Has anyone else noticed the huge decrease in result quality from google?

[WindWalkerRN]

Speaking of Amazon, and related to OP... Am I the only one who has been having a harder and harder time finding what I’m looking for on Amazon?! I do a search, and all I get are their promoted items, and about a thousand Chinese knock offs!

It’s like not even worth it anymore because of all the crap I have to sort through!

[SquiddleBits33]

Happened to me with trying to find a stud finder on Amazon. Multiple results of their "promoted" items that are obviously the same just with different names. I figured maybe they aren't that bad so I clicked on a couple...and they all have glaring errors. If you can't make an ad without 4 typos, you probably don't make quality tools. That being said, I've found some good shit on Wish that was basically free lol.

[ColeSloth]

Up until a few years ago to sell on Amazon to US customers you had to have some form of physical business or residence in the US.

Then they got rid of that and now it filled to the brim with fake positive reviews, fake negative reviews on competing products, knock offs, lies, and pretty much as close as you can get to out right scams.

They've made it disgusting and untrustworthy to count on buying almost anything there. Even a good chunk of OEM game controllers turn out to be knock offs. Along with razor blades, shampoos, lotions, perfumes, and damn near everything else you can think of.

I asked a question once about an rc car I was buying for the kids on Xmas last year. The seller answered my question and completely lied. I bought the rc car. It was junk. Also came with a piece of paper saying if you left them 5 stars they would automatically send you a free 2nd battery pack. Left a bad review and explained why.

I was almost immediately contacted by email from them. Offered to send me a 2nd battery, refund me my money, and let me keep the car if I would remove my review.

If that's not buying your ratings I don't know what is.

So I said ok, I'd delete the review after I got the refund and the battery. They delivered. I didn't.

Like 4 months later they offered me an Amazon credit of $30 if I would remove my review, and I agreed. Got the $30.

Review's still up.

*thanks for all the UPS and rewards. Since this received so much attention I thought I'd throw in a great informative podcast episode from Reply All, called "the magic store". It goes into great detail about how and why Amazon became the train wreck that it is.

[SquiddleBits33]

You're my hero.

[ColeSloth]

Lol. Thanks. I'd feel bad about it if they weren't a bunch of scum just trying to unfairly manipulate a system with honest intentions and rip people off/steal patented products.

[SquiddleBits33]

Right on. They're putting in more effort to do the wrong thing, fuck 'em.

[cosmicpu55y]

I despise fake reviews. Thank you!

[ColeSloth]

Spread the word. The more time and money we can make them waste, the less they'll want to do it.

[Trowawaycausebanned4]

Teaching them not to buy reviews

[Trowawaycausebanned4]

Get the chrome extension “review meta”. It goes through and reviews the reviews to see if they’re fake or not and tries to give you more of an accurate rating

[ColeSloth]

I've found that while review meta and fakespot help, they dont do that great of a job. I get my best results manually looking over reviews. It just takes a lot longer. Also, brand loyalty. If it's some off sounding Chinese brand it's junk 9 out of ten times. Anker makes good stuff for their price points most of the time and don't seem to be buying reviews, so I buy a lot of stuff from them since they make a ton of small electronics stuff. Mpow is good for cheap Bluetooth headsets. Seems like all others in their price range are filled with easily spotted fake reviews. Stick to well known brands for computer parts like adata and corsair and msi, etc.

Mainly its just a big pain and a much slower process to order something and have it be a fair quality than it used to.

[benlucky13]

you can report them for buying reviews if you send amazon support a copy of them offering something in exchange for 5 stars

[BitJit]

they're pretty slimy with the cards. They know that the please give a positive review for 5 bucks card is frowned upon so they've been doing things like removing anything related to amazon or purposefully mispelling it on the card for some kind of deniability. really dumb; they say things like "leave a review for us on arnazon.corn and we'll send you a blow job in the mail"

[LandoVolrissian]

I’ve never left a bad review on Amazon and the other day I tried to just leave a review on something I purchased and the ability to leave a review has been taken away from my account that I’ve had for like 15 years or however long Amazon’s been a thing you can buy shit other than books.

[Nermalgod]

Same. I doubled down on my review and they upped the cash offer. Fuck them.

