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Just realized how much my search results changed after 3 years of clicking everything
Back in 2021 I used to Google stuff and get normal results like Wikipedia and news sites. Now after clicking random blog posts and shopping links for 3 years, my results are totally different. Yesterday I searched for a simple recipe and got 5 sponsored results and 3 Pinterest pins before any actual recipe website. It's like the algorithm trained itself on my lazy clicking habits. Has anyone else noticed their search results got way less useful over time?
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abbychen4d ago
Oh yeah I read somewhere that Google's algorithm basically just rewards engagement now instead of accuracy. Your clicks train it even if you hate the results you're getting, which is a real bummer.
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kai6574d ago
My buddy runs a small bakery and swears Google keeps surfacing this one random article about his gluten-free muffins from 2017 instead of his actual menu page. People click it, then bounce off confused and probably annoyed, but Google just sees more clicks and thinks "hey this is popular stuff." It's like that old internet joke about feeding the trolls, except the troll is a search engine and you're feeding it your own frustration. The algorithm doesn't know the difference between a useful click and a spammy one, it just wants that dopamine hit of interaction.
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