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Comment by WORMS_EAT_WORMS | Hacker News Reader

What's kind of funny is there was a time where Google used to stand for --literally anything-- and would punish a site like reddit on search results for having such a user hostile interface.

For some reason though (probably because they used AMP) they basically allow them to do anything they want. Multiple popups, hijacking click events for login modals, and hiding the content with no impact to search results.

So now, in all the glory of the Internet, the person who genuinely wrote the best blog post on the "warmest winter coat" is completely unfindable on normal Google search or you force yourself via a reddit query to a completely hostile user experience unless you login.

It would be cool to just be able to do something like this "warmest winter coat --hobbyist-only".

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GP was saying how reddit is actually more useful than whatever Google returns today: that's the "hobbyist-only" shortcut for today. Because that blog post is long gone from Google's indexes, since replaced with SEO-optimized or "influencer" driven sales/content marketing.

I like to compare with search.marginalia.nu results from time to time, but the restrictions it puts on the content it traverses do not make for a good daily driver.

We are saying the same thing. I reiterated it poorly.

Just also poking fun of how Google both killed the "real" blog industry and forced all the good content on reddit (which ironically does every anti-SEO thing ever and where people are trying to go).

Because most people who use Reddit on a semi-regular basis use their old desktop UI (old.reddit.com), which doesn’t have the dark patterns found on their newer / mobile site. It’s a much more usable site for the few communities I still have left on Reddit. It’s also much better supported by the individual subreddits via style sheets (most didn’t bother updating layouts when Reddit introduced a new UI because all the power users who would have updated them kept using the old interface).

GPT3 got your back:

warmest winter coat --hobbyist-only

Top 10: 1. Canada Goose Parka 2. Patagonia Down Jacket 3. Marmot Precip Jacket 4. Columbia Winter Jacket 5. North Face Thermoball Jacket 6. The North Face Nuptse Jacket 7. Rab Neutrino Endurance Jacket 8. Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Jacket 9. Black Diamond Fineline Hoodie 10. Outdoor Research Cathode Hoody

That's actually hilarious - that list isn't bad!

How can you search with GTP3?

I suspect part of what is going on is that Google, and its employees, have forgot what Google was supposed to be. In some warped, misguided attempt to not be evil, they got confused and tried to be neutral.

Google should be opinionated. It should have a huge bias towards quality. It should not be hard for a small army of employees to be blackholing ANY crap product roundup site. Real product tests, where multiple items were actually purchased and compared, should always float to the top.

Just as much as needing to pay attention to what spam to suppress, they should be asking "what do we we want at the top" and whitelisting really great sources that always cut in front. Why should healthline ever appear before examine.com?

Instead, they have thrown their hands up, said the algorithm is in charge, and to interfere with it would be improper. Bollocks.

--hobbyist-only makes sense

when i search for something specific, i usually include a random niche tangental hyper specific keyword about the thing i want in quotes (until it gets turned into the SEO-buzzword of the day)

"impedance" for analog electronics stuff, "ring-spun" for clothes stuff, etc

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