Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

My biggest feature request: A check box that says, "[ ] I'm not buying anything"

I don't know how technically hard this would be to implement. Or what business model will resist adding it. I just know that most of my web searches are NOT me trying to buy stuff. They're usually looking up information.

Like, how does the load sensing algorithm work on my LG washer? No chance I'll ever find out by searching the web. Only 200 links to different places I can buy a new one. Or maybe some videos explaining that the feature exists, and "oh and would you like to buy one?"

Maybe I want to know if my GadgetMaster 3000 will work with my WidgetWanker Mark II. Nope, but here's 100 places you can buy those, or maybe the THINGDOODLE brand of knockoffs.

Ok, I'm ranting. Point is: give me a way to restrict my search to only those pages that aren't selling anything. Maybe the heuristic is that the page hasn't changed in 6 months, or uses outdated tags like <marquee>, or some fancy semantic analysis of the page copy. I don't know. I just wish search results weren't so utterly dominated by e-commerce sites or affiliate spam.

> My biggest feature request: A check box that says, "[ ] I'm not buying anything"

The primary purpose of ads isn't to get you to buy something. It's to plant a brand in your brain so that next time you do want to buy something, you'll think of the brand.

Ads are very good psychological manipulation.

I’m not talking about ads. I’m talking about the “natural” search results.

Of course those are also really ads in a sense, but somehow there’s got to be a way to provide a real search engine that doesn’t show only e-commerce sites. I’ll pay for it!

If we are to believe advertisers are so great at their jobs, why can't they produce any meaningful metrics that don't commit egregious sins of statistical analysis?

Here's a thing that I am absolutely convinced happens. Ad network tracks purchases. Ad network track ad impressions. Ad network correlates the two and finds that 90% of people who saw the ad also bought the product. But they conveniently "forgot" to check if the ad impression was before or after the purchase.

I'm confident this is happening because the only times I see ads for anything I'd be interested in buying is after I've already bought the damn thing.

This

If 1 out of 100 impressions leads to a purchase it's alredy a good performance. The effort to improve this rate is not always worth it. That's the reason we are spammed with ads.

I'm not convinced even 1 out of 100 is happening. If advertising is having an impact, it would be measurable. If it's not measurable, there's no impact.

> If 1 out of 100 impressions leads to a purchase it's alredy a good performance.

But do they at all take into account the fact that probably about 50 out of 100 ad impressions lead to an "I'll NEVER purchase anything from the purveyor of this ad-spam shit!" reaction?

This is the summary of the second hit on Duck Duck Go (the first hit is a troubleshooting article about the feature):

> A built-in load sensor automatically detects the laundry load and a microprocessor optimizes washing conditions such as ideal WATER LEVEL and washing time. Turbo drum washing (option) When "Punch + 3" washing wings turn, the washing tub turns in the opposite direction.

I accidentally searched for this:

load sensing algorithm work on my LG washer?

Adding "how does the" to the beginning of the search gives this as the second hit:

> Water level sensing in LG washers is done differently from how you may be used to seeing it done in other brands. Whirlpool, GE, Electrolux and others use an air tube connecting an air dome on the tub to a pressure sensor with a physical diaphragm or transducer that "feels" the water level increase as an increase in pressure inside the air tube.

Which seems more promising, but I didn't click through.

Appreciate the effort, but my example was for clothes load sensing (what it does before determine the water required.)

I've watched it at work and as best as I can tell, it takes inertial mass readings by wiggling the drum using a specified current, and measuring how far the drum oscillates. Or maybe it predetermines the amplitude and measures the power required?

I'm just guessing. What I want to find out: is either of my guesses close? Is there something else I'm not seeing? Why does it do this 4 times in a row? (In between "wiggles" it will rotate the drum a few times to—my guess—redistribute the load and get an average from the four readings.

Maybe its rose-tinted glasses looking at the web of yesterday, but I have this sneaking suspicion some nerd out there has an entire website devoted to arcane appliance details like this. I would very much like to find and bookmark that site!

The problem I am seeing is that yes, someone will write the exact nerdy explanation on how it works - on a private Facebook group, which you will never find in any search engine. I'm a member of several automotive FB groups and the wealth of knowledge there is enormous - but ultimately it all gets swallowed up in Facebook's belly and is not available for easy search like it used to be. It's a real tragedy.

Yeah the replacement of forums with facebook is one of the worst things to happen to the web. Like craigslist, many of them still exist, but are just not very active.

I am pretty sure they measure moment of inertia by applying a know torque and note the acceleration?

Google doesn't care if you buy anything... They are selling clicks to companies that are selling things.

As long as you click on an Ad, google makes money, regardless if you buy something or not.

But the “I’m not buying anything” box would never be implemented by Google because their whole existence is based on tracking us to find out they or their real customers can extract every last dollar from us. It’s all surveillance ad based…

Hopefully DDG and others don’t turn into that tho

Google is incentivised by you relying on them instead of a competitor, shortly followed by page loads. Giving you what you want immediately, particularly when they know that you know what your searching for is a niche interest, isn’t in their best interests.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com