Hereās how it works. Say you search for āchildrenās clothing.ā Google converts it, without your knowledge, to a search for āNIKOLAI-brand kidswear,ā making a behind-the-scenes substitution of your actual query with a different query that just happens to generate more money for the company, and will generate results you werenāt searching for at all. Itās not possible for you to opt out of the substitution. If you donāt get the results you want, and you try to refine your query, you are wasting your time. This is a twisted shopping mall you canāt escape.
You must log in to comment.
in reply to @jerkas's post:
2005 google: "don't be evil"
2023 google: "don't be competent"
if you're too competent you can be held responsible for your actions. the trick is achieving guided incompetence to produce a desired outcome without any one person having more than like a 25% idea what the fuck they're doing, at least not that they've written down anywhere
in reply to @silasoftrees's post:
Huh. Oddly I think I noticed this, but considered it an algorithm quirk, not an intentional action. I mean think about it, Google includes synonyms for tons and tons of different words trying to translate from a question you might ask to a query that will find the results you want. Is it really that weird that sometimes it might mess that up and accidentally send you all some specific brand? Maybe it even could be intentional, perhaps as some sort of test to see if any of those novel results perform unexpectedly well and should be given more priority in future searches?
Oh for sure, it makes more sense it's money grubbing, but it goes to show how much public goodwill they're wasting that this could even be obvious and still ignored
THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH
I've been googling for a lot of dental stuff lately and the results rarely have anything related, at all, to my query. I'll put in two completely different phrases, maybe not even having any words in common, and get nearly the same results, just in a different order.
Sad to say that I was already aware of this one. My father works in advertising, and these days that means spamming tags for the highest bidding company to alter Google results.
frankly there is no functional reason why this should be legal, yet it probably is and nothing can be done about it
duckduckgo should be the new standard imo
That explains why when I was googling high tops to show a friend what i used to wear, it would always show me pages and pages of the same exact fucking ugly Converse sneakers no matter what brand I put in.
Is this why I can't find any useful information on technical queries? Because it just substitutes it for specific tech brands?
heads up was tryna look this up to show someone and wired took down their article. maybe they misinterpreted something?
Editorās Note 10/6/2023: After careful review of the op-ed, "How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet," and relevant material provided to us following its publication, WIRED editorial leadership has determined that the story does not meet our editorial standards. It has been removed.