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>Longest visit is very different from best result. Sure it's different, but is it _very_ different? They have to choose some sort of metric. A long visit time

>Longest visit is very different from best result. Sure it's different, but is it _very_ different? They have to choose some sort of metric. A long visit time does seem like one good indicator of the goodness of a result. Consider that they use other indicators as well, and their business largely benefits from their search being useful. It is in their interest to choose good metrics, and I'm sure they invest a lot of time into it. Why do you doubt this seemingly-sensible metric, which google has a motive to get right?

Dylan16807 11mo ago
Depending on type of search, time spent on the page might correlate with quality or it might correlate with how hard the page is to use. And those are both common enough that yes it's very different. And I said it worries me, not that I'm confident google is using it wrong.
seanhunter 11mo ago
The motive they have is to increase revenue from advertising. It so happens that “time on page” is a metric that advertisers care a lot about. Ad buyers pay more for space on pages where users spend a lot of time. I’m not surprised at all that Google chose this as a metric. It’s very different from a metric that emphasises quality for the user. “The biggest problem facing users of Web search engines today is the quality of the results they get back. While the results are often amusing and expand users’ horizons, they are often frustrating and consume precious time. “ https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatomy.pdf https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatom...
- pinkmuffinere 11mo ago
  Ads are placed regardless of the ranking, so this metric doesn’t affect them. The metric affects the ranking of non-ad placements.
  - seanhunter 11mo ago
    I’m talking about ads in the pages returned by the search not ads in the search results themselves. This absolutely affects google revenue given they run a large percentage of ad placement auctions
deleted 11mo ago
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goalieca 11mo ago
Absolutely. Who hasn’t spent time scrolling down a page, past three ads with filler text to make the page longer, trying to find whatever you needed. Most of the time I just need a quick answer to a question and the best pages can take me right there without searching the page.

Dylan16807 11mo ago

Depending on type of search, time spent on the page might correlate with quality or it might correlate with how hard the page is to use. And those are both common enough that yes it's very different. And I said it worries me, not that I'm confident google is using it wrong.

seanhunter 11mo ago

The motive they have is to increase revenue from advertising. It so happens that “time on page” is a metric that advertisers care a lot about. Ad buyers pay more for space on pages where users spend a lot of time. I’m not surprised at all that Google chose this as a metric. It’s very different from a metric that emphasises quality for the user. “The biggest problem facing users of Web search engines today is the quality of the results they get back. While the results are often amusing and expand users’ horizons, they are often frustrating and consume precious time. “ https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatomy.pdf https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatom...

pinkmuffinere 11mo ago
Ads are placed regardless of the ranking, so this metric doesn’t affect them. The metric affects the ranking of non-ad placements.
- seanhunter 11mo ago
  I’m talking about ads in the pages returned by the search not ads in the search results themselves. This absolutely affects google revenue given they run a large percentage of ad placement auctions

deleted 11mo ago

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goalieca 11mo ago

Absolutely. Who hasn’t spent time scrolling down a page, past three ads with filler text to make the page longer, trying to find whatever you needed. Most of the time I just need a quick answer to a question and the best pages can take me right there without searching the page.