Podcast Summary
Google search results quality: Users may find disappointment with Google search results due to spammy websites filled with ads and less valuable insights. Expert reviews on dedicated websites are more helpful and informative.
The quality and usefulness of Google search results have become a topic of concern for many users. Matty Vigman, a PhD student, shares his experience of feeling dissatisfied with the search results he found when looking for a new messenger bag. He was disappointed with the spammy websites filled with ads and links, instead of valuable insights. This experience led him to question if Google is getting worse. While there is a lot of clutter and sponsored links, sometimes helpful and sometimes not, users are still seeking the genuine and informative search results. To assess the usefulness of Google over time, it's essential to look at product reviews. Websites dedicated to careful reviews, where experts evaluate the pros and cons, are more valuable compared to content farms that may provide less useful information. Today's episode of Planet Money from NPR tests this claim by examining Google search results and bringing it to Google itself.
Low-quality review websites: Despite Google's efforts to filter out low-quality review websites, they continue to rank highly and offer unsatisfying content, making it challenging for users to find trustworthy product reviews
Search engines like Google can be effective at filtering out spammy websites with little content, but they still struggle to prevent low-quality review websites from ranking highly. Researchers found that certain legacy magazine websites produce a large volume of product review pages daily to generate advertising and commission revenue. These websites, although ranked highly by Google, offer unsatisfying and shallow content. Google periodically updates its search algorithms to push these low-quality websites off the results page, but they often find ways to return. This constant game of cat and mouse between content publishers and search engines is a common occurrence, as detailed in a research paper. While search engines strive to provide accurate and informative results, the presence of these low-quality websites can make it difficult for users to find trustworthy product reviews.
Google updates: Google updates its algorithms and implements measures to assess page quality and combat manipulation, with thousands of changes annually to benefit users and handle the vast array of queries
Google acknowledges the constant need for updates to maintain relevant search results, which is a challenging aspect that has existed since the inception of search engines. Google's approach to this involves using algorithms like PageRank, which relies on links as votes of confidence, and implementing additional measures to assess page quality. They also have spam policies to combat manipulation. Google undergoes thousands of changes annually to benefit users, and they've added more measures since the publication of a specific paper focusing on product reviews. Google faces a vast array of queries every day, with 15% being new, so they continuously update their search tools, including using artificial intelligence, like the AI overview box seen at the top of some searches. Google has addressed the recent scrutiny by acknowledging the focus of the paper on product reviews and the vast variety of queries they handle daily.
AI-driven search suggestions: While AI can sometimes provide inaccurate or comically incorrect information, it holds great potential and can lead us to valuable information, requiring some sifting through occasional quirks
While AI, including Google's experimental AI-driven search suggestions, can sometimes provide inaccurate or even comically incorrect information, the technology also holds great potential. The cat-and-mouse game between AI and its users continues, with the scale of potential issues increasing as AI becomes more advanced. However, the increased attention from academics and governments on how Big Tech operates offers a glimmer of hope for addressing these challenges. Despite the occasional missteps, AI can lead us to valuable information, as demonstrated by a computer scientist's successful search for a messenger bag using Google. Google, a sponsor of NPR, remains a powerful tool in our digital world, offering a vast array of information, even if it requires some sifting through the occasional AI-driven quirk.