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The Man Who Killed Google Search (www.wheresyoured.at)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Edward Zitron has been reading all of google's internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ's antitrust case against google.

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.

The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.

HackerNews thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

MetaFilter thread: https://www.metafilter.com/203456/The-core-query-softness-continues-without-mitigation

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (16 children)

[Warning: "ideas guy" tier babble]

It's somewhat clear that search engines are too prone to go to shit, either due to malice or something worse (like stupidity).

Based on that, I wonder if a user-run, free-as-speech and open source decentralised search system wouldn't work. Roughly in the spirit of torrents - where anyone can use the system but if you're using it you're expected to contribute with it too.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (4 children)

You just described the categories pages many search engines had before Google. Or proto Web 2.0 bookmark sharing sites like del.icio.us. Sites like Metafilter also existed as a kind of Internet index before everyone was adding reddit.com to their Googling. It's a laudable idea, but these systems all seem to fall prey to market manipulation in much the same way that SEO helped kill Google.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's interesting that you mention MetaFilter, because they're literally in the process of transitioning fully to a non-profit organization.

https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26430/MeFi-Nonprofit-Update-March-26-2024

They're the only aggregator that still isn't flooded with ads and has pretty decent moderation policies.

There's absolutely a reason I linked to the discussion over there: because it's quality, and it's the first place I saw the article pop up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Wow, that's really neat.

Thanks for letting me know about MetaFilter and its transition to NPO. This really seems like a great move for the site.

I've heard of the site before, but haven't had the chance to try it before. Guess a bit late is better than never, right? :D

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