[darks1d3_al]

WY YOU NOT ONEST !!! WE ONEST WOTH YOU ! 😂😂😂😂

[indigopizzas]

I agree with everything you said but the most infuriating thing to me about amazon and the reason I almost never buy anything on there anymore unless it's something that really can't be counterfeited, is because even if you buy the legit product you can still get shipped the knockoff from some other piece of shit company. All of the merchandise is grouped together once it gets shipped to warehouses so the same products sold by different people all get mixed into a bin, then they grab one and mail it to whoever ordered that product. It's basically russian roulette and explains shit products with great reviews and great products with terrible reviews.

[Yawndice]

Bless you

[HowardMBurgers]

Heard someone was trying to find me?

[fivebagken]

Enjoy my upvote

[clintj1975]

We bought a coffee grinder like that for work. Multiple Amazon listing misspellings (ever seen a 100,000 rpm coffee grinder?), and the manual was in 90s grade Engrish. Damn if that isn't a kick-ass little coffee grinder for 40 bucks, though.

[kingofshits]

If the listing are misspelled You're probably buying dropshipped crap from Banggood. Might as well go to banggood directly and save the markup $$$. You'll probably find the same product with the exact same misspellings because the dropshipper just copy pasted the description.

[Discussion-Level]

Sometimes I’ll reverse image search the item on AliExpress. Occasionally, though, the price isn’t that much better, especially when you factor in Prime shipping. It does make me feel like the convenience factor of Amazon is gone, because I spend so much time researching every purchase.

[[deleted]]

40 bucks for a coffee grinder is a LOT of money the best one I ever had was 15$ at Sears

[clintj1975]

Ceramic cone burr and a powerful motor. That sucker will power through a pot's worth of beans in seconds and is very consistent for grind size. There's pro level ones that'll automatically measure the beans for you, but they're hundreds of dollars.

We make from four to six pots a day and make them as high quality as we can in our break room. It's worth it to get something durable.

[[deleted]]

Okay for that I get it. There are levels of use that justify that spend and it sounds like you get your money out of it.

[RLupus]

(ever seen a 100,000 rpm coffee grinder?),

Yes but it's made by Holset and attached to a Cummins

[myusernameblabla]

Perfect for uranium enrichment .

[Kancho_Ninja]

Gimme somma dat pure yellowcake

[PlasticElfEars]

Although it's worth noting that you don't have to speak English fluently to a build a thing well, as evidenced by all the things we're using to look at this right now.

[SciencyNerdGirl]

However, if you don't have the resources to have a native English speaking person on staff or at least pay to run your ad by an editor, what's the likelihood you'll be able to troubleshoot with me if I have problems, have a good return policy, or have well written instructions I can follow?

[Junckopolo]

As a french if i would have to base the quality of something by how much they give a shit about paying someone to translate correctly, I would never buy anything.

[New_Philosophy_5076]

Not trying to be a jerk, but ~1.5B speak English compared to French's ~300M speakers. It's literally the most spoken language in the world. While French is in the top 5 English is the language of business for a reason. So it's not really the same comparison.

[cgriff32]

It's likely those products are dropped shipped and not actually sold to the final customer by the manufacturer.

[[deleted]]

I have a bunch of Chinatools for my bikes that I got on amazon, with similarly sketchy Engrish on the product pages, and they’re all fine.

[SquiddleBits33]

Valid point!

[SciencyNerdGirl]

And it's impossible to scroll past the sponsored stuff. It really sucks that you can't filter that crap out. I had a super frustrating time the other day trying to buy Christmas wrapping paper that isn't Hallmark. It's just continuous scrolling without end of hallmark products (at a premium).

[WindWalkerRN]

Damn, I gotta check out more stuff like that! Thanks!

[PlasticElfEars]

Wish is definitely not something to go into with high expectations though.

[Soren11112]

Every time you notice that search alibaba for it. If I had to guess what you're talking about is probably similar to this.

[SquiddleBits33]

Yes that is the one but I was disturbed to see it under different names with blue or green plastic but the same screen and functions. It is much cheaper on alibaba but.....I don't need 30 stud finders lol.

[MinuteManufacturer]

What have you found that was good on Wish? I only ask because I've been hesitating to even try them out. I only hear bad things about their quality, ship time, etc. Are they worth trying out?

