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Infectious Greed: Dishwashers, and How Google Eats Its Own Tail

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mouser:
Looks like I have a new site to put on my regular reading list. This is a nice summary of why google ads are corrupting web searches and making it hard to find useful content.

Over the weekend I tried to buy a new dishwasher. Being the fine net-friendly fellow that I am, I  began Google-ing for information. And Google-ing. and Google-ing. As I tweeted frustratedly at the tend of the failed exercise, "To a first approximation, the entire web is spam when it comes to appliance reviews".  This is, of course, merely a personal example of the drive-by damage done by keyword-driven content -- material created to be consumed like info-krill by Google's algorithms.
...
Google has become a snake that too readily consumes its own keyword tail. Identify some words that show up in profitable searches -- from appliances, to mesothelioma suits, to kayak lessons -- churn out content cheaply and regularly, and you're done. On the web, no-one knows you're a content-grinder.  The result, however, is awful. Pages and pages of Google results that are just, for practical purposes, advertisements in the loose guise of articles, original or re-purposed. It hearkens back to the dark days of 1999, before Google arrived, when search had become largely useless, with results completely overwhelmed by spam and info-clutter.  Google has to know this. The problem is too big and too obvious to miss. But it's hard to know what you can do algorithmically to solve the problem. Content creators are simply using Google against itself, feeding its hungry crawlers the sort of thing that Google loves to consume, to the detriment of search results and utility.
...
Something has to give, but I wonder what will -- the snake, its tail, or us?

--- End quote ---


http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/12/dishwashers_dem.html





from http://waxy.org/

mouser:
and a follow up also from waxy.org:
http://cdixon.org/2009/12/19/anatomy-of-a-bad-search-result/

mnemonic:
He's hit on a really good point there.  If you try and type any shareware title followed by the word "review" into Google, you get  hundreds of useless results from the same shareware download sites.  Even if they have a "review", it's generally just the author's blurb.  Or one of those "5-star must download software" awards that sites give away to any old piece of software, irregardless of quality.

The only one that is generally worth looking at for customer reviews is Fileforum.  Problem with customer reviews though is that they're only ever written by fanboys and haters.

Rant over  ;D

housetier:
Well when you are looking for reviews you have to add "site:donationcoder.com" otherwise you won't get any honest results :)

I too have come to rely less on google for finding stuff. Rather, I use it to help me remember things. I remember a phrase and a site name, and giving that to google usually yields the desired url.

I do not trust online reviews anymore. For purchases I rely on real people I know personally. This is apparently a wide-spread problem. The other day I came across a unique webshop that seems to dissuade its customers from purchasing more: Customers who did not buy this product also did not buy these products
--- End quote ---


It is a parody of course and imho it only emphasizes the importance of "Try before you trust". The less you know people the more truth is to that saying.

Other recommendation systems such as StumbleUpon, where I select who has an influence on recommendations could work better, but I have not enough experience yet. I fear these can be gamed just like amazon reviews.

doctorfrog:
I'm glad some attention is being focused on this problem. I haven't been able to locate a useful review for any product, software, or game on Google for years. I'm forced to just select a few sites that I trust, or ask an internet community I trust what they think.

The same problem exists when using price search engines. I don't know how many times I've searched for a good price on something, only to be led to a sky-high shipping price recoup, a worthless ebay auction, or a product number that's off by a digit and is no longer in stock anywhere.

I'm back to being on my own in web searching.

Probably better that way, anyway. This decline in usefulness has mysteriously coincided with a similar decline in my own willingness to spend money on things.

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