
  I had to quit doing so, because I discovered that it didn't just exclude listed domains, but performed a totally different search. Locations or local results were largely missing, when I excluded some domains.
  - mrAssHat 3y ago
    That's curious, please expand on this. Do you really mean it performed a search for different thing? If so - have you figured how it differed? Or did it just have to perform a non-cached search and thus not only excluded said domains, but could also reorder the other results based on the current relevance, rather than cached relevance from the past that is being served to everyone else who doesn't exclude said domains?
    - laserlight 3y ago
      When I search for “pizza hut”, I get: the info panel that shows Wikipedia intro and company social media profiles on the right, locations results and integrated map view as the second result. When I search for “pizza hut -site:pinterest.com”, I get none of those. In addition, results are listed in a different order. PS: I'm blocking all ads.
- permo-w 3y ago
  I have a strong memory that Quora used to be quite good, and then was suddenly horrendous. Is this just me?
lostlogin 3y ago
I’d argue that Google is worse than Pinterest. We got here due to Google.
- abricot 3y ago
  To be fair, google DID provide quality at scale in the past. I'm not sure the same can be said about Pinterest.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Due to linkrot, a lot of images that stood on independent websites, are now only available on Pinterest, which scraped and cached them before the original site went dark. Clicking through to the original links these days often leads to 404s.
popcorncowboy 3y ago
It's telling that the top sites on that list accurately map to companies that have been the most "successful" at blitzing the incentive structures of the current internet economics model.
mcpackieh 3y ago
I don't understand why people hate Pinterest in image search results. If the image is relevant to my search then I don't care who's hosting it. Can somebody explain to me what the problem is here? https://0x0.st/HO57.webm https://0x0.st/HO57.webm (I don't have a pinterest account, if that makes a difference.)
- d0gsg0w00f 3y ago
  I don't like pinterest because the images have no metadata. If I see something I'm interested in--like a piece of furniture--I have no way of knowing how to get more info on it. Same thing with those displays that rotate earthporn with no info on the location. So annoying to see spectacular things and not know what they are.
theolivenbaum 3y ago
I was wondering what would be the impact of being in the front page of HN, it's awesome that their stats are open: almost 2k new members!

by RajT88 3y ago

ask_b123 3y ago

Might these stats be biased by the demographics that use Kagi? I don't use Pinterest, and never really encounter it on a daily basis, but some of my friends really like the site. Tbf, they might use stackoverflow more, but seeing Hacker News on the top 5 doesn't seem to reflect the average web user's usage...

climb_stealth 3y ago
I wonder if it is also biased in the sense that it's only certain people who customise these things. And that it's only the most common ones. You would never see my favourite car forum listed here, but bumping it in search results is where I see value with the feature.
tayo42 3y ago
There was a time where Google image search was dominated by Pinterest results but clinking through never took you to the photo. And most of the photos were rehosting of the original so you wouldn't get that either.
hnben 3y ago
> Might these stats be biased by the demographics that use Kagi? yes, obviously. but also: Selection Bias Is A Fact Of Life https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/selection-bias-is-a-fact-of-life https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/selection-bias-is-a-fact-of...
dwighttk 3y ago
Do your friends who use it use Google to use it? Or do they go to the site itself. I don’t use the site itself but the irritating thing is a first page full of useless Pinterest links when searching for something.
super256 3y ago
I only recently discovered pinterest as a useful site, but only because a friend convinced me to create an account. It only becomes usable with an account and it even makes fun, but most people are probably like I was and don’t want to create an account and are annoyed of pinterest hijacking the „save image“ function, redirecting you when you don’t have an account and nagging you with a login wall. It really only becomes great if you give in (only took me 5 years or so).
janandonly 3y ago
Of course they are biased. Just look at how NYTimes is both blocked and upvoted on Kagi. Some people like a source and others don’t, it’s that simple really.
- d0gsg0w00f 3y ago
  For me, I ignore NYT because I'm not a subscriber and it's annoying to always hit the paywall.
  - xeromal 3y ago
    It's worth checking your library for a digital pass to the NY times and other papers.
EricMausler 3y ago
I used pinterest and still hate(d) when it popped up on search. Without too much conjecture I think the problem is search-related web crawlers and users have very different experiences with pinterest. To the web crawler, the information is there and easily accesible. To a user, it might be behind a login, or part of an image description, or a sidenote, or whatever. The page doesn't exactly load with what you are looking for front and center Additionally, I don't use it through a browser, I use it in an app, so im not logged in on my browser.

CynicusRex 3y ago

It is indeed, hence “https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=%s https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=%s -site:quora.com -site:pinterest.com” as my default search syntax.

WhrRTheBaboons 3y ago
same here
laserlight 3y ago
I had to quit doing so, because I discovered that it didn't just exclude listed domains, but performed a totally different search. Locations or local results were largely missing, when I excluded some domains.
- mrAssHat 3y ago
  That's curious, please expand on this. Do you really mean it performed a search for different thing? If so - have you figured how it differed? Or did it just have to perform a non-cached search and thus not only excluded said domains, but could also reorder the other results based on the current relevance, rather than cached relevance from the past that is being served to everyone else who doesn't exclude said domains?
  - laserlight 3y ago
    When I search for “pizza hut”, I get: the info panel that shows Wikipedia intro and company social media profiles on the right, locations results and integrated map view as the second result. When I search for “pizza hut -site:pinterest.com”, I get none of those. In addition, results are listed in a different order. PS: I'm blocking all ads.
permo-w 3y ago
I have a strong memory that Quora used to be quite good, and then was suddenly horrendous. Is this just me?

lostlogin 3y ago

I’d argue that Google is worse than Pinterest. We got here due to Google.

abricot 3y ago
To be fair, google DID provide quality at scale in the past. I'm not sure the same can be said about Pinterest.
- rchaud 3y ago
  Due to linkrot, a lot of images that stood on independent websites, are now only available on Pinterest, which scraped and cached them before the original site went dark. Clicking through to the original links these days often leads to 404s.

popcorncowboy 3y ago

It's telling that the top sites on that list accurately map to companies that have been the most "successful" at blitzing the incentive structures of the current internet economics model.

mcpackieh 3y ago

I don't understand why people hate Pinterest in image search results. If the image is relevant to my search then I don't care who's hosting it. Can somebody explain to me what the problem is here? https://0x0.st/HO57.webm https://0x0.st/HO57.webm (I don't have a pinterest account, if that makes a difference.)

d0gsg0w00f 3y ago
I don't like pinterest because the images have no metadata. If I see something I'm interested in--like a piece of furniture--I have no way of knowing how to get more info on it. Same thing with those displays that rotate earthporn with no info on the location. So annoying to see spectacular things and not know what they are.

theolivenbaum 3y ago

I was wondering what would be the impact of being in the front page of HN, it's awesome that their stats are open: almost 2k new members!