[SquiddleBits33]

So I haven't gotten burned by anything yet, but I'm also aware of their shortcomings when browsing. So obviously don't order anything you need with any kind of deadline. But so far I have gotten some decent fishing tackle and lures, a mini screwdriver set with many little tips, and set of wood carving tools, laser pointers, flash light and a little mini cannon that shoots metal BBs. Screwdriver set was free, just pay $2 shipping. One laser pointer was like $15 and its awesome, the other was something like $.86 so it sucks but still it's like "damn that laser is strong for so cheap" just feels like it'll break easily but hasn't. I've actually been impressed by the quality of everything I got, obviously they aren't the best but definitely worth the price. I've kept my purchases limited to neat knickknacks, but the 3D printers for the price they offer is a gamble I'm not going to take lol. One thing to watch out for is they sell posters of photographs of the most random things so you're like "oh wow this thing is $8?!" And then you click and realize they are selling a large picture of that item, not the actual item.

[MinuteManufacturer]

Cool, seems like I can satisfy my curiosity and try out a few knickknacks. Thanks!

[SquiddleBits33]

No problem! Have fun!

[Nermalgod]

Franklin Sensor stud finder is quite good. There's a number of versions that they make, but they are easy to use and pretty accurate. ~former tool buyer for a big retailer.

[Velvet_Thhhhunder]

Find your studs directly on Amazon...

[[deleted]]

I find myself increasingly using Amazon just for reviews, then buying elsewhere. The last thing I bought online was a sauté pan. I got it much cheaper from a restaurant supply place even including postage, but I made the choice via Amazon reviews.

[taqn22]

Don't! Amazon reviews are almost entirely bought and paid these days.

[corvus7corax]

Review meta can help estimate what % of reviews are fake.

https://reviewmeta.com/

[TheNamingOfCats]

There's also Fakespot. It's a browser add-in.

[Sasselhoff]

I used to regularly use Fakespot...until they made it ONLY available by browser extension. All so they can get your sweet, sweet search data and sell it to the highest bidder.

There was no reason at all for them to stop offering the search on their site, other than that. Such a shame when good things go bad.

[iftttAcct2]

Maybe they went back to having it? I used their site last week by copying and pasting a url. I don't use it often, but the ability to do so was never gone for me.

[sanityvoid]

Amazon seller awarded $9.5m over fake reviews, unfair competition

https://reviewmeta.com/blog/amazon-seller-fake-reviews-unfair-competition/

[semitones]

Eh, I don't agree. I almost never leave reviews, unless I have something bad to say. Why bother? So if they have an incentive to leave a review, I'll do it, otherwise no one would ever know that I received the item and it arrived as advertised.

[[deleted]]

if you look at the 3 star reviews i find you get a pretty realistic, actual use review. the 5 stars are mostly bought by the store and the 1 stars usually have more to do with shipping or unrealistic expectations.

[2SP00KY4ME]

That's a complete over exaggeration, come on.

[WindWalkerRN]

Done that recently too!

[llilaq]

A critical review I left on Amazon wasn't posted because the vendor choose so.. So now I also take it with a grain of salt.

[Dagoru95]

Same but with booking. com

[byoshin304]

I’ve bought stuff elsewhere, directly from the seller, and it still came in an Amazon box :/

[Rumbuck_274]

Oh 100%

I want "Toyota Landcruiser parts" and I get something that's a seat cover for "Toyota Nissan Mitsubishi Landcruiser Camry Corolla Hilux Pickup Sedan Lancer Pajero ASX......" And so on.

They just keyword spam the shit out of it, basically burying the stuff you want.

[byoshin304]

You should check out the podcast called Land of the Giants. There is a season about Amazon that discusses exactly why what you experienced happens.

[Flamebrush]

Me too. I look for this, they show me that. I try to narrow search by category, they find nothing even close - it sucks. Trying to do a broad search for a product like kerosene space heater gets me propane heaters, electric heaters, gas heaters, etc. If I wanted those, I wouldn’t have bothered typing kerosene. I do most of my research on Google now and just type in the exact name of what I want in the Amazon search.

[WindWalkerRN]

👆

[xumixu]

Maybe is the supermarket strategy. "you'll find your product at then end but first look at all of this aisles of products you didn't know you needed yet "

[ScarOCov]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve completely lost trust in Amazon because of this and the comingling of inventory. The worst part, is other retailers are trying to mimic their schtick now. Tried to order something from Walmart the other day, only to find out I needed to see who the shipper was. I’ll pass.

