It is sad to me that in 2024 if I search "Moby-Dick by Herman Melville" (no quotes) on Google, the free Project Gutenberg ebook isn't even in the top ten results
Darius Kazemi
It is sad to me that in 2024 if I search "Moby-Dick by Herman Melville" (no quotes) on Google, the free Project Gutenberg ebook isn't even in the top ten results 28 comments
Darius Kazemi
We launched Google Ads in 2000 in an effort to make a lot of money. While the product has a loyal following among Senior Vice Presidents, over the years we've made enough money. So, on July 1, 2025 we will sunset Google Ads.
Jonobie
@darius if you havenโt read Cory Doctorowโs (@pluralistic) blog today, you might โฆ well, โenjoy itโ isnโt quite the right term. But it might be interesting and relatable today. Itโs about the free fall of Google search: https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#vapor-locksmith
Darius Kazemi
@jessamyn yeah it was right under the fold for me. Really glad they surfaced a $215,000 rare edition in the top 5, very useful
Jessamyn
@darius I like to think one of the benefits of being a billionaire is you can tell Google just what search results you want and it listens. #LateStageCapitalism
Rachel Greenham
@darius @anildash these days for old books i tend to go first to Standard EBooks https://standardebooks.org (and yes, Moby Dick is there ๐ณ)
๐๐ฒ
@darius two ads, a wikipedia summary, a couple more sites and then Gutenberg. IDK why anyone still uses google search in this decade https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Moby-Dick+by+Herman+Melville&ia=web
Darius Kazemi
@enobacon I mean if you add full text on Google it's number one, no ads at all. I've used Google and DDG and both really suck and it pains me
Richard Eriksson :thinkerguns:
@darius Iโm going to use my mid-2000s (the decade) SEO knowledge and do something about that!
Darwin Woodka
@darius I learned the "before:" trick yesterday, If you search with "before:2020" for example it removes some of the SEO fuckery. Works if you're looking for more internet historical things and know roughly the date you're after.
Renรฉ Seindal
@darius On Google after Wikipedia I get online booksellers, for the next thirty-forty results at least. On ddg Gutenberg is in the top ten, after some different language Wikipedia entries.
Bill Seitz
@darius also irksome: the difficulty in finding non-ecom-site review-posts for a book. (I prefer blog posts or MSM reviews over stream-posts to GoodReads, Amazon, etc)
Duncan Lock
@darius It's at #3, after Wikipedia and Britannica, which seems reasonable.
Steve Thompson
DuckDuckGo: Three text ads at top, image row, then Gutenberg piece listed six down but Wikipedia box prominent in right sidebar at top. |
@darius On DuckDuck it's beneath a stack of summaries aimed at middleschoolers cheating on their homework. ๐