I asked a relative to look for RealVNC on the Play Store and install it. Once they were done, I asked them to fulfill a basic task inside RealVNC and they were really confused by my instructions. I took a look at their phone, lo and behold, they had installed a different app. I asked them to repeat the install procedure while I watched. They punched in "realvnc" in the search box, two identically formatted results appeared. Their finger instinctively clicked the Install button on the top result. It was an ad. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦

a screenshot of a search for realvnc on the Google Play Store, showing an ad above the real result
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[–] 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah I hate this about the play store. I am so used to the first result being what I searched for that whenever I go install an app (once every couple months) I just click on the first one and then have to go back. I never use the install button in the search results because I always check the app descriprion and reviews but it is still annoying as all fuck.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Even Google maps does this! I accidentally drove 45 minutes out of the way because I clicked the first result because of course that should be the closest store. Google can fuck right off with these sponsored results

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