4 ms·

I have noticed search quality has dropped off for anything related to video games. You used to be able to search for guides for a specific level or class and it

by dexwiz 3y ago

I have noticed search quality has dropped off for anything related to video games. You used to be able to search for guides for a specific level or class and it would return high quality content usually on game specific sites or maybe a wiki. Now its all AI blogspam that just regurgitates the same low quality content over and over in a generic article format while maximizing ad space. They are bad on desktop, but unusable on mobile. The wikis are never the top response, and well made guide sites are no where to be found. You have to find the specific site and search there. Maybe they addressed affiliated links, but the bar for content generation is so low now, that everything is being impacted. I first noticed this kind of site for recipes (ones that make you scroll past 4 ads and a life story before you get to a recycled recipe), but its infected everything. Google used to be a first stop, and its becoming more and more an option of last resort. This completely seems to be their own doing by driving the web towards an ad centric model. I wonder if it will ever collapse as search degrades, devaluing the ad revenue that people are so quick to chase.

EA-3167 3y ago
I wonder if being able to limit searches to specific geographic regions might be a helpful feature. A lot of the affiliate/content/seo farms are based out of ASEAN countries. I don't want the internet to break off into armed camps, but the ability to exclude some from a search would be useful.
- dexwiz 3y ago
  Even if they are generated in ASEAN countries, are they hosted there? Seems like CDN hosting kind of destroys that kind of filter. Google already returns region specific results for that which is associated with a physical region, but for something that is largely regionless like video games, that just seems like an arms race kind of answer.
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    That's a good point, and I guess the asymmetry is ultimately in favor of the spammers. Aiiieee.

by dexwiz 3y ago

EA-3167 3y ago

I wonder if being able to limit searches to specific geographic regions might be a helpful feature. A lot of the affiliate/content/seo farms are based out of ASEAN countries. I don't want the internet to break off into armed camps, but the ability to exclude some from a search would be useful.

dexwiz 3y ago
Even if they are generated in ASEAN countries, are they hosted there? Seems like CDN hosting kind of destroys that kind of filter. Google already returns region specific results for that which is associated with a physical region, but for something that is largely regionless like video games, that just seems like an arms race kind of answer.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  That's a good point, and I guess the asymmetry is ultimately in favor of the spammers. Aiiieee.