Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by SnowflakeOnIce on Friday January 21, 2022 @10:37PM
(#30033173)
I've noticed in the past 2-3 months that results from StackOverflow, Wikipedia, and official programming language documentation sites seem to have been abruptly downranked. They used to typically be in the top 3 results for me for appropriate queries, but now they frequently aren't even on the first page.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Yes and on the other hand sites like codegrepper and other such scraper/scam sites are frequently showing in my search results - which are just SO results.
I don't know if they're gaming Google's search or google is actually condoning this (like they've been condoning pinterest's shenanigans for almost 10 years now)
There is a ublock origin list which you can import to filter search results:
I think I speak for many others when I say thank you for sharing this.
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by luckman212 on Sunday January 23, 2022 @10:50PM
(#30053533)
This is awesome... for now. But what are we supposed to do when Manifest(o) V3 takes hold?
# ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/google-chrome-stableamazing! ty
ty
It has become very bad; searching for something like an error message, the first result is SO and results 2-9 will be SO scrapers.
Unlike say, Pinterest, I don't see anything Google could gain from "condoning" these scraper sites. I feel it's 1. gradual ranking algorithm changes 2. succesful gaming.
> I don't see anything Google could gain from "condoning" these scraper sites
Do these scraper sites show Google ads?
I genuinely believe it's because the scraper sites have more Google ads on them compared to Wikipedia and Stack Overflow. The ad load on returned search results has reached astronomic proportions. I use uBlock on my laptop, but it's almost impossible to view search results on my phone.
Install Firefox, and use uBlock on your phone too.
I’ve noticed that as well. I’ve been finding a lot of queries are now leading me to those awful sites that just dump StackOverflow content onto a page and surround it with ads. The original Stack Overflow page is nowhere to be found on the first page, but if I grab a sentence from the spam page and search again, I can normally find the original.
Just last week I read about these search operators like site:example.com and learned that you can also use them to block certain sites (with -sites:example.com) and combine them. That gave me the idea to build a UI that manages allowed/blocked sites and always adds them as a chain of operators to the query.
Today I had some free time so I've build https://my-search.surge.sh/ as POC. It's a just static site. Everything is stored in localStorage. Works with Google and DuckDuckGo.
For now it's just a fun experiment, nothing more. Repo linked in the About page. Feedback welcome! :)
It was a long time since I had to append "wikipedia" to my search results, but within the last year or so, I find myself doing it more and more.
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by cammikebrown on Saturday January 22, 2022 @12:15AM
(#30033845)
I use DuckDuckGo, it's really easy to end searches with "w!" and go straight to the Wikipedia page.
I didn't know you could put it at the end! I always bang first and ask questions later.
[edit] Just noticed you also live in Portland like me. If you're a bartender, I bet I've met you haha.
> I always bang first and ask questions later.
Definitely change your ways. It's always better to bang at the end.
I've started going straight to Wikipedia and searching there if I know I'm going to end up there anyway for the same reason, plus I deny Google the search data and ad-serve
Hadn’t actively thought it that but I’ve been doing the same
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by whitesilhouette on Saturday January 22, 2022 @12:46AM
(#30034020)
I do that for everything since a long time. And with the !Bang extension coming to Firefox, customising those searches has become easier too
I do that for Reddit a lot
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by greatpostman on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:29PM
(#30033570)
Yeah I’ve noticed this as well
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by pwdisswordfish9 on Saturday January 22, 2022 @12:53AM
(#30034059)
Here’s a magic trick for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search
That's why I created "Developer search" chrome extension to easily add filters for site and time on your search
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/developer-search/d...
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by SnowflakeOnIce on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:13PM
(#30033453)
I've also observed this on duckduckgo, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent. Strange: they either both tweaked their algorithms around the same time, or maybe SEO spam suddenly got a lot better.
Or bing is copying google listings still and using some data in it's own search
Re:Ask HN: What's Up with Google?
by matheusmoreira on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:41PM
(#30033637)
Same experience here. Also happening on other search engines such as duckduckgo. Have to append keywords like "wiki" to searches.