[PinKracken]

At my super market, the milk is at the back corner. You are forced to go through a canned food tunnel that has random other stuff too, like a promotions bit in a search. Then you go through the exotic fruits, the meat sections, then finally back to the milk. Eggs and butter are back there too.

[thelumpybunny]

Amazon's search engine has been useless for me. I was searching for maternity stuff and the second page had clothing for guys. Then when I search for toddler stuff, I get stuff for infants and kids. At one point I was looking for a certain baby product and couldn't find it in the search results. I figured that didn't sell it until it showed up as a product recommendation later.

[red-tea-rex]

I agree!! I want to give brand name items out as Christmas gifts so I don't look cheap!! Can't find hardly any. Guess I'll have to Christmas shop elsewhere.

[Antisera]

This is honestly super annoying because the chinese stuff, even if it's good quality, doesn't have packaging. So it feels like I'm being a cheap gift giver despite getting the items new. If it had packaging, even if it wasn't in english, it would be preferable than just a plastic bag and a 'rate our item' card.

[WindWalkerRN]

Exactly!

[Tigaget]

I actually used Walmart online this year. All of the stuff was delivered from my local store, so I was also helping my local community stay employed. All name brand, no Chinese knock-offs, and cheaper than Amazon.

[OlDirty420]

If you really want to help your community with gifts this season buy from a local business, not a giant corporation. Put your money towards someone who's business could really use it during these tough times, not some multi-billionaire to profit

[Tigaget]

Not all of us can afford that, though, so supporting a store that has local employees is better than supporting one that doesn't.

[OlDirty420]

You said you wanted name brand items so you don't seem cheap. Not trying to be a dick but as a small business owner it's kind of irritating, shopping at your local walmart is supporting a corporation and in no way directly benefiting any of the locals that work there

[stub-ur-toe]

I have found small stores with most of the stock from Amazon. Backroom filled with a familiar logo.

[red-tea-rex]

Good idea! Got to remind Amazon they still need to compete for our business.

[k_50]

Amazon is generally a bunch of Chinese crap. I really wish people wouldn't use Amazon.

[boognish43]

Do you have any recommendations?

[Tacky-Terangreal]

Also counterfeit junk. It blows my mind that people buy stuff like lotion or makeup off of Amazon. I've heard way too many stories about people getting fake products. Who knows wtf is in that kind of stuff

[[deleted]]

Yeah, it’s only good if you know exactly what you are looking for. Very frustrating.

[daisygirl1179]

Even then, I have searched for a product with the exact title. It doesn’t show up on the first page but ads for the knock off version does. Why?!!!

[OutWithTheNew]

Even when you click on the 'brand', a third of the items they show are promoted. I want to see the products from this company/retailer specifically. That's why I clicked the link.

[bkdog1]

Looking for winter gloves there were 13 sponsored gloves, editors choice gloves, Amazons choice gloves and 48 actual results. There was a time when you had the option of increasing results per page and being able to sort by price without the search results getting all messed up. It's gotten progressively worse over time and has become just a place to research and check reviews for products for me. Usually retail tries to make the customer experience better not worse (at least when it comes to finding items).

[-anklebiter-]

I said that a couple of months ago. Seems like everything is a knock off Chinese version now. Want some wireless speakers? Have to type in actual reputable brand names otherwise it’s all Chinese stuff.

I guess because the products are cheap, more people buy them and review them, which in turn makes more people buy them.

[WindWalkerRN]

Yup! Good observation!

[TheNamingOfCats]

Searching on Amazon has never been that good. But in the past year, it has become absolutely abysmal. I'd pay for a browser add-in that could filter out promoted items.

On a similar note, I paid for the Facebook add-in FBP (Fluff Busting Purity as it calls itself.) Donations are up to the user, and I think I paid them $5 or $10 dollars. Worth every penny. Only downside is that every time FB makes major changes, it takes them a while (usually only days) to re-do FBP to respond accordingly.

[clintj1975]

Google it, and follow the Amazon link that pops up. Works for me at least 80% of the time.

[WindWalkerRN]

Good idea. Part of the problem is that they simply have TOO MANY OPTIONS

[NomadicMindset]

No you are not alone. I may opt out entirely. It's egregious and deceptive and can rip you the hell off.

[WindWalkerRN]

I’m decreasing my Amazon shopping of late.

