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Is it actually more complex to provide good results, or is it just more profitable not to? I have a hard time believing an organization like Google doesn't hav

Is it actually more complex to provide good results, or is it just more profitable not to? I have a hard time believing an organization like Google doesn't have the resources to provide a search engine that's just as usable as what they had 6 years ago (around the time I feel like the decay really set in). Seems a lot more likely that it's just more profitable to serve up garbage sponsored content.

jmye 3y ago
Definitely more profitable not to. Especially as Google is an ad company, not a search company. I’d rather see a world with numerous paid/subscription search engines, that are motivated to do nothing but return search results well. I expect you would see some of the SEO crap getting solved.
- w-ll 3y ago
  i cant remember where i read this, but something about how google ranks site that have google ads higher than sites that dont. makese sense, its evil, but makes sense, thats why we get all this scrapped spam. is there any more info on this?
  - mixdup 3y ago
    this is like focusing on one single problem as being the cause of the decline of the United States. It's actually a lot of things combining and there's not going to be one fix
    - w-ll 3y ago
      wtf decline of the United States are you talking aboout
  - Nextgrid 3y ago
    Intentionally ranking sites with Google ads higher would be a huge antitrust liability, so no way they're doing that. On the other hand, they can achieve virtually the same outcome while keeping plausible deniability by just not doing anything that would downrank sites with ads (of which a significant chunk is likely to be Google's). Spam sites often include ads.
    - w-ll 3y ago
      i dont think they public disclose that fact
      - Nextgrid 3y ago
        It doesn't need to be public to become an antitrust liability. Internal written material can still come up during discovery, potentially even in unrelated cases. Therefore the safest option is to never openly discuss it or intentionally do it and instead use other means to achieve the objective (don't intentionally rank spam higher, just defund/cancel any projects that would make it rank lower).
        jmye 3y ago
        > Internal written material can still come up during discovery, potentially even in unrelated cases. Yup, and I think we've seen how careless and thoughtless Google is, as an organization, with internal comms in the Epic case. It would be shocking if it hadn't been discovered in that, or a prior, lawsuit.
zihotki 3y ago
Google, or Alphabet, is not a search emgine company. It's an ads company and that's what they are optimizing for.

jmye 3y ago

Definitely more profitable not to. Especially as Google is an ad company, not a search company. I’d rather see a world with numerous paid/subscription search engines, that are motivated to do nothing but return search results well. I expect you would see some of the SEO crap getting solved.

w-ll 3y ago
i cant remember where i read this, but something about how google ranks site that have google ads higher than sites that dont. makese sense, its evil, but makes sense, thats why we get all this scrapped spam. is there any more info on this?
- mixdup 3y ago
  this is like focusing on one single problem as being the cause of the decline of the United States. It's actually a lot of things combining and there's not going to be one fix
  - w-ll 3y ago
    wtf decline of the United States are you talking aboout
- Nextgrid 3y ago
  Intentionally ranking sites with Google ads higher would be a huge antitrust liability, so no way they're doing that. On the other hand, they can achieve virtually the same outcome while keeping plausible deniability by just not doing anything that would downrank sites with ads (of which a significant chunk is likely to be Google's). Spam sites often include ads.
  - w-ll 3y ago
    i dont think they public disclose that fact
    - Nextgrid 3y ago
      It doesn't need to be public to become an antitrust liability. Internal written material can still come up during discovery, potentially even in unrelated cases. Therefore the safest option is to never openly discuss it or intentionally do it and instead use other means to achieve the objective (don't intentionally rank spam higher, just defund/cancel any projects that would make it rank lower).
      - jmye 3y ago
        > Internal written material can still come up during discovery, potentially even in unrelated cases. Yup, and I think we've seen how careless and thoughtless Google is, as an organization, with internal comms in the Epic case. It would be shocking if it hadn't been discovered in that, or a prior, lawsuit.

zihotki 3y ago

Google, or Alphabet, is not a search emgine company. It's an ads company and that's what they are optimizing for.