What the Hell has Google done to itself...?

1. 61

   Merlin Fraserposted 14 years ago

   Can somebody please explain what the Hell Google is pratting about at ?
   
   I have no idea what is going on or why...
   
   What I do know is that one minute I can use Google to search for things that I was actually looking for and now all I get is links to the Commercial World which is about as much use to my Historical research programme as being two men short.
   
     Is this a short term thing and sense and normallity will return or am in need of a new search engine ?

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      barryrutherfordposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Good point Merlin.  Have they shot themselves in the foot now will face real competition.  I am tempted to sell my Google Shares now while they are at their peak.

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         Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Barry,
         
         Don't have a problem with Google facing competition, I hate and distrust the motives of anybody who seeks a monopoly.
         
         I could happily live without them but I still need a decent replacement search engine for my historic projects so any ideas and suggestions will be welcome.

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   2. 0

      BRIAN SLATERposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Totally agree with you Merlin, you have to look beyond the first 4 or 5 pages now to find what your looking for this can't be right. Google has messed things up big time.

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         lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Good. I'm glad you have to go beyond the first 4 or 5 pages, cuz that's right about where my hubs are now!
         
         Seriously though, I think the absolute WORST thing they have done is allow several different pages from the same darn site to rank. I was searching for something yesterday, and Wikipedia came up first, and the rest of page 1 was just different pages to another site! It was ridiculous!

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            Mutiny92posted 14 years agoin reply to this

            LOL!

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      rieomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I use Goggle a lot for research for my job.  I used to be able to find what I needed within the first four listings.  Now I find my self having to go further down the page to get what I need..  In a sense, it now makes my research harder and at the same time brings me less on my articles

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2. 61

   jokeapptvposted 14 years ago

   people keep messin with them
   go see fiverr. theres alot going on always.

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3. 0

   EmpressFelicityposted 14 years ago

   Google has recently updated its search algorithm in order to improve it and downgrade the so-called "content farms" which were appearing at the top of many searches.  (Hub Pages is considered by Google to be a content farm, so the update has done horrible things to the traffic and earnings of many here.)
   
   Unfortunately, as you've discovered, the "improvement" is anything but!

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      Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your input but I wasn't just talking about HubPages, the point I was trying to make is that whatever Google has done and for whatever reason for me it has had a negative effect on my ability to search.
      
      I am looking for things with a Historical reference and top of the the search is YELL.COM ???? Followed by other commercial web sites which I suspect are paid positions....
      
      If this is a long term problem more about Googles Next Billion profit then I seriously need a new Search Engine and am looking for suggestions.

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4. 94

   Susana Sposted 14 years ago

   Google's results have been terrible since the algo change you are not wrong there! Edweirdo and sunforged have a unique and very plausible theory as to why this might be.....
   
   This post is worth reading if you are interested: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/69482?p … ost1515564

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      Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the input Susan

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   WoodsmensPostposted 14 years ago

   Hi Merlin you seem puzzled by the google mess up as we all do and by the way that was a great post by Edweirdo in the thread Susana S suggested. 
   
   Merlin I really learned some good info from this hubber on how to mod your search results hope this gives you some help with google and good luck with -  better Internet searches for your historic projects
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Better-Internet-Searches

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      Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for pointing me in this direction I too learnt a lot.

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   BobbiRantposted 14 years ago

   I have better luck with Bing, which is what Google was Not hoping to do, increase Bing's users, but it seems like that's what is happening.   Google may be king but they bow down to big biz.  Someone once said to me on here: 'Google just wants us to be happy.'  I doubt Google loses sleep over whether I am happy or not.

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      workingmomwmposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Ha! Google wants US to be happy???
      
      Sorry. I don't have anything useful to contribute to this discussion because I've not had a problem yet with Google search results, and I have no idea why/how Google is doing what they're doing.
      
      I just had to comment on that comment, BobbiRant. Funny!

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   Richieb799posted 14 years ago

   I may have found a better way to earn money online aside from Adsense, Im gonna keep working on it but bizarre things are happening to my traffic and earnings, one minute they are very well, next they are going down. very erratic. Ive made payment every month though.

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8. 75

   skyfireposted 14 years ago

   I don't want to kick google fanboy beehive but due to poor search results i'm swapping between multiple search engines to get the results for my queries. Try using cuil, bing, duckduckgo and blekko in multiple tabs.

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9. 0

   Sophia Angeliqueposted 14 years ago

   Merlin, I took a good look at what it had done yesterday. If you look at all the URLs that come up when one does a search, the URLs are related to the topic that is being searched for. In other words, informative articles, unless they are on a rare topic, are gone! Unhappily, most commercial companies have a URL that relates to their business and that is why they are on top.
   
   Seriously? I haven't been using Google for about a year. When I search for something, it's seldom academic or scientifically validated results (which is generally what I'm looking for). Even when it's an article, it's often someone validating something because they're earning something out of it. So, ti me, it's biased.
   
   I increasingly bing and dogpile. Also, Alexa has a great search engine.
   
   You can send ideas for new logarithms to ideas@google.com. At least, I think that's the address...

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      Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks again for the info about other search engines and I'll take a look, because at the moment whatever Google has down is screwing me up.
      
      A great deal of research I do is uncommon and academic and therefore is of little commercial interest and therefore is now buried.
      
        Trust me I won't bother Google with my suggestions and or recommendations... I'm sure most of them are phyisically impossible anyway !
      
        I understand they're trying something new to get the computer to make an educated guess as to what we are looking for.... Good Grief as if it wasn't bad enough that some pimple faced Geek was trying to tell me what I was looking for now I have to wait for a computer to guess !
      
        HEY GOOGLE...  It isn't working cut your losses and put it back the way it was....
      
        Learn from us old guys..."If it ain't broke Don't fixit"  I'm so surprised your  Nerds have never heard the expression
      
      F U B A R !  Well you have now !

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         WoodsmensPostposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Oh I have heard of it before Merlin  , I think it's played somewhere in Europe. I didn't try to google it , who knows where I would end up.

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    LuisEGonzalezposted 14 years ago

    I'm running into the same problems with Google. I have tried Bing and Ask, their results are not bad, they are an alternative to Google.

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    Stacie Lposted 14 years ago

    slightly off topic; if Google really wants to clean up the net, then why don't they also take down all the out-dated and useless websites i keep finding when doing a search.
    
    things such as announcements that are years old, stores and businesses that are no longer in business, businesses that have moved..etc,etc

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    Dolores Monetposted 14 years ago

    I must agree with Merlin. I often go to Google for how-to articles, historical information, or mere questions about stuff in general. It used to be easy to find the info I wanted. Now, I have to surf through commercial sites, sites that don't even mention what I want, and sites that look pretty spammy.
    Nowadays, Google seems to be all about buying shoes.

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    sabrebIadeposted 14 years ago

    What it looks like is Google kicked all of the (what they call) "content farms" to the curb, then jacked up the rankings on commercial sites to make them place better.
    At least that is what I am seeing.
    Commercial sites in the top spots that I wasn't seeing before the "improvement".

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    Ritsosposted 13 years ago

    I was trying to research what were popular items that women buy online ... Top 8 results in google were 'viagra' .. says it all really!!

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