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Google PR account pushes back on claims they replace queries for ads. Claims they "look beyond the specific words in a query" and use ad keyword matching. (nitter.net)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by ram@bookwormstory.social to c/technology@lemmy.ml

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ghostarchive
context^[^^ghostarchive^^]^

An opinion piece recently appeared stating that Google “just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better.” We don’t. The piece contains serious inaccuracies about how Google Search works. The organic (IE: non-sponsored) results you see in Search are not affected by our ads systems.

In particular, the piece seems to misunderstand how keyword matching is related to showing relevant ads on Google Search.

Ad keyword matching is a long-standing and well-known process that is designed to connect people to relevant ads. Learn more here:
^[^^ghostarchive^^]^ https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7478529

A separate process, which has nothing to do with ads, is used to match organic results to a query, as explained here:
^[^^archive.org^^]^ https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/
It’s no secret that Google Search looks beyond the specific words in a query to better understand their meaning, in order to show relevant organic results. This is a helpful process that we’ve written about many times:

^[^^archive.org^^]^ https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/
^[^^archive.org^^]^ https://blog.google/products/search/search-language-understanding-bert/
^[^^archive.org^^]^ https://blog.google/products/search/how-ai-powers-great-search-results/

^[^^archive.org^^]^ https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-breakthroughs-over-25-years/
This ensures that Google Search can better show people organic results and connect them to helpful resources. If you make a spelling mistake, or search for a term that’s not on a page but where the page has a close synonym, or if you aren’t even sure exactly how to search for something, our meaning matching systems help.

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[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I would rag on Google here, but if you read this entire mastadon thread, other people have already done a golden ass job of taking Google to task for this propaganda.

[–] Specific_Skunk@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I guessed I’ve missed that so far. Who?

[–] BitSound@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

The biggest problem is, who can tell if they're telling the truth, and ensure that it continues to be true? Not the general public, that's for sure. This is why we need regulation with auditors.

[–] nathris@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago

Remember when Google said that if the result you wanted wasn't on the first page that they had failed?

The problem is the first page is now 2 sponsored links, a widget suggesting 10 YouTube videos, 5 search results for a related search, and two actual search results for the thing you are looking for.

We almost need a browser widget that appends &page=2 to any google search result.