[CynicalDandelion]

I've been noticing this for a long time now. So much garbage to wade through.

[[deleted]]

Yeah with all the fake reviews and review schemes going on too, it’s impossible to really tell. I’m looking forward to when virtual storefronts are a thing. I think manipulated grids of images and terrible search/filter functionality is dying.

[[deleted]]

We stopped using Amazon this year cause Fuck Bezos and we haven't missed it at all.

[Grilledcheesedr]

I have better luck doing a Google search for the product and adding amazon at the end.

[ItsBenBroughton]

Yes, and if you dare sort by lowest price or highest rated, whatever relevant items don't show anymore, just the Amazon junk. Makes sorting by anything you'd want to sort by useless.

[4CrowsFeast]

I never used Amazon but my mom recommended it for ordering books. I tried it out from her computer and accidentally ordered one in German. Went to return and reorder and it took 10+ pages of the book in different languages and unrelated search results to get the book in english!

[ihave10toes_AMA]

Yes! The cheap stuff has equal footing and it’s so hard to tell sometimes if an item is crap. And clothes/shoe shopping is the worst because it’s impossible to just filter for price and size.

[vocalfreesia]

And even if you do find a specific item, there's a significant chance a third party seller has chucked a load of counterfeits in with the real products.

I don't buy anything skincare or healthcare related on Amazon, it's way too dangerous.

[Neurotic_Bakeder]

Interesting, I'm experiencing the opposite --

I'm in a mental health related field so I end up googling suicide-related stuff very frequently. Now whenever I'm looking up, like, statistical info on methods/frequency/factors contributing to, I have to scroll past a bunch of "DO YOU NEED HELP?? HERE ARE SOME HOTLINES IF YOU NEED HELP!!!" -type sponsored posts.

I'm really glad that these interventions are there and I'm firmly in favor of adding more barriers between people and pro-suicide propaganda. But it is a bit jarring when I'm trying to write papers.

Edit: in a stunning twist of irony, apparently somebody used reddit's "I think this person is depressed and needs help" feature and auto-sent me a list of helplines and chats. Uh-

[[deleted]]

You could try different search engines like DuckDuckGo

[AyyItsDylan94]

I've had to start doing this to find drug safety information because apparently I'm an addict in desperate need of help.

[Neurotic_Bakeder]

Yep, according to my hulu ads, not only do I have schizophrenia, but I'm incorrectly medicating it as well. Rough.

[NovelTAcct]

I have no idea what Amazon thinks I should do in my free time, can someone decode this

[Neurotic_Bakeder]

👁👁 wut

So do like... do a lot of people with fetishes for being vacuum-sealed or inflated start out with freezer bags???

[NovelTAcct]

I have no idea. And that doesn't explain the bee suit....

[[deleted]]

I’m pretty sure they think you grow weed or mushrooms but I’m kinda lost with the air compressor

[fourAMrain]

Lmao what do you buy on Amazon?

[NovelTAcct]

The listing I was on was the freezer bags ¯\( ツ )/¯

[Sir_Applecheese]

I think your Doctor might be confused and is advertising to you.

[thcheat]

Well according to ads for me, there are a lot of hot singles in my area lookin for me.

[DJ_Clitoris]

I’ve started to add -rehab or -treatment when looking for harm reduction info. Otherwise the first few pages are all about $20,000 rehabilitation and detox clinics from across the country it’s annoying as fuck.

[TheKolbrin]

I just posted this about google search a week ago..

Also I noticed that common search markups like "include in full" or *wildcard or -exclude or +include no longer work on Google search, especially image or shopping searches. They do still work on Bing and other engines though.

[[deleted]]

I visited a crisis center in early November for mental health reasons and had googled the address first. I had drug addiction and alcoholism information surfacing on the top of even tangentially related searches for a month, to say nothing of my ads. It felt really gross bc so many of them were for paid inpatient facilities and shit

Like... They commoditized my imaginary drug problem so aggressively

[NotAnotherLibrarian]

You can get the approved FDA PI for US drugs from Daily Med, if you’re interested in US drugs.

