Forum/blog scrapers are pissing me off.

[SagaLore]

Lately as I google for information on specific opensource projects, the first few pages is nothing but sites that scrape information off other forums, blogs, email groups, and q&a sites - but then when you open it, it doesn't give you everything, it is just a bunch of unrelated intros, or worse it doesn't show you the answer and makes you have to register to see it.

WTF.

I especially dislike this "alternative.to" site. It is like they have a monopoly on any phrase with "versus" in it.

 

[SandEagle]

site traffic; ad revenues

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Lately as I google for information on specific opensource projects, the first few pages is nothing but sites that scrape information off other forums, blogs, email groups, and q&a sites - but then when you open it, it doesn't give you everything, it is just a bunch of unrelated intros, or worse it doesn't show you the answer and makes you have to register to see it.

WTF.

I especially dislike this "alternative.to" site. It is like they have a monopoly on any phrase with "versus" in it.

It's not the site, it's Google. Learn Boolean searches and keep a template in Notepad.

 

[Wyndru]

Is it possible you have malware on your PC? I had this happen to me recently and it was because there was a piece of malware modifying google's search results (basically redirecting to a fake google page), so the results were all for some annoying "answers" page, I think it was ifixit.com or something. It made the first few pages of results useless.

Once I removed the malware it went back to normal.

 

[IronWing]

It's like no matter what you search for on craigslist you get car ads. Do dealers really think this works? "I see you're looking for a partner to try out your new double sized dancing butt plugs with, I bet you'd like to buy a brand new Nissan!"

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't had problems. There's garbage with the good stuff, but that's expected.

 

[Hacp]

I haven't had