Weirdly, I read this as “Reddit doesn’t think it needs search engines,” and was confused about seeing everyone discussing Google specifically. That’s a bit stupid to try to block only the one search engine.
Sounds like more gross incompetence from the Elon Musk playbook, whom spez idolizes because he’s also an incompetent fucking bozo. Oh well, fools and their money and all that.
We have been making some exciting changes to ready the company for our public offering. Please read on for the exciting details.
First, we want to reassure investors that we’ve worked hard since June, 2023 to alienate our most active users, who have been cluttering Reddit with non-profitable, straightforward discussion and help for years, and ensure that users cannot access our platform with reliable, convenient smartphone apps.
And we know it’s not enough to merely insult the people who have donated substantial parts of their lives to make our platform valuable; we’re also planning for the future. As you may have recently heard, we’re introducing a system to directly pay users who reliably produce the most attention-grabbing clickbait content. We are confident this will ensure that if those long-time users ever feel like returning, they will only find a hellscape of low-effort, reheated viral content and memes, accompanied by consistent, reliable comment sections of karma-farming bots and users.
But there’s more! We today announce that search engine users eventually will not be able to locate anything on the site, consistent with the existing experience for current on-site Reddit users. We know that a curated, managed experience is what most reliably leads to happy investors, so rest assured, we will be slowly cutting off all avenues for users to direct their own experience on Reddit. Yay!
As the IPO day nears, remember: when we are finished only the worst content will be available by an audience who can’t find us. Our core audience will be the users who remain trapped, Clockwork Orange-style, in an endless cycle of stimulation triggers structured to maximize ad viewing, in order to ensure our investors capture the maximum proportion of the site’s rapidly diminishing value. In other words, get ready to maximize ARPU, investors!
With these changes, invest with confidence. With geniuses like us at the helm, you can be sure line goes up.
Reddit’s big claim to fame is having results show up in Google searches. Removing it would probably hurt Reddit (and to some extent Google). I’m just hoping that enough content gets indexed by Google for Lemmy and similar sites, as the best content creators don’t just reside on Reddit.
Does Reddit not realise that their own internal search is so bad most people will search for answers on Reddit via Google. They’re gonna shoot themselves hard-core in thd foot pulling that move.
And vice versa! Google search results are so terrible, but if you add “reddit” to the end you get a relevant community with a conversation almost always addressing literally the exact question you have. Both are pretty useless by theirselves (is that a word?) now, but together they’re actually really powerful. What a dumb move.
Whelp with that I guess my leaving Reddit will go from 99% to 100%. Literally the only reason I’ve ever on that site is because I have a Google search result now. It was the last useful thing about it. Google has terrible results now and Reddit search is useless. They only work when together.
I will believe that Google can figure out a way to filter the spam – I mean, beating the spammers was their core value-add that made them what they are today. The spammers have pulled well ahead for maybe a year, but Google can maybe figure out a way to pull ahead again.
But there is no way that Reddit is going to be a reasonable forum site without a way to search it. Maybe it doesn’t have to be Google, but they have to have something sane.
Even aside from people searching, some people contribute specifically so that the information they provide can be found by people searching down the line. If it’s just going to a black hole…
I just don’t think Google cares anymore. They don’t have any legitimate competition. Their web browser dominates, their search is literally a verb now, and nobody’s changing anytime soon. The search has been terrible for a solid two years now and I just don’t see it getting any better. They have incentivized an entire industry designed to push low effort noise to the top for over a decade. It would take an unbelievable amount of work and dismantling said industry, or at least heavily augmenting it, to right the ship again.
I have. It’s pretty good. I still use Firefox for most stuff, and like 5% of sites that I visit break in Orion, but other than that it’s very clean and easy. I like the side tabs, but it doesn’t completely replace Firefox for me yet. Seems close though!!!
Beyond not using reddit, and only landing on reddit when a search engine leads me to it directly, I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.
None, to be honest. Google had the best 3-5 years ago. Downhill currently. I use DDG for privacy and just have to work a little harder to find what I want.
There’s one paid one I’ve seen people on HN recommend but it seems pretty fringe and more about being open source than being as good as google. Supposedly decent though. Can’t remember the name unfortunately.
Kagi is probably the paid one you have seen but it’s not open source. And it’s way better results. I make maybe 1 extra search for every 30 searches now compared to google where it was getting up to 3-5 extra searches every time I did a single search. Not sure of a better metric other than that.
