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Google Stabs You in the Back...

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Renegade:
I am going to take a minority opinion here and state that Google has every right to make Froogle into a search engine for ads: after all, some of the sites I depend on are basically that: pricewatch.com and dealnews.com. However those are a little more narrowly focused on tech products, and that's probably why I find them useful.
-daddydave (August 21, 2012, 05:36 AM)
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The big problem that I see is based on obsolete concepts that are no longer used or relevant today:

Honest
Accountability
Trust

Google previously stated that it would only base search results based on relevance. Going with paid placement now makes them liars. That's a violation of trust and dishonest. They have failed to be accountable to their customers by violating that trust.

I suppose that it's ok for corporations to lie to customers. So, in a way, yeah... they have a right to lie, cheat, and deceive just like any other corporation. (Scorpion and frog again. :) +1 for 40hz there.)

It's too bad that when people lie it's fraud. It would be nice to have a level playing field.


That said, I don't think I will be using the new Google products search site for general not-necessarily-tech items. For now I am using PriceGrabber (which also accepts advertising) instead. Any other suggestions for alternative sites? Seems like they all accept advertising, are there any that show unadvertised items as well?
-daddydave (August 21, 2012, 05:36 AM)
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There are some really good price comparison sites out there. I generally go for local ones though as I like to buy in stores rather than online unless I can get a significantly better price online, e.g. I won't fuss over the difference for $100 in a store and $95 online. Shipping usually ends up costing more anyways, and I have to wait. I oh so wish that I could download hardware and groceries... :D

daddydave:
Google previously stated that it would only base search results based on relevance.
-Renegade (August 21, 2012, 06:19 AM)
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When did they say this exactly?

wraith808:
So they're going to force people to use google laptops, google storage and now google browser only. I am sure apple and google fanboys will defend this with yet another excuse.
-mahesh2k (June 03, 2012, 03:27 PM)
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...?  Where did Apple come into this?

Google previously stated that it would only base search results based on relevance.
-Renegade (August 21, 2012, 06:19 AM)
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Again, not taking sides... but how is this doing otherwise?  If their search results are still based on relevance, but they also have a shopping results tab, then it seems like its two different parts of the service.

I'm just not feeling the righteous indignation here...

daddydave:
If their search results are still based on relevance, but they also have a shopping results tab, then it seems like its two different parts of the service.
-wraith808 (August 21, 2012, 06:45 AM)
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I agree with your general point, I think, but are you literally seeing a tab like that on the Google Products web site, or do you mean generally for that type of web site?  If I search for Vizio Costar, I get 5 results, none of which is a Vizio Costar. If I click on "Why these products?", I get the blurb:

Products and offers that match your query. Google is compensated by some of these merchants. Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results
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.

It says "some" of these merchants, but it looks like the old metasearch results are gone completely, otherwise it would have found something.

And you can still sort by Relevance, so they kept their "promise," lol.

app103:
Again, not taking sides... but how is this doing otherwise?  If their search results are still based on relevance, but they also have a shopping results tab, then it seems like its two different parts of the service.

I'm just not feeling the righteous indignation here...
-wraith808 (August 21, 2012, 06:45 AM)
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Because the plan is that only merchants that pay will be listed. Payment won't guarantee that one will rank well for any particular search terms, but without payment, you won't be listed at all. Free placement is being phased out.

I am sure that I don't have to tell you that before Google came along, that's pretty much how most search engines used to work. What Google is doing is taking a step back in that direction with their Google Shopping service. I think what people fear most is them not stopping with just Google Shopping and going ahead with that same kind of "stone age days of the internet" paid inclusion model with their regular web search.

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