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Google Businesses IT

Google Tweak Creates Crisis for Product-Review Sites (wsj.com) 27

Google changed its rules around how product-review sites appear in its search engine. In the process, it devastated a once-lucrative corner [non-paywalled source] of the news media world. From a report: Sites including CNN Underscored and Forbes Vetted offer tips on everything from mattresses and knife sets to savings accounts, making money when users click on links and buy products.

They depend on Google to drive much of their traffic, and therefore revenue. But over the past year, Google created stricter rules that dinged certain sites that farm out articles to freelancers, among other things. The goal, Google has said, was to give users higher-quality search results. The outcome was a crisis for some sites. Traffic for Forbes Advisor, a personal-finance recommendation site, fell 83% in January from the same month the year before, according to data firm Similarweb.

CNN Underscored and Buy Side from WSJ, which is operated by Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, were both down by more than 25% in that period. Time magazine's Time Stamped and the Associated Press's AP Buyline, powered by Taboola Turnkey Commerce, ended their efforts in recent months. Taboola closed the commerce operation.

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Google Tweak Creates Crisis for Product-Review Sites

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  • by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Friday February 28, 2025 @11:28AM (#65201131) Homepage

    CNN Underscored reviews are barely-disguised infomercials. I don't know anything about Buy Side, but I suspect it's no better. "Review Sites" aren't what they used to be. I applaud Google's change.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Useful review sites - like Consumer Reports, PCMag, and some others - actually pay knowledgeable writers and analysts to survey a class of products, use them, and write honest reviews. The hack fake-review sites and YouTubes bury the good stuff!

    • True... But about 8 years ago I did a lot of on-line research into microwaves, including a Consumer Reports subscription. I found the CR top rated brand also had a clear history of catching fire. And I also read their reviews of various computers, a topic where I know enough to have an independent opinion. Again their reviews didn't match my knowledge/experience. That pretty much eliminated my faith in the value (for the cost) of CR reviews. Thus these days I go for 'quantity', looking for trends across

      • by JimMcc ( 31079 )

        I stopped trusting CR many years ago based on a car review. They significantly downgraded what was generally accepted as a great car because the hatchback didn't open high enough, and somebody might hit their head on the corner of it. Yes, it's a valid point. Making it a significant factor not to recommend the car was ridiculous.

        • by micheas ( 231635 )

          I stopped trusting CR many years ago based on a car review. They significantly downgraded what was generally accepted as a great car because the hatchback didn't open high enough, and somebody might hit their head on the corner of it. Yes, it's a valid point. Making it a significant factor not to recommend the car was ridiculous.

          For most things at least they are consistent in their reviews.

          Cars on the other hand CR has a history of changing the results and testing methodology until they get the results they want.

          The Suziki Samari was disliked by CR so they modified the test dozens of times to get it to roll over. Initially for Driver assistance how well the system did about warning the driver and centering the car in the lane was almost 70% of the score, as they started to be more and more anti Tesla Autopilot they dropped the p

      • I have similar experiences with CR reviews on products I know about. CR tends to miss key failures and features. Reviews by anyone are only useful if they point out something you missed, good or bad. Usually more helpful if bad.

      • Was it a dual-action microwave/grill?
        • Not in intent, but certainly in effect. The problem was that it turned into a single-use appliance in grille mode.

  • Good product reviews are hard to find. And for the past 7 or so years, I'm usually probing Reddit or YouTube for reviews that seem like they're written by actual humans. Maybe Google wants to actually fix things?
  • Google wanted to improve search results for users.

  • Nobody sane buys from sites advertised on or through Google or anything else "click" related. We all do our best to avoid these. Also anything in the search results listed as "Sponsored" is simply ignored now.

  • Yet again, Google goes after another competitor in the name of "quality".

    Remember classified ads in the newspaper? Or the Sunday Parade section that was full of suspiciously "new products". This is just the webs version of it. Why shouldn't CNN be entitled to the same option?

    So, lets get real, this is Google attacking an ad competitor.

  • by Sebby ( 238625 )

    The goal, Google has said, was to give users higher-quality search results

    LoL! "Google" and "quality search results" are now mutually exclusive. Have been for a long time.

  • If they cared about "high-quality" they would have ditched Yelp years ago.

  • by Visarga ( 1071662 ) on Friday February 28, 2025 @12:17PM (#65201269)
    Those sites are leaching off main site PageRank to get huge traffic. The quality is no better than spam. Google made a good choice.
  • This is actually genius not only is it consumer positive, it also makes them more money. This is how it should be
    • "consumer positive" ONLY to the degree you trust Google to make the "right" decisions about which sites they promote/demote. With only 2 actual data sets (Google and Bing), it's increasingly likely that ALL internet searches are "mediated" (the polite word, "censored" would be equally accurate) by either Google or Microsoft.

      • by Idzy ( 1549809 )
        Consumer positive because none of the review sites are any good and are just monetization farms. as someone else mentioned I would much prefer the result of a search be the manufacturer.
  • good (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't want to see any of that fucking slop. If I search for "tabloid color laser printers" I want every single result to be a link to a manufacturer's web site, or a page on a store that lists those products specifically. I don't want a bunch of inkjet printer "review" sites.
  • It wasn't long ago I couldn't find more than 8 different reviews for very popular products. So the rest were copies, transliterations, or facsimiles.

    Besides, many reviews are just written by someone butthurt because they didn't read the quick start.

The time spent on any item of the agenda [of a finance committee] will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved. -- C.N. Parkinson

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