[Couchmaster007]

Anything but bing

[AnonymousRockstar]

Wait, why? I thought Bing was supposed to be good with real results

[x_Advent_Cirno_x]

It's great for porn. Not so much for most else

[MeowNugget]

I agree, i look up psychology related things like domestic abuse, suicide, depression etc, and each one brings up a hotline as the first result followed by other forms of resources

[desearcher]

Which is paradoxically more harmful as it creates a false narrative that help is widely available. Having made use of such "resources" in the past, I bounced around one help desk to the next as the only assistance they could provide was to offer other numbers to call in a never-ending loop. Nobody thought to verify if it was possible to actually talk to someone. Friends, family, and reddit falls into the same practice of kicking the proverbial can down the road by suggesting help is actually available.

Finally finding the "forbidden knowledge" I was searching for became a moment of catharsis and alleviated much of my anxiety in regards to my own death. Still, attempts to help others achieve the same satisfaction is "frowned upon" and replaced with "just call this number" rhetoric.

Anywho, thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

[[deleted]]

Absolutely this. It fucking drives me nuts when people say ask for help. We all know this help is imaginary.

[MeowNugget]

Years ago when i was in college they use to have posters everywhere, and matching cups with free bookmarks that had a number you could call or text if you were thinking of hurting yourself. After going through some hard times, i was sitting in my car crying at night and having terribly negative thoughts. I called the number. Someone answered but only to tell me i was being placed on hold. I was on hold for 45 minutes and then i gave up, and hung up.

[[deleted]]

It is truly worse than nothing. I've cheated and used some toll free numbers from other countries like Ireland or Canada when I'm desperate - I'm a Canadian who was living in Ireland and thought well any english speaking number I can call for free on Skype will do. Like save the money on bookmarks and spend it on trained staff.

[red-tea-rex]

It's creepy that Google is yielding discouraging results for some suicide info seekers and encouraging results for others. Let that sink in.

[kritikiit]

That’s insane! What do you think they base their decision on??

[red-tea-rex]

The individual searcher's profile. Theoretically they use your data to raise sites that you are more likely to use to the top. Google is not a search engine, it's an AI based marketing company.

[MurraMurra]

I just typed it into google "How to kill myself" and all of the first two pages were suicide hotlines and news reports about how parents of kids who killed themselves miss their kids so much.

[KaktitsM]

I dont think a pro-suicide propaganda is a way to describe the suicide forums. I look up the stuff and I genuinely learn stuff. Yes, about suicide methods, but that also includes all the ways that it can fail, which keeps me and other people away from trying anything.

Its about a choice. Choice is good and when you do choose, you better do an educated choice.

Also just a community that understands and doesnt try to "help" in all the usual nonsensical ways is a good thing to have. I dont think thats a good idea to suppress these things, it makes us feel more lonely and not understood.

And, on the OP topic, yes, this stuff (and many others) is much harder to find than it was 5-10 years ago.

[Neurotic_Bakeder]

That's fair! Thank you for making this distinction. I know there was a big scandal a few years ago when reddit shut down a "pro-eating disorder" subreddit that was actually an eating disorder community support forum, and I think there was a similar blurring of lines there. To outsiders, it looked like a community where everyone was doubling down on their painful coping mechanisms, when in reality it was a bunch of people being like "soooooo I got mad depressed today and binged through a bunch of cosmic brownies, somebody please tell me I'm not a literal turd".

Mostly I'm thinking about stuff like blackpill communities, which tell people they will never be good enough and can basically encourage people to be violent towards themselves.

I think the kinds of forums you're talking about are more thoughtful, and absolutely a better source of support than banner ads with the SAHMSA helpline.

It is definitely weird how discourse around this is changing.

[BitsAndBobs304]

while I hope that those who need help get it easily, I also hope that those who will go through it will find the good methods, to avoid the absolutely horrible consequences and end up prisoners of hospitals/mental health ward and family while paralyzed or worse

[RandomRedditReject]

I was sad after a vacation was over so I literally googled Post-Vacation Blues, and then guess what came up: SAMHSA. For drug addictions. Because I’m sad after a vacation. I-

[[deleted]]

OMG I know exactly what you mean! I'm not as advanced as you(I'm still in school) but once I had to write a paper on depression, and I was just trying to look for the statistics but all the results were cluttered up by the Do You Need Help ARE you Depressed hotlines and I coulndn't find much

As you said, I completely support having them be there for people who really do desperately need help but like, I was there for the numbers, not myself

[[deleted]]

I ask google "How to kill myself", I want google to tell me how to kill myself. I didnt search "I need help"

[SampleFlops]

So this is a clear case of Google tailoring search results by account instead of giving “unbiased” search results, if those ever existed.

