Google execs admit users are 'not quite happy' with search experience after Reddit blackouts
www.cnbc.com
Google executives acknowledged this month they need to do a better job surfacing user-generated content after the recent Reddit blackouts.

Plenty Google Search users were appending “site:reddit.com” to their searches to avoid SEO and get actual human answers. This became less useful with the blackouts, and Google is actually addressing it - through a new feature called “Perspectives”. Allegedly the feature highlights forums and videos from social media (TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Quora).

This means that those search users won’t beeline towards Reddit anymore. Instead there’s a reasonable chance that they end in Reddit’s competitors, including Youtube (owned by Alphabet, the same parent company as Google Search).

Given that 47% of the traffic of Reddit comes from organic search, this is going to hurt. A lot.

  • LvxferreOPM
    144·
    1 year ago

    It’s a bit of off-topic, but what feels weird for me is that I’m probably using search engines in a way that almost nobody does - because not only I don’t use this “cheat code”, but I’ve actively uBlacklist’ed reddit from appearing in search. (When I want an answer I want an answer, not a bunch of redditors saying “I dun unrurrstand” or circlejerking.)

    Still, a lot of people do it. For those I hope that the new feature becomes useful.

    • Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      5·
      1 year ago

      Depends on the kind of search. If you’re wondering what was newton’s second law, you can just Google that. If you’re having an issue where your steam deck virtual keyboard is not showing up when you press its shortcut, the top 20 non-reddit Google results will all be random SEO articles about the basic features of steam deck.

      • LvxferreOPM
        1·
        1 year ago

        I tried this one because I know the solutions (either kill the process in the system monitor or restart the device), and I think that I got what I’m doing differently:

        • heavy usage of quotation marks to “force” results
        • usage of negative search terms
        • multiple searches as I get new info

        I still get some SEO instead of actual results, but the result was comparable with the “site:reddit.com” trick.

        I’m actually considering to share this info. It’s helpful for people in general, regardless of reddit going down.

    • Boz (he/him)@lemmy.one
      2·
      1 year ago

      I had a similar approach for most purposes, though I am too lazy to block sites that way. But I did use to go to Reddit specifically for skincare product reviews, because there are things I like to know before I buy that are not easy to find elsewhere. (And I don’t mean honesty, just a few details that aren’t necessarily on the label).