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Comment by wk_end | Hacker News Reader

I'm not using an ad blocker; when I search for Midjourney on Google the real thing is my first result; I don't even see any sponsored content. Not sure what's happening for OP.

(Please don't read this as a defense of Google on the whole.)

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Piggybacking on to provide a screenshot since I also see no sponsored content and Midjourney is my #1 result, well above the fold.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/Oxo4FJl.png

Same here, though for me the second result is the Midjourney Discord rather than Reddit.

But I'm in Europe. Perhaps that affects results? I wouldn't be surprised if the Google experience were more ad-heavy in low-consumer-protection nations.

This is exactly what I see with adblock turned on. When turned off, the first two results are ads.

I don't use any adblockers. The results are also the same for me whether I'm logged in or not.

I get the same results as Op, but on mobile, where there are 4 sponsors above the link. It’s about two screen scrolls to the real result.

When I search it I see the same thing as OP.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/hlF6OoU

> I'm not using an ad blocker

How do you tolerate the web without an ad blocker?

by buying everything that appears?

I use an ad blocker on my personal machine, but corporate doesn't let me install random software and is mostly used for HN, so it's fine ;)

Mine has one sponsored link which is just a course for midjourney. But I don't doubt at all that the OP post is real. This stuff is all dynamically generated. There is probably even some AI deciding how many ads you'll put up with.

Ideally Google would offer some kind of ad free option, perhaps on a higher tier of the Google One plans.

With uBlock off, I get two sponsored ads, and the real site is nearly pushed below the fold: https://i.imgur.com/AkVbvSI.png

Geo targeting or other targeting signals play a role in this

odd, I also don't see any sponsored content any longer for any search whereas I definitely remember seeing what OP has for other searches. But I also now see a tab for AI mode next to ALL which is new... but I also switched to DDG a while ago

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