Testimony during Google’s antitrust case revealed that the company may be altering billions of queries a day to generate results that will get you to buy more stuff.
  • Billiam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    46·
    2 years ago

    I’ve said (and read) it before: the concept of a great search engine is exactly at odds with advertising. A good search engine gives accurate results fast, while the purpose of advertising is to show users what advertisers pay to show them. In other words, it’s the difference between showing users what they want to see, versus showing users what advertisers want them to see.

    Google knows that the more irrelevant results it returns, the longer you spend looking, which translates into more opportunities to show ads.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      141·
      2 years ago

      I’ve just done the same search as in the article on Chrome, Firefox and DuckDuckGo

      Google served 5 ads before showing me M&S’ website

      DDG showed me an ad for Temu then M&S’ website

      Firefox showed me no ad, thanks ublock, and straight to M&S’ website

    • GeekyNerdyNerd@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      Google knows that the more irrelevant results it returns, the longer you spend looking, which translates into more opportunities to show ads.

      Which is ironic, as Google only managed to get as far as they did by doing the exact opposite in an era where Alta Vista and the small handful of other OG search engines were focused on maximizing revenue via ads.

      Google has become that which they sought to destroy.

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    Google always seems to default to thinking that I am looking to buy something. It’s very nauseating. This is what Google shopping was supposed to be for. Search should be completely separated from shopping.