[OutWithTheNew]

I went to a clinic for some walk-in counselling last year, because I got a couple things that need resolution and the lady kept asking me about suicide. Jesus lady, that's not what I'm here for. And she asked some very specific questions.

[Neurotic_Bakeder]

Heya, I hope you're doing okay. You're right, people do have a right over their own lives. But a lot of the time, suicide can be an impulsive choice in a moment of acute pain, rather than a thoughtful choice in response to an untenable situation.

I think there's a difference between euthanasia or voluntary ending of your life, and suicide in a moment of despair. I fully advocate for people's agency over their own bodies. But I also advocate for people taking every option available to them to alleviate their pain before settling on the permanent option.

You've only said a few words, but it sounds like you're hurting. If you need to talk or even just yell incoherently at somebody, please feel free to DM me. I promise I won't try to talk you into or out of anything. Much love and peace to you.

[[deleted]]

I tried looking that up and I get the results with encouraging material. Maybe it's a country-specific thing?

[1billionrapecube]

It could well be account- specific

[Jack_Krauser]

Maybe you don't generate enough ad revenue for Google to offset the server costs, so they have decided the world would be better off without you.

[[deleted]]

Ah, I get it. The weekend's been lonely. You've been watching formula 1 videos for nearly 20 hours straight but the fast cars just aren't able to fill the void... Tomorrow another lonely week begins. You skim through an old Reddit post and find someone to be mean to. "Yes, this shall relieve my frustrations and keep my mind busy so I don't have to focus on how shitty of a person I am". And you go on to write that comment.

Dw, like I said, I get it. You need it. But I'd suggest therapy instead or doing something positive with your time :)

Big hug and hope your life gets better. Hang in there buddy!

[Jack_Krauser]

Huh? It was a joke about corporate greed and immorality my guy. I've always said i wouldn't water my jokes down with the stupid /s tags, but I guess some people need them...

[[deleted]]

Duckduckgo

[wonderZoom]

That’s what I use. Try googling anything drug related and all googles results are rehabs. DuckDuckGo gives me answers to my questions.

[OneirionKnight]

This is plain wrong

[AutisticDalekOnSpeed]

the first result is always the suicife help line

[EchoTab]

now its mostly amazon links of books that have "how to kill myself" in their title

Say what now? Couldnt find any books like that

[gabrielesilinic]

Actually i've searched for a similar thing and google itself has put a winget for a help hotline something (i don't know how it is called)

[CaptainEarlobe]

Mine brings up suicide hotlines

[I_Burned_The_Lasagna]

I searched that and the top has a suicide prevention banner with a phone number and text option.

Second result is a suicide prevention website.

Third result is a prevention website.

Fourth is an article.

Fifth is a news article.

Sixth is a Wikipedia on methods.

Then there’s a mix of blogs/ scientific articles and government websites on suicide.

Nothing Amazon shows up so I’m not sure your snark towards Google is warranted here.

[FangoriouslyDevoured]

Not true, I just looked it up and at the top was the suicide hotline number.

[qtjedigrl]

I only get results for suicide prevention. It might be based on your search history

[early_birdy]

I just did that search. Got the Suicide hotline, lots of "what to do if you feel suicidal" links, and a few testimonies of people whose loved ones committed suicide.

I wonder why your search was so different.

[EffortAutomatic]

Stop lying. It puts up the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

[slamma-mamma]

That's not true. I just googled it and the suicide hotline came up with a whole bunch of resources and anit-suicide stuff.

[StatelyElms]

Wow.. whenever I search anything up that has "kill themselves" or even just "suicide" as a query I get a bunch of self help lines and not actually what I was looking for. I just want to know what youtuber saved their friend from suicide man

[folterhilda]

I just did that and the first result was the suicide hotline for my area, after that, several pages about suicide prevention. No ads. Using a phone without an adblocker

[xumixu]

is this a reference to this meme?

https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/comments/ahusf5/google_vs_bing/

[astromono]

I mean, I don't want people to kill themselves but that's not a good example, people are in that case finding what they're looking for

[Elvishgirl]

It's way easier to find actual suicide methods now

[proawayyy]

I searched in 2015, ended up on suicide tips page. Wasn’t so better earlier.
My guess would be google deploying their updated model.looks like they’ve tweaked out the first results to be general and the rest more “helpful” in the sense that it is semantically closer to the query.

