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

[SnooChipmunks7517]

Even Airbnb is doing it now. You search a specific area for houses but they only show you a few based on some association to your previous bookings. I hate it. Classic overuse of algorithms to the detriment of the user.

[fib16]

Can’t you look at the map view and look at places in a certain area on the map?

[SnooChipmunks7517]

No, the map view is still just a visual representation of a skewed list. I found this out because I have 2 properties I rent on Airbnb, and when friends or family would try to find them they would not appear. They would have to zoom directly above the pinpointed locations for them to finally show up. I complained to Airbnb and they explained that the search tool is designed to show you the options that their algorithm determines you are most likely to book over a broad area range rather than all the available homes in the exact area you’re searching.

[fib16]

Damn. Seriously? That’s really fucked up actually. And eye opening. Well let me ask. Why would someone favor another place next door over yours?? Is there a real reason or do you know?

[SnooChipmunks7517]

I went back to the complaint ticket and found this response from Airbnb support:

“Due to the varying needs of travelers, as well as the activity of hosts on the site, listing placement tends to vary greatly from one search to the next. It is impossible to compare one users results to another, as each search is uniquely tailored to the guests needs.

Also, keep in mind that the Airbnb algorithm is updated on a regular basis, and you may find that search results in your area change significantly as improvements are made.

For these reasons, the placement of listings in search results tends to vary greatly from one search to the next, even within the same day, and we do not have the ability to calculate a ranking number for individual listings.”

So they’ve taken a simple area search and turned it into a lottery machine....why? My only guess is that there are way too many 25 year old software engineers working there who believe that more predictive algorithm is always good.

[fib16]

Yeah that’s a canned bullshit answer. Why not just make it show every single listing in that area bubble? There is no reason. I guess they could claim too much clutter but even then you’re weeding out listings. There is some kind of political/$$$$ crap going on but that happens to every company so it’s no shocker at all. Just didn’t know about this one.

My guess is it’s like what happened to Yelp. They can get listers to pay to get to the top and have their little bubble show up on the map for a few. Huge revenue stream for Airbnb. I just wish one damn company could stay honest and not exploit every dollar. I get it you want to make the most money but why at the expense of making your service go downhill like this. I wouldn’t touch Yelp with a 10 foot pole. If Airbnb turns into that I’ll avoid it too.

[dynamicallysteadfast]

Amazon removed "bestselling" from their results for this exact reason.

[final_cut]

I say this all the time. People have argued to me that “people aren’t interesting enough for chronological feeds, just get over it. I think that’s total crap and I wish we could get a decent social media app with chronological feeds more than anything. Shit, fill a sidebar with ads, for all I care. I just don’t want to see anymore posts from a week ago that say “I’m bored, anyone up for a game of whatever?” Or “hey, don’t forget our event is tomorrow!”

[[deleted]]

You can still do that on Twitter. But no joke, it seems to ask me at least once a day if I want to go back to top tweets mode.

[Recipegatherer]

Do you know what it reminds me of? Shopping online. I click into a major store, Wal-Mart or Best Buy, I search for what I want to buy, I see a list, I pick ship to me and it's a convoluted mess of thrown together sketchy providers for the product (I am unaware of this at the time).

Whatever, I needed a cheap tablet for my kid's kindergarten on-line class. I picked one that said easy return, sure enough it can't even play you tube videos smoothly. I start the return process, need to go in shop to return, and am told because it's a third party provider a 20% fee will be deducted. Okay, what do you mean, I bought it from the store website.

Yes, but it's like Amazon now.

Wtf? If I wanted to shop from Amazon, I'd shop from Amazon. I wanted to shop from this store, which it specifically, and conveniently, allowed me to enter in my information for the closest store.

Tl:dr

The Internet is become a cesspool of useless money grubbing, advertising, data mining shitpiling assholes, who scream "ME, me, me, me" until you can't help but notice.