Has Google search quality really dropped? A study by #WebisGroup highlights how affiliate content may be clouding search results. Researchers @phoerious, @mattiwiegmann, @potthast + Benno Stein analysed the effect of SEO spam, finding that affiliate links dominate search results, impacting their quality. This issue affects not only #Google but also #Bing + #DuckDuckGo.

Read more: "Is Google Getting Worse? A Longitudinal Investigation of SEO Spam in Search Engines": https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

#ossym23 flashback
"A long time ago in an IR course far, far away …"

At 5th #OpenSearchSymposium, #WebisGroup researchers @maik_froebe (@unijena), Theresa Elstner, Harrissen Shells, @potthast (all Universität Leipzig) and Benno Stein (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) presented their Case Study in Research-oriented Teaching ➡ "Prototyping Open Web Search Applications with TIRA".

#WebisGroup is a project partner of OpenWebSearch.eu, a EU project funded by #HorizonEurope. @EC_NGI

"How to detect spam designed as click farming for affiliate links on Youtube" Janek Bevendorff, Matti Wiegmann, Benno Stein and @potthast from #WebisGroup presented their #casestudy at #ossym23: https://github.com/webis-de/OSSYM-23/

You can still join the conference online:
https://opensearchfoundation.org/en/events-osf/5th-international-open-search-symposium-ossym2023/
#ossym23 #opensearchsymposium #Webis

🎉 Our EU project OpenWebSearch.eu is turning 1 today! Happy birthday! May the next 2 years be just as successful + lead to an open, safe + transparent web search for all!

#ThankYou to our #OpenWebSearchEu project partners:
Universität Passau
@LRZ_DE
@Radboud_uni
Uni Leipzig
TU Graz
@DLR
IT4Innovations Supercomputing Center
CERN
CSC - IT Center for Science
A1 Slovenija d.d.
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
#SUMA
#WebisGroup

+ thank you to @[email protected]

#OpenSearchEurope #HorizonEurope