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If you believe that, you live in the GoogleMatrix! There's some MBA looking over your shoulder, maybe without you knowing and that MBA is giving feedback to you

If you believe that, you live in the GoogleMatrix! There's some MBA looking over your shoulder, maybe without you knowing and that MBA is giving feedback to your VP. Look on the bright side, you may be gullible and are destroying many small businesses (those free loaders don't buy adwords!!) and lives but at least your stock options are worth double or triple with this revenue enhancing method. When you're desperate to increase CPC, issue mass penalties on small businesses sites, and your ad clicks increase after each major updates, what are we to make? Believe some Google corporate crap or trust your judgment?

icebraining 13y ago
There are many valid reasons to criticize Google, from their massive contribution to the destruction of online privacy to the Kenya scam, but ruining lives because they make it harder to game their engine? Give me a break.
- bsullivan01 13y ago
  but ruining lives because they make it harder to game their engine? Give me a break Gaming??? What if they are penalizing sites or cutting off free traffic to force sites to advertise via Adwords? Yelp supposedly pulled the same scam with bad reviews
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    So your thesis is that google is killing your small company by sending people interested in your business to wikipedia instead? Has it occurred to you that perhaps people are more interested in wikipedia than your business?
    - bsullivan01 13y ago
      So your thesis is that google is killing your small company by sending people interested in your business to wikipedia instead? No it is not. Please read the thread again and again if needed, it's a waste to repeat it or to cut and paste. Many others have made the same point over and over. When in doubt, follow the money and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
      - jlgreco 13y ago
        Point me to a particular comment, because as far as I can tell Occam's Razor suggests that if Google, Bing, and DDG are all returning the "computer" page on wikipedia for searches for "computer", then it probably isn't some sort of industry conspiracy to make Dell shell out more money to appear on the top, while also somehow involving small businesses... or whatever your personal angle is. There is no reason to "follow the money" here because there is nothing here to doubt. It isn't fucking strange that wikipedia is featured so prominently.
jamesaguilar 13y ago
People should totally believe your conspiracy theory over the words of someone who actually works at Google (disclosure: so do I).
- bsullivan01 13y ago
  "People should totally believe your conspiracy theory over the words of someone who actually works at Google (disclosure: so do I)" Oh yeah, that's all do, trust those accused of scamming. The same goes on Wall Street, SEC, FTC, IRS /taxes etc. If the employees of said company swear on internet forums that they are not manipulating anything, it's over.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    I'm all for believing that there's a scam when there's evidence of a scam (as opposed to this, where the results are indistinguishable from what they would be if Google were acting in good faith, and no other evidence has been presented). https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer http://www.bing.com/search?q=computer http://www.bing.com/search?q=computer It's a conspiracy, and we've even managed to rope DuckDuckGo into it.
    - brymaster 13y ago
      How Google is Killing Organic Search https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5971560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5971560 Forrester: Consumers Prefer Organic Search, Not Search Ads, For Discovery http://searchengineland.com/forrester-consumers-prefer-organic-search-not-search-ads-for-discovery-164112 http://searchengineland.com/forrester-consumers-prefer-organ...
- powertower 13y ago
  > Staff software engineer at Google. I work on making infrastructure fast. Do you really believe that your job would be involved, or even have access to, the business process that weights the effect of algorithmic changes to Ad CTRs? And then approving or disproving those changes based on those factors? Think about it - You're telling us that if a algorithmic change improves the relevant search score by 3%, but at the same time has the effect of decreasing Ad CTR by 3%, it will go through!.. Because no one tracks this, and no one cares. That might be an engineer's take on this, but no one at a higher business level (that deals with money) would be so naive about it. I also don't see how this could even remotely be classified as a conspiracy theory considering it's about as standard of operating procedures as it gets... You don't fuck yourself nor your revenue numbers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting you or your job. I just don't think you are seeing the bigger picture and the place Google is right now (search market domination), and how this affects the direction they have to go to keep the desired revenue growth projections, stock prices, etc.

icebraining 13y ago

There are many valid reasons to criticize Google, from their massive contribution to the destruction of online privacy to the Kenya scam, but ruining lives because they make it harder to game their engine? Give me a break.

bsullivan01 13y ago
but ruining lives because they make it harder to game their engine? Give me a break Gaming??? What if they are penalizing sites or cutting off free traffic to force sites to advertise via Adwords? Yelp supposedly pulled the same scam with bad reviews
- jlgreco 13y ago
  So your thesis is that google is killing your small company by sending people interested in your business to wikipedia instead? Has it occurred to you that perhaps people are more interested in wikipedia than your business?
  - bsullivan01 13y ago
    So your thesis is that google is killing your small company by sending people interested in your business to wikipedia instead? No it is not. Please read the thread again and again if needed, it's a waste to repeat it or to cut and paste. Many others have made the same point over and over. When in doubt, follow the money and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      Point me to a particular comment, because as far as I can tell Occam's Razor suggests that if Google, Bing, and DDG are all returning the "computer" page on wikipedia for searches for "computer", then it probably isn't some sort of industry conspiracy to make Dell shell out more money to appear on the top, while also somehow involving small businesses... or whatever your personal angle is. There is no reason to "follow the money" here because there is nothing here to doubt. It isn't fucking strange that wikipedia is featured so prominently.

jamesaguilar 13y ago

People should totally believe your conspiracy theory over the words of someone who actually works at Google (disclosure: so do I).

bsullivan01 13y ago
"People should totally believe your conspiracy theory over the words of someone who actually works at Google (disclosure: so do I)" Oh yeah, that's all do, trust those accused of scamming. The same goes on Wall Street, SEC, FTC, IRS /taxes etc. If the employees of said company swear on internet forums that they are not manipulating anything, it's over.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  I'm all for believing that there's a scam when there's evidence of a scam (as opposed to this, where the results are indistinguishable from what they would be if Google were acting in good faith, and no other evidence has been presented). https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer http://www.bing.com/search?q=computer http://www.bing.com/search?q=computer It's a conspiracy, and we've even managed to rope DuckDuckGo into it.
  - brymaster 13y ago
    How Google is Killing Organic Search https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5971560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5971560 Forrester: Consumers Prefer Organic Search, Not Search Ads, For Discovery http://searchengineland.com/forrester-consumers-prefer-organic-search-not-search-ads-for-discovery-164112 http://searchengineland.com/forrester-consumers-prefer-organ...
powertower 13y ago
> Staff software engineer at Google. I work on making infrastructure fast. Do you really believe that your job would be involved, or even have access to, the business process that weights the effect of algorithmic changes to Ad CTRs? And then approving or disproving those changes based on those factors? Think about it - You're telling us that if a algorithmic change improves the relevant search score by 3%, but at the same time has the effect of decreasing Ad CTR by 3%, it will go through!.. Because no one tracks this, and no one cares. That might be an engineer's take on this, but no one at a higher business level (that deals with money) would be so naive about it. I also don't see how this could even remotely be classified as a conspiracy theory considering it's about as standard of operating procedures as it gets... You don't fuck yourself nor your revenue numbers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting you or your job. I just don't think you are seeing the bigger picture and the place Google is right now (search market domination), and how this affects the direction they have to go to keep the desired revenue growth projections, stock prices, etc.