Re:French news sites prevail in negotiations with Google ove...
by new_here on Friday January 22, 2021 @07:05AM
(#25870918)
If users feel they get the best results from Google then they continue to use Google which drives search and ad impressions. Ads are also clearly labelled so users can decide if they want to ignore sponsored results. I typically click the first result below ads or use an adblocker but that's just me. So this seems like a clear distinction between paid and organic results.
I completely agree on the second point. Google's 'Featured Snippets' are a clear overreach where Google uses people's content at no cost and gives nothing in return. This needs to be regulated because nobody is going to opt-out. For example, I've had some featured snippets and they bring a lot of traffic. Much less than a normal first place listing but more than a second place listing. If I opt-out of Featured Snippets in protest then someone else will just happily take that spot.
Perhaps the balance lies in just indexing headlines of sites. Then publishers could decide if they want to give up that information in their headlines. It's a tough to know where to draw the line but that seems like it's been the fairest balance so far.
Re:French news sites prevail in negotiations with Google ove...
by academia_hack on Friday January 22, 2021 @03:05PM
(#25875696)
The alternative to search snippets is a world where I have to be bombarded with cookie consent popups and advertisement and then scroll through paragraphs of nonsense to get the two word answer to a trivial question. Google adds enormous value in synthesizing this information and presenting it only when it is relevant. I don't know why people think they have an inmate right to make profits off of basic facts and trivial public data.
Google's optimal position would be if you keep searching for the stuff you are looking for and get distracted by ads and buy something in the process.
The second best thing would be if you find the stuff you are looking for directly on Google(Google no longer shows only search results but the content of the results as if it comes from them) and then you proceed to buy something through an ad click.
For example, Google wins if you search for "When did Trump leave the White House" and you see a snipped containing "Trump left the WH in the early morning of January 20, 2021 using a helicopter". Now that you have your answer through the content that Google mined for free, they can monetize you but what about the people who put together that information? Why they would be left out of your business? What's fair about that?
There was a recent HN discussion about Google mining the database of a small business that specialises on compiling information on the wealth of celebrities. They lost most of their traffic when Google began showing the answer from their database directly instead of showing the link that contains this information. Here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24105465