Microsoft was caught testing way too many ads on its Bing Search results page. I saw 9 ads and only two organic/free listings on the page for a query on [garage door repair].

  • raptir@lemmy.zip
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    1 hour ago

    Two of the ads are for the same company, and that company is also one of the two organic results.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Gross but also… kinda curious from an A/B testing perspective to know when the user drop off happens. Kind of like, what’s the pain threshold before someone stops using shitty software. The answer really should be zero but the average user… ugh, it’s probably fucking 8 or 9 and we should be ashamed.

    Too bad is Bing so the sample size is too small for any meaningful results.

    • Tea@programming.devOP
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      10 hours ago

      Next up they might test making the whole first page for ads, and the pages after that for search results.

      • wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        Hell, why even have organic search results at all? Just rank results by how much each site owner is willing to bribe pay. A protection racket for the 21st century.

        “That’s a nice website you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if it got no visitors.”

          • wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee
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            8 hours ago

            While I don’t mind laissez-faire in principle, that not my favorite anarcho-flavor and I don’t wanna :)

            • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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              7 hours ago

              I am empathetic to wanting to be left alone. I am disturbed by their desire to tear down systems that protect others out of some a historic notion that we would be better off with out them

  • Enelop@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    This is what Google and Amazon already do, why are they singling out Bing?

    Use an advertisement blocker on either site and the entire experience seems foreign.