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Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by Nextgrid on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @09:43AM (#31422652)
> 1) view their page for ads 2) click on their affiliate links 3) buy the product they're selling.

1 and 2 are trivial to detect. 3 is harder but still not impossible given Google's machine learning capabilities and existing datasets.

Downrank or ban ads & affiliate links and you remove any incentive for creating spam sites in the first place.

Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by nikanj on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @09:50AM (#31422751)
So you’d downrank sites like Tom’s Hardware or wired.com? Both of which show ads and have affiliate links
Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by Nextgrid on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @09:58AM (#31422850)
If other content that doesn’t have those annoyances matches my search query then I would absolutely want to see it first.

This would also put pressure on content creators to tone down the ads or explore alternative monetization models.

Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by scarface74 on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @10:15AM (#31423063)
Do you pay for Consumer Reports?
Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by Nextgrid on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @10:21AM (#31423119)
I paid for Which? which is the UK equivalent. Would've subscribed again when I needed it (and there's been a few times since) but their dark pattern upon unsubscription put me off from going anywhere near them again.

I also spend 50£/month on Patreon to support the creators I watch regularly.

Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by brightball on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @09:54AM (#31422799)
The problem is half the time the ads are Google ads anyway.
Re:Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it by Nextgrid on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @10:00AM (#31422871)
That's the ultimate problem - Google has a conflict of interest with their users which is why the quality has gone to shit.