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submitted 1 year ago by ijeff@lemdro.id to c/technology@beehaw.org

cross-posted from !google@lemdro.id

  • Google may be altering billions of search queries daily to generate results that increase purchases.
  • Testimony in an antitrust case revealed an internal Google slide about changes to its search algorithm, involving "semantic matching" to generate more commercial results.
  • Google covertly changes user queries, substituting them with ones that generate more revenue for the company and display shopping-oriented results.
  • This manipulation benefits Google's profits but harms search quality and raises advertiser costs.
  • Despite legal challenges, Google's market dominance allows it to continue these practices, impacting users' ability to access unbiased information.
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[-] dan@upvote.au 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have you tried Kagi? It's a paid service (which is good for people that don't like ads) and the results seem pretty good. They have a trial plan where you can do 100 searches. Where possible, it prioritises small sites that don't always appear in Google results at all, and it has far less SEO spam than Google.

[-] YuzuDrink@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

I really need to try them and see how many searches I actually use. Even their higher paid tiers seem like way too few searches to me. But I have no actual idea.

[-] dan@upvote.au 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I would have agreed in the past, but they have an unlimited plan for $10/month now, which is why I'm more interested.

[-] blindsight@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I get that search is expensive to run, but $120 USD/yr is a lot.

Maybe it's worth cancelling something to pay for it, but idk. I won't even look at metered tiers. Knowing my scarcity aversion, I'd never use it. I didn't use a single Neeva trial search since I was hoarding them like Max Ethers from Final Fantasy.

[-] acastcandream@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

That's $120/yr is worth less to me than my privacy and desire to decouple from google tbh

[-] dan@upvote.au 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah. It's definitely expensive, which is why I haven't signed up for a subscription yet. Still thinking about it.

[-] tlf@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Thank you for the recommendation, if a product delivers what i expect for it's price I'm gonna be using it. The trial searches will hopefully help me evaluate that

this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
126 points (100.0% liked)

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