While Reddit is atrocious without Google, Google is my Reddit search engine, given how its algo is gamed. I miss the day when I could get more than 50 pages of results and still found something useful from some really obscure sites. Now it just stops you after a few pages.
This would be so fucking annoying, I don’t use reddit day to day anymore but it’s still a useful research tool when I see results from it on Google. I don’t hate their search feature quite as much as some but I still don’t want to use it most of the time.
This seems so dumb for them to do, I feel like having their content listed on search engines is s major advantage they have over Facebook et al.
Public Facebook posts are indexed in Google. I think public groups are too. There’s just so much content (given how much larger Facebook is) that I doubt Google actually indexes every single public post.
Well, that depends on how they implement the block, if its by domain or a blanket block (which would make sense, but I’ve seen weirder shit done online)
Right; they mostly use Bing. Bing is the largest search engine that has an official API, so the majority of services that need search functionality use it, including voice assistants like Siri and Bixby, smaller search engines like DuckDuckGo, etc.
That reminds me. Should make double sure to blank all my comments, just the other day they banned me from another subreddit, seems like some are still re-opening, re-automodding, or whatever.
lol I also just got a shockingly random ban from a sub with a toxic mod. It made me realize what a stupid place it is. I’m pretty much never on there and now that subscriptions for the API are becoming required, I’ll never go on mobile again. It’ll basically be a thing that I just look at in front of a computer periodically
I’ve just noticed, that some of the communities have switched to archiving posts, meaning the comments can no longer be edited or deleted. Others still haven’t, and indeed some comments have resurfaced, so I guess it’s a time to have another go at the tools.
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Am I the only one that regularly used “search phrase site:reddit.com” on Google? It makes the search engine so much better.
Really bad idea to get rid of this feature.
definitely not, i used this a ton too. it’s obvious reddit is just getting greedy
Weirdly, I read this as “Reddit doesn’t think it needs search engines,” and was confused about seeing everyone discussing Google specifically. That’s a bit stupid to try to block only the one search engine.
Sounds like more gross incompetence from the Elon Musk playbook, whom spez idolizes because he’s also an incompetent fucking bozo. Oh well, fools and their money and all that.
Dear Investors to Reddit’s upcoming IPO
We have been making some exciting changes to ready the company for our public offering. Please read on for the exciting details.
First, we want to reassure investors that we’ve worked hard since June, 2023 to alienate our most active users, who have been cluttering Reddit with non-profitable, straightforward discussion and help for years, and ensure that users cannot access our platform with reliable, convenient smartphone apps.
And we know it’s not enough to merely insult the people who have donated substantial parts of their lives to make our platform valuable; we’re also planning for the future. As you may have recently heard, we’re introducing a system to directly pay users who reliably produce the most attention-grabbing clickbait content. We are confident this will ensure that if those long-time users ever feel like returning, they will only find a hellscape of low-effort, reheated viral content and memes, accompanied by consistent, reliable comment sections of karma-farming bots and users.
But there’s more! We today announce that search engine users eventually will not be able to locate anything on the site, consistent with the existing experience for current on-site Reddit users. We know that a curated, managed experience is what most reliably leads to happy investors, so rest assured, we will be slowly cutting off all avenues for users to direct their own experience on Reddit. Yay!
As the IPO day nears, remember: when we are finished only the worst content will be available by an audience who can’t find us. Our core audience will be the users who remain trapped, Clockwork Orange-style, in an endless cycle of stimulation triggers structured to maximize ad viewing, in order to ensure our investors capture the maximum proportion of the site’s rapidly diminishing value. In other words, get ready to maximize ARPU, investors!
With these changes, invest with confidence. With geniuses like us at the helm, you can be sure line goes up.
Long live daddy Spez. Well said, looking forward to the IPO based on this.
You know what depresses me the most about the current world situation? That it might be go well after all anyway
Reddit who?
Reddit’s big claim to fame is having results show up in Google searches. Removing it would probably hurt Reddit (and to some extent Google). I’m just hoping that enough content gets indexed by Google for Lemmy and similar sites, as the best content creators don’t just reside on Reddit.
Yeah that’s a bluff. Google searches surely make up a huge portion of their traffic.
I don’t think they can.
Does Reddit not realise that their own internal search is so bad most people will search for answers on Reddit via Google. They’re gonna shoot themselves hard-core in thd foot pulling that move.
And vice versa! Google search results are so terrible, but if you add “reddit” to the end you get a relevant community with a conversation almost always addressing literally the exact question you have. Both are pretty useless by theirselves (is that a word?) now, but together they’re actually really powerful. What a dumb move.
*themselves.
