[GTALUG] Google is ruled a monopoly so Firefox is at serious risk

[o1bigtenor]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2024 at 7:54 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> I'm going to whine about search.  I'd really like hints for better
> search.
>
> > From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
>
> > Well I would say google had the best search for many years which is what
> > made them popular.  These days their search is terrible.  I don't know if
> > there is anyone actually good out there, because google probably killed
> > of most of the search competition over the years, so now they don't have
> > to be good anymore and can prioritize other things instead.
>
> Why is Google's search less good?  There are a couple of reasons that
> I can think of:
>
> - SEO, a whole field of endeavour designed to screw up search.
>
> - synthetic crap web pages.
>
> - (perhaps) Google guessing that your search was too precise and
>   therefor yielding results that are out of scope.
>
> If it is applicable, scholar.google.com seems much better.  But I
> almost never think to use it.
>
> > Google search is not quite as bad as search on amazon, but they are
> > heading in that direction.
>
> Amazon search is bad because they want to push things at you that you
> didn't ask for.  Really bad.  They prioritize partly by criteria that
> are not in your interest:
>
> - sold by Amazon itself
>
> - prioritized by giving extra money to Amazon (Amazon's Choice)
>
> - deprioritized if it is sold for less on other sites (really! this is
>   probably and should be illegal)
>
> - things that a vaguely related to your search queries
>
> The very first chunk of items are "sponsored" listings.  Notice that
> these, on each page.
>
> If you try to change this by sorting by price, low to high, it leaves
> the very first chunk unchanged (they are not, in Amazon's mind,
> actually search results!).  Then it starts with low cost things that
> don't match the search terms well.  So sorting is useless.
>
> For example, I just now searched for "Ryzen mini PC", sorted by price,
> low to high.  The first 15 actual results (as opposed to unsorted ads
> at the top) had Intel processors.  Sheesh!
>
> But AliExpress search is much much worse.  Who would have thought that
> possible?
>
>
Maybe its all about holding your time captive - - - you know - - - like
Ikea - - in
the knowledge that you are quite likely to buy more junk!

Regards
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