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Google Businesses

Google Backtracks on Design That Made Search Ads Look Like Normal Results (cnbc.com) 29

Google's latest design change to its search results received blowback from some who said it blurred the lines between search ads and regular search results. On Friday, Google responded, saying it will be experimenting with different designs, some that will not include the icons that make ads look similar to those organic search results. From a report: As part of a recent redesign to desktop search results, the company made paid links look more like the unpaid search results users see. The word "Ad" in bold text appears next to the advertisements, which typically appear as the first few results in a search and are therefore more likely to be clicked on and generate ad revenue for Google.
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Google Backtracks on Design That Made Search Ads Look Like Normal Results

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  • by Artem S. Tashkinov ( 764309 ) on Friday January 24, 2020 @02:03PM (#59652540) Homepage
    Google lawyers have quickly realized the EU would fine them for these shenanigans quite heavily. No way that could have got away with this crap.
    • by Cylix ( 55374 )

      It should be fine, just replace the AD icon with a Phallus or maybe the eggplant emoji.

      It will be picture perfect at the point... just imagine.

      https://twitter.com/searchliai... [twitter.com]

  • There is a point when a company put their revenue ahead of their customers. I cut back or stop doing business with companies when they do that. There are other good, and sometimes better search engines out there.

    • by JungleBoy ( 7578 ) on Friday January 24, 2020 @02:09PM (#59652554)
      Google does not put it's revenue ahead of it's customers. You just misunderstand who their customers are. Hint: it's not search users.
    • You're done with Google, but they aren't done with you.

      The company's "services" are everywhere: you can't escape their advertisement, and you certainly can't escape their ubiquitous surveillance. Even if you make an effort not to use any of their products, it's almost impossible to avoid hitting their servers and giving your personal data away in one form or another. And they have a LOT of data collection methods you can't see and you can't avoid, so they'll know everything there is to know about you whethe

    • Yeah, I switched to a different search provider the same day this change hit me.

      Their response doesn't give me any hope.

      I don't want them to experiment on me, I just want consistent service.

  • by De_Boswachter ( 905895 ) on Friday January 24, 2020 @02:15PM (#59652582) Homepage

    Google Backtracks on . . .

    • A. . . . Design That Made Search Ads Look Like Normal Results
    • B. . . . misleading the reader and luring them into something that will cause anger and resentment
    • C. . . . their motto: "Don't Be Evil"
    • by Cylix ( 55374 )

      At least they haven't backtracked on hiding youtube search results and shadow banning content they don't agree with.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by sehlat ( 180760 )

      Google backed off from item "C" years ago. "A and "B" are just the latest implementations of negative-C

  • Now if only ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Retired ICS ( 6159680 ) on Friday January 24, 2020 @02:26PM (#59652624)

    If only they would show the URL in the search results then all might be right in the world...

    I swear it used to be underneath the page title, but now they did away with that in favour of that silly breadcrumb shit. And I mean the real actual URL that clicking on the link will use -- the actual HREF -- not some fuberized dreck full of google spyware redirections ...

    • ^^^ This. Hiding the urls completely was a dick move.

      Between that and not having a way to show only page/document results these days (why can I show videos, shopping results, images separately, but I'm stuck with all that crap mixed in on the only page that shows page/document results?), I've reached my limit. Time for a browser extension that redirects google to something else (duckduckgo?) for me so I don't use it just out of habit.....

      • ^^^ This. Hiding the urls completely was a dick move.

        I just hunted and hunted around the screen, feeling disoriented, and then switched.

        I was truly shocked to find that many online pundits admitted that they "didn't really notice any difference." Get phished much? LOL

        In Firefox it only takes a couple clicks to change your search provider; no extension needed.

    • How did this get modded up? The URL is literally the first line of the search result above the title, it looks a little funny because it uses carrots instead of slashes, I'll concede one WTF for that but it's there. I thought it was even more obvious with the icon too, I wish they hadn't removed them, just made ads easily discernible again.

    • I want them to change back their search results. They were better just only a few weeks ago, now they are complete garbage and worthless for anything but superficial nonsense.
  • by dwpro ( 520418 ) <dgeller777@g m a i l . c om> on Friday January 24, 2020 @04:34PM (#59653214)
    I hated the icons altogether, I am happy they are not showing up on my current search results. Anything that distracts from the output is an unwelcome distraction from the primary function: find the answer to what I'm searching for. Rarely is the specific icon of a website a primary metric -- rather a secondary metric that is easily seen by looking at the url. Perhaps somewhere else rather that the first thing I see would be useful, but I'm glad it's gone.
  • imho its time to stop using google. people must put their foot down and show google that google does not own the entire internet. bing and others provide "good enough" results to be used in 99% of cases.
  • Ads or actual results I even don't know. Somehow the change rendered my superpower inoperable where before I could find the actual useful search result from the results in a second or two or move to the ext page of results or just improve keywords. With this change however ... I am at complete loss, every bloody result on the page looks absolutely useless to my brain, can't pinpoint the useful one anymore.
  • I use google less and less each day.
    Half of the first page of search results is now ads.
    Youtube is so full of ads it's insane, I hardly go there anymore, and they keep asking me over and over and over to try their free trial.
    If I said NO the first five hundred times, guess what I'm gonna say the NEXT five hundred times.
    All it's going to show me is how they have gone out of their way to make YouAdvertsTube a goddamn disgrace in an effort to force you to pay for content they didn't create.
    Most times all

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