
Posts on Google - r-w
https://posts.withgoogle.com/
======
slimsag
This is really worrying.

For the vast majority of the population, these are just going to look like
regular Google search results.

My parents won't think "these are posts by someone managing this", they're
just going to think "Google says this is the best information about my
search".

So you're a politician, what are you going to do? Of course you're going to
make yourself look like a saint with these posts.

You're a game company.. of course you're going to post "reviews" that are
totally unbiased here.

This is dangerous.

~~~
izacus
I'm not sure I follow - how is that different than having every
polititian/company ability to just create a website with a review and enter
search results in that way?

~~~
kumarvvr
Those results are governed by page rank.

Google is essentially allowing people and orgs to bypass the ranking
algorithm.

~~~
jonnyscholes
Not really - these posts are part of the knowledge graph box (which can
already be controlled by a company if it's a company result). They aren't
mixed in with the actual search results (although on mobile the knowledge
graph box can appear above a search results depending on the search/context).

~~~
kumarvvr
As per my understanding, the knowledge graph box is something output from an
AI sort of system. A company can correct some results if they are factually
wrong, I guess.

What Google is proposing now is for individuals and organizations to directly
supply content for it to be shown on top of search results. Now who will check
the information provided to Google? What is to stop a government from
spreading false news on Google?

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stevenjohns
So that I'm not misunderstanding, this is going to allow brand owners to
manage the data that comes up on the right-hand panel during a Google search?

I don't think that's too bad. Especially if Google hasn't crawled the data
correctly or references outdated information. I imagine Google will limit any
"advertising" (i.e companies giving marketing bio's instead of factual bio's
from Wikipedia) that might take place there if they're not monetising it.
Although it does open the option for them to do it in the future, which is a
worry.

~~~
jonnyscholes
Yes :) Companies have actually been able to manage the details that come up in
the knowledge graph box for a while now via Google My Business. Posts now
allow you to add updates from the company to that box.

Which as someone who had been asked to fix wrong information in Google search
results dozens of times over the years is a god send!

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ObsoleteNerd
Google is less and less a search engine, and more and more a Compuserve/AOL
content portal designed to keep you on their sites.

I'm pretty sure if Google's current form was a different company doing it,
Google would rate them as a blogspam/contentfarm and derank them.

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B1FF_PSUVM
So, I tried the "already verified? post now" link, and got:

 _" Switch accounts to publish on Google Search You're currently signed in as
B1FF@gmail.com [not really]. This account doesn't have permission to publish
on Google Search."_

Looks like a channel for businesses and public figures, in competition with FB
pages or Twtr posts.

It's funny, because back in 1997 Google search took off because of good
results AND not having the top of the presented page full of crap. Someone is
spending goodwill like it won't run out ...

~~~
otabdeveloper2
It won't. Google owns the Internet. What are you going to do? Leave and start
your own internet? Get real.

~~~
fenwick67
Google is popular and has a big web presence but they are easily replaced in
many cases (especially search)

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tobr
I hope DuckDuckGo gets a lot better really soon. Things like this and the AMP
debacle make me more and more distrusting of search results. Unfortunately,
Google is still so much faster and more relevant than DDG.

~~~
snaky
> DuckDuckGo gets a lot better

That's highly unlikely. You need a _huge_ money to build and operate the
search engine comparable to Google. There is another route though - to build
something like Blekko engine, but it requires a big amount of help from the
users.

~~~
mmt
> There is another route though - to build something like Blekko engine, but
> it requires a big amount of help from the users.

Considering that Blekko was, ultimately, shut down, users may be less inclined
to contribute to something similar in the future, assuming they remember.

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baloki
Isn’t this just an extension of Structured Data which could already be used to
generate such cards, but now to make it so people don’t actually visit your
site and just stay on Google instead?

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nmstoker
It's bizarre to try to motivate people to use this (even those paid for it,
like brand managers) whilst being completely vague about how it works end-to-
end.

Imagine if TV advertisers had been like "Well you record an ad, pay us and we
do something with that... transmission... blah di blah... Hand Wavey"!

~~~
cmroanirgo
I think it's the underpants gnomes profit model[0]:

Step 1. Collect underpants

Step 2. ???

Step 3. Profit

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts)

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kumarvvr
That's a very large area of the screen dedicated to content other than search
results.

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vortico
How does this work? I tried searching "Liverpool F.C." and "Survivor" on
Google and nothing unusual shows up. It is a future feature?

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sebastianavina
So, at some point I want to search about "kavanaugh" on google, and it turns
out that kavanaugh's social manager already doctored a great landing page for
his name...

I don't know, it seems like a great feature, but we are loosing the essence of
the internet.

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hguhghuff
I don’t understand what it is.

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nmca
Is Google Yelp now?

~~~
emmelaich
It has been for a while; I trust Google reviews more than Yelp or many other
review sites.

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fenwick67
AOL keywords, anybody?

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justplay
google is getting too desperate about user data, google want there user to use
google post rather then yelp or facebook. good going google.

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mudil
Here's exciting "new" way from our Google overlords to fleece creators of
content and spy on the audience. What else is new under the sun?

