The Verge reports on an announcement by Alphabet subsidiary Google that, beginning in January, it will change the way Web sites are ranked in results from its search engine. Sites featuring pop-up windows or interstitial adverts may appear lower in the results than they now do.
According to an Alphabet press release, 90% of Google's revenues during the first quarter of 2016 came from advertising.
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Google to Disparage Pop-Up and Interstitial Adverts
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:24PM
If a site features an auto-play video please bury it down about the 40th page of search results. Please?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @08:12AM
user_pref("media.autoplay.enabled", false);
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:27PM
Google wouldn't penalize autoplay video because that would hurt YouTube.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 26 2016, @01:18PM
Did you know you can turn AutoPlay off in YouTube? It's a YouTube feature. An annoying feature, with an off switch. Or maybe the off switch is the feature.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:38PM
I don't know how I feel about this. I dislike the practice but it might bury more relevant results that appear on more poorly designed websites when I value finding something I need over the form it takes.
I'd feel better if there was a way to disregard this rule selectively; but I always say that about everything.
(Score: 4, Informative) by WizardFusion on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:33PM
I dunno, maybe use a different search engine. There is more than just Google.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:42PM
Nobody who cares about even being pseudoanonymous should use Google. I've been using DuckDuckGo for about six months, and it's been working just fine. Perhaps another AC can chime in since I know there are more that have sprung up.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:26PM
https://www.ixquick.com/ [ixquick.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:04PM
The problem with DDG is that the results are crap. So I end up going to google anyway.
I switched to startpage.com. I think it's the same team but uses google instead of yahoo results.
It's OK but you need to disable javascript otherwise there's a 1-2 second delay on your searches - no idea why, but easily remedied.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:38AM
^- this basically.
I've used DDG in the past but ultimately went back to Google because several times I simply couldn't find what I wanted in a DDG search.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Friday August 26 2016, @10:36PM
Why not use more than one then? I use DDG all the time, and only resort to ggl if I really, really need to. And their searches have been improving over time. I know at the beginning I didn't use them much because of how much better google was, but now I only rarely have to go there. Besides, DDG has so many other awesome features, and getting more all the time.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:43PM
Not a problem for a ad-driven whoremonger website because they'll just check for googlebot and serve up something without pop-ups and the like.
(Score: 3, Informative) by francois.barbier on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:40PM
Until Google makes a visit with another user agent from another IP, notices the difference and penalize your website.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:52PM
If they visit with a false user agent then they are breaking the TOS of whore website.
And doing so is a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:25PM
Then a better solution is to crowdsource people who report the site, and google notices it doing something different for the googlebot. Then simply delist the site permanently and forever. Or instead, in the search results put a big scary warning of some sort.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by francois.barbier on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:30PM
Like they don't allow manual checks at Google? Or even browsing? Or verifying that GoogleBot works correctly? There's no reason at all they could visit your website with a real browser?
God forbid they use noscript while they do it!
/s
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:47PM
About fucking time. Those kinds of web sites need to die. When I search Google for something, I expect the resulting page to contain, you know, content that I am searching for. Not a page filled with an advertisement with no clear way to dismiss it before getting to any content at all. And no, no one wants to sign up for your spam newsletter.
Now if only they would crack down on worthless "keyword" sites. You would think they do already, but I still constantly run in to sites that claim to contain content I am looking for but actually contain nothing but random strings ripped from elsewhere. They usually don't even contain the excerpt that the Google page quoted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @06:34PM
When I search Google for something, I expect the resulting page to contain, you know, content that I am searching for.
Nowadays it's often not the website's fault but Google's fault. Even "verbatim" mode doesn't work so well anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @07:12PM
Even "verbatim" mode doesn't work so well anymore
Yeah.
It used to be that Google would interpret a.search.string.like.this as a phrase[1] and you didn't have to "do it like this".
(You didn't end up with a bunch of %22's in your URL.)
[1] Hyphens between words also worked--but in a slightly different (and useful) way.
They broke backwards-compatibility with that some years back when they "improved" their search by dumbing it down (when they made their tilde search the default).
Several weeks later, they'd gotten so much bitching from non-stupid legacy users that they added Verbatim search.
The way they did Verbatim Search, it *was* backwards-compatible with the old paradigm.
Google recently did another of their semiannual rejiggerings of their search site.
This time, they broke the.dots.thing in Verbatim Search as well.
I suspect they hired someone who had never eaten Google's dog food and had no clue how Google's search works beyond Stupid Mode--but just the same he was allowed to alter the way the codebase works.
Google is increasingly becoming less backwards-compatible with itself and, as a result, less useful for me.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by halcyon1234 on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:35PM
Say, that's a nice site you have there. Ooo-- are you using an ad network other than DoubleClick or Adsense. eee-- no no no, it's okay. It's just that, you see, when you use an ad network like that, there's no guarantee that they won't pollute your site with pop ups and intersetional ads. I mean, there's nothing WRONG with that, per se-- but you see, yeah, unfortunately sites like that might "have something happen to them" in our rankings. There's nothing we can do about it, it's just the way Google Index needs to work. But I'm sure you have nothing to worry about...
Though, if you did want some "peace of mind"-- you know, just to sleep safe at night knowing nothing is going to "happen" to your site-- you can always switch all your ads over to DoubleClick and AdSense. Because those are vetted Google products, yeah, that's it. Vetted. They're safe. Everybody wins.
Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:35PM
I don't have a problem using exclusively Google ads -- as long as they are not doing the very things Google is punishing other sites for doing.
I think Google actually is looking far enough down the road to realize that it might not be a wise idea to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Sites that use bad advertising networks are not looking down the road so much. They just want quick revenue right now, this instant! Even if they destroy their own future.
Just do whatever it takes, no matter how outrageous, no matter how deceptive, to get a tiny bit of revenue out of a tiny percentage of visitors who can be conned. What? Destroy our reputation? Drive users away so that nobody ever visits our site again within two months? That's far away in the future! Who cares!
Google is not like the advertising networks that do these things. And spread malware. Google's premise, as it seems to me, is that they want to show me a few very targeted ads. Ads I might actually be INTERESTED in. In exchange for providing a superior web experience.
Google seems to understand that trust is hard to earn and easy to destroy.
I don't mind Google steering me away from obnoxious, deceptive, or just plain dangerous sites.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @06:46PM
So to me it's a good thing if Google can convince enough sites to stop doing stupid shit with ads and popups, or drop them so far in the search results that most "normal folk" still won't bother to install adblockers. That way ads can remain a decent source of $$$$$ to keep much of the web alive.
Then I can continue using adblockers and everyone (people like me, normal users, advertisers and Google) is happy ;).
Like it or not, somebody has got to pay for the stuff. And I'd prefer if others do most of the paying.
A while back I notice that an ad running on Chrome used an extra 25W on my computer. So ads can cost you in terms of loading time, bandwidth, exposure to malware AND increased power consumption.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:45PM
SEO: the arms race that never stops giving.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:10PM
Way back. When they first started. They promised to deliver relevant ads(sure they still do that) that were plain text and unobtrusive.
Then they bought double fucking click. And they just gave up on me ever considering seeing ads again. Google has been pretty responsible for digging the adblock grave that a lot of the internet finds itself in.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheRaven on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:36PM
They promised to deliver relevant ads(sure they still do that) that were plain text and unobtrusive.
They're not very relevant anymore. They used to produce ads that were relevant to the content of the page. If I'm looking at a page about X, then there's a good chance that I'm in the target market for something X-related. This is why car companies advertise in car magazines and so on. Now they advertise based on some machine-learning based profile of me. When it works well, it predicts things that I used to be interested in, but have subsequently acquired and no longer need. Most of the time, it's just irrelevant stuff. I used to click on Google ads fairly often 10 years ago, because they would show me things I wanted to buy. I haven't seen one that I've considered clicking on for a good 5 years.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:23PM
There: i modded you up.
Now, sudo make me a sandwich (no bread and no dairy: you CAN use rice cakes, because most gluten-free bread tastes like sweaty toes) and a gluten-free beer... or just vodka, rum, red wine....
Just noticed: time to change my sig! :(
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday August 25 2016, @10:00AM
I get a lot of ads from Google that are, admittedly, quite welcome. Every time I have been looking for some specific thing, Google has always excelled in not only finding me the thing I was looking for, but who has some for sale. Unobtrusively. But its right there on the search page.
Those links, usually one-liners under a small static image, are taken seriously. The merchant has already done business with Google, and already has the impression of "being real". The next step is to see what he has to say, and try to see from his site whether or not he's a man of his words or if he is full of trickery. If I click on the link Google provided and his site is full of scripting and funny talk, the relationship is already off to a terrible start, and that's the end of it.
Next link, please.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:40PM
What do we mean by relevant? Relevant to the page I'm on? Or relevant to what I am interested in buying right now?
If Google knows that I'm looking for MAX7219 chips, and seven segment displays, then I don't mind seeing an ad for those on a page about travel and vacations.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @06:09PM
I think it's creepy.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:14PM
I think it's convenient. A lot better than the alternatives:
Here's a full page, in your face, difficult or impossible to dismiss, deceptive ad, about something you have no interest in. Will never have an interest in. And maybe even find offensive. Here, let me cram it down your throat for you.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Friday August 26 2016, @07:59AM
Here let me shove some more ads at your face:
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=5874&cid=139121#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
Some of them are ads for stuff I'd never buy but I still watch the ads :).
(Score: 5, Touché) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:45PM
When I go to google.com on a mobile device using Safari for a quick search, I get a popup telling me about the Chrome app. Doesn't cover the whole screen, but it's annoying.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday August 24 2016, @10:54PM
No, no, no. You've got it wrong. That isn't an *ad*, it is a "security notice". /s
They don't say if chrome is to be installed for your security or theirs, but still..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:27PM
Sites featuring pop-up windows or interstitial adverts may appear lower in the results than they now do.
That's a nice site you got going there... be a shame if something happened to it... like people not visiting anymore... how about you use Google ads instead of what you're using now?
(Score: 2) by gidds on Friday August 26 2016, @12:25PM
Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but what on earth is 'Alphabet subsidiary Google' there for? Does the submitter think people might not know who Google is?!
Because everyone knows who 'Alphabet' is, don't we!
...Don't we? Anyone...? Anyone...?
Seriously, why mention Alphabet at all? (It would be simpler and more relevant to ascribe the press release just to 'Google's parent company'.)
[sig redacted]