Google is testing verified checkmarks in search
Google is testing verified checkmarks in search
I assume SEO spam/misleading ads?
Stuff that could probably be better done by vetting advertisers and improving the search algorithm.
Malware disguised as legitimate software getting served as ads.
Just a few months ago people were shown faked websites for obs studio when searching for the original. They should vet whose ads they’re serving instead of just certifying certain corporations.
Getting 4 sponsored links and an AI overview before I get to the search results.
It’s basically all the shit Yahoo did to lose their search dominance.
&udm=14.
My solution.
Their search results have been shit for about 10 years.
Ddg already have this for some sites.
It’s not broken, for google. It does exactly what they want, which is to help them gather data and manipulate people.
At work, we discussed this as a future issue in about 2000, when we saw it gaining major search share.
We regularly experiment with features that help shoppers identify trustworthy businesses online[…]
I don’t even mean browsing! Just trying to install something.
I search for “NordVPN” (because all the cool YouTubers use it!) and the first result is “Norton 360” with an install button.
It’s a “sponsored result” and it’s easy to install the wrong thing if you’re used to it actually finding the thing you just typed in.
If I put Firefox. I get duckduckgo. Okay, maybe not so bad and pretty obvious. But I’ve had these things for apps that almost look like the legitimate one.
Why? Google should just police their results. Offering a fake Microsoft in your results means you failed providing the service you claimed to offer.
This is either pay to play… and that means google will earn money from fraudsters. Or it will look at certificates… just aite matches certificate… must be good.
Decades worth of whack a mole could have been used to train an AI to actually help here… but we made a glorified word guesser instead.
This is so stupid. God forbid they actually police their ads for malware. No, instead let’s push the responsibility onto the individual, by adding get another “Papers, Please”-esque stamp that very few people will know about and even less will actually use.
Hard pass. The day I saw them promoting malware above legitimate search results is the day I turned on ad blocking for my entire org, and a stupid little pay-to-verify badge isn’t going to change that.
/end rant