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Comment by AlexMuir | Hacker News Reader

I'm often searching information on auto parts and Google's results are quite literally 100% webspam. Here's an example - The entire first page is the same provider squatting domains:

https://www.google.com/search?q=scrambler+50cc+parts+format%...

Wiring diagrams in Google images - literally every result is webspam in the same format split across squatted domains.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mazda+miata+wiring+diagram+s...

These aren't even particularly niche searches, nor is it hard to detect that all these sites are the same.

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Man, it irks me because half the time it's not just these sites. eBay, Amazon, and tons of popular sites will come up with links for one discontinued part that hasn't been sold on their site for years, nor have any information on it. Sometimes it's just some random item listing that isn't even related to what I searched for.

Curious what did you expect of a query such as "scrambler 50cc parts format:pdf"? Why the PDF filter?

You expect that some companies are publishing a parts catalog in PDF format?

The query just seems odds to me, and so the garbage results don't seem too surprising

Actually about 2 years ago this is precisely the query I would have chosen too.

You could always find a parts catalog, service manual, that sort of thing scanned and posted online. PDF (used to) select for the scanned documents. Used to be my main usage of google was finding service manuals for auto and electronics.

Nowadays the spam just pretends to be a pdf cause we used to always search for them.

> You expect that some companies are publishing a parts catalog in PDF format?

Don't them all? Once you get to niche products, there are even web stores out there that only list their parts in PDF.

> You expect that some companies are publishing a parts catalog in PDF format?

It's really common in some areas. This at least used to be a very effective search pattern.

It's pretty common for wiring diagrams, service manuals and fix it guides to be in PDF format. Sometimes you're holding broken parts in your hand and the exploded image in a PDF is linked to a part number (The part may not even have a distinct name, just a manufacturer part number) so you can order replacements.

Anything health related is just as bad. Just pages and pages of blog spam, sites with dozens of referral links and sites that aggressively optimize for SEO.

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