I must’ve been having a serious brain fart lol
Heh, it happens to the best of us.
that’s literally the only reason i still end up visiting the site after I left it
Same, sometimes Google sends me to Reddit, it’s the only visits they get from me
Whelp with that I guess my leaving Reddit will go from 99% to 100%. Literally the only reason I’ve ever on that site is because I have a Google search result now. It was the last useful thing about it. Google has terrible results now and Reddit search is useless. They only work when together.
I will believe that Google can figure out a way to filter the spam – I mean, beating the spammers was their core value-add that made them what they are today. The spammers have pulled well ahead for maybe a year, but Google can maybe figure out a way to pull ahead again.
But there is no way that Reddit is going to be a reasonable forum site without a way to search it. Maybe it doesn’t have to be Google, but they have to have something sane.
Even aside from people searching, some people contribute specifically so that the information they provide can be found by people searching down the line. If it’s just going to a black hole…
I just don’t think Google cares anymore. They don’t have any legitimate competition. Their web browser dominates, their search is literally a verb now, and nobody’s changing anytime soon. The search has been terrible for a solid two years now and I just don’t see it getting any better. They have incentivized an entire industry designed to push low effort noise to the top for over a decade. It would take an unbelievable amount of work and dismantling said industry, or at least heavily augmenting it, to right the ship again.
What’s a “good” search engine these days?
Kagi.
Have you used Orion? Any good?
I have. It’s pretty good. I still use Firefox for most stuff, and like 5% of sites that I visit break in Orion, but other than that it’s very clean and easy. I like the side tabs, but it doesn’t completely replace Firefox for me yet. Seems close though!!!
Beyond not using reddit, and only landing on reddit when a search engine leads me to it directly, I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.
None, to be honest. Google had the best 3-5 years ago. Downhill currently. I use DDG for privacy and just have to work a little harder to find what I want.
There’s one paid one I’ve seen people on HN recommend but it seems pretty fringe and more about being open source than being as good as google. Supposedly decent though. Can’t remember the name unfortunately.
Kagi is probably the paid one you have seen but it’s not open source. And it’s way better results. I make maybe 1 extra search for every 30 searches now compared to google where it was getting up to 3-5 extra searches every time I did a single search. Not sure of a better metric other than that.
Appreciate the info!
Yeah, I’m not specifically beating up on Google. No search engines are beating the spammers right now.
BFWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
While Reddit is atrocious without Google, Google is my Reddit search engine, given how its algo is gamed. I miss the day when I could get more than 50 pages of results and still found something useful from some really obscure sites. Now it just stops you after a few pages.
Oh no that is a very bad idea. Google search is the only way to find things on reddit
This would be so fucking annoying, I don’t use reddit day to day anymore but it’s still a useful research tool when I see results from it on Google. I don’t hate their search feature quite as much as some but I still don’t want to use it most of the time.
This seems so dumb for them to do, I feel like having their content listed on search engines is s major advantage they have over Facebook et al.
Public Facebook posts are indexed in Google. I think public groups are too. There’s just so much content (given how much larger Facebook is) that I doubt Google actually indexes every single public post.
Duckduckgo
Fog, DuckDuckGo is bonkers useless for Reddit search
Never had an issue, but I guess to each their own
Search query site:reddit.com has entered the chatIf they block Google, they will likely block DDG an every other search engine.
You’ll probably need to be logged in to see anything with rate limits so bots can’t crawl the site.
Well, that depends on how they implement the block, if its by domain or a blanket block (which would make sense, but I’ve seen weirder shit done online)
I don’t think DDG runs its own indexer. It’s a frontend to other search engines.
Right; they mostly use Bing. Bing is the largest search engine that has an official API, so the majority of services that need search functionality use it, including voice assistants like Siri and Bixby, smaller search engines like DuckDuckGo, etc.
That reminds me. Should make double sure to blank all my comments, just the other day they banned me from another subreddit, seems like some are still re-opening, re-automodding, or whatever.
lol I also just got a shockingly random ban from a sub with a toxic mod. It made me realize what a stupid place it is. I’m pretty much never on there and now that subscriptions for the API are becoming required, I’ll never go on mobile again. It’ll basically be a thing that I just look at in front of a computer periodically
I’ve been googling my old username every now&then, and keep finding comments that the “forget me” tools didn’t delete.
I’ve just noticed, that some of the communities have switched to archiving posts, meaning the comments can no longer be edited or deleted. Others still haven’t, and indeed some comments have resurfaced, so I guess it’s a time to have another go at the tools.