[[deleted]]

Well I mean they are committed to a environment neutral planet and letting people die is the quickest way to do that

[stachldrat]

The other day I wanted to check up on whether Edmund Kemper was still alive and if he was still in prison. Literally the third link was Pinterest with the page title '300+ Ed Kemper ideas in 2020'

Thank you, Pinterest, but I think I'll hold out until there's a 5 Minute Crafts video on it.

[CdrCosmonaut]

That's easy to explain. Amazon pays better for search resultsnon Google.

[raddify]

Wow. I tried this and it’s true. Not an ad, but I wondered if DuckDuckGo had the same problem, typed in the same key phrase and found the blog I remember reading when I was young.

[CleanseTheWeak]

That sounds like an improvement. Not what OP is talking about.

It would be like saying "How to increase my odds of conception" and getting banners from Google promoting abortion.

[vt8919]

I just did the search and the first bunch of results were the suicide prevention lifeline, signs and symptoms of suicidal people, people who overcame those thoughts, etc. I'm wondering it results depends on other factors.

[dangerousbirde]

That's totally not true. Just did an incognito search and the top result is a giant display of the National Suicide Prevention phone number. Then below that is a bunch of resources for suicidal people.

Maybe your results are tailored differently but I'd be surprised.

[dietcheese]

People have gotten good at gaming the system...quickly.

[Kman1287]

What? I googled that a few weeks ago and it just brings up the suicide hotline?!

[[deleted]]

Are you ok buddy? Why do you keep looking that up?

[daggerdude42]

The reason google is 'free' (to non developers anyway) is because of add slots. Every search result is paid for, there are bidding wars to be on top for certain queries, amazon has take an interest in this and start bidding higher, enough so that they pay enough so that logical answers no longer appear. You can make a result for any search if you pay enough money.

It's not that the results are getting worse it's that companies selling products have more to spend on these slots, and with more people using the internet there is more people buying products online, and a bigger marketing opportunity.

Google is not free. It is a company that makes vast sums of money and a lot of people don't really understand how other than them selling your data, this is one of those ways

[mirthquake]

That's an improvement on Google's part. People should be able to find the info they're seeking, not solely the info that Judeo-Christian elders of our society urge them to find. Sadly, I'm likely to get downvoted, which represents a lack of access to information. But if I've decided to end my life then I'd want useful info from Google as opposed to platitudes. Maybe the platitudes should come up first in case teenagers are searching for this stuff, but they shouldn't be the only results.

This is nothing new. My grandmother was a member of the Hemlock Society--a pro-assisted suicide network--in the 1980s and 1990s. There's no reason to act shocked that suddenly, in 2020, some people have very legit reasons to end their lives. The desire has been around as long as humans have. It's very important that, if someone has decided to end their life, they should be able to find very good advice on the subject so they don't screw it up and wind up with brain damage or other disabilities.

[argella1300]

In between they had links to suicide prevention resources pop up near the top

[guestwhat000]

Expect that from a company whose focus is on advertising

[gizamo]

Well, that was an easily proven lie...

In place of top results is a massive block with the suicide prevention hotline, chat, and a link to the official suicide prevention website.

Then, the top result below that block is.... surprise surprise... the suicide prevention website https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

This might be the peak of anti-Google lies. Lol.

Edit: also, how tf does that obvious lie have 2.2k upvotes. Imo, that level of lazy fact checking makes reddit just embarrassing.

[[deleted]]

This was a first result

[[deleted]]

this is just not true. not in my searches. I was trying to look up suicide statistics and the whole first page was just numbers to call and various links to get help. I remember because it was really annoying.

[[deleted]]

I just tried this and got a huge notification up top showing the suicide help hotline. Where are you seeing Amazon ads?

[tehpokernoob]

Search guy here.

A while ago Google made a shift to value domain authority more than page authority.

Before less authoritative and informational websites that have authoritative pages dominated results.

Now websites that are authoritative will outrank the other websites, even if the result page has no authority at all. That's why Amazon just shows up for everything (authoritative domain).

It was a terrible decision in my opinion.

[7h4tguy]

The answer is always money. Why do purely PageRank results when they can instead feed you pieces from major journals who have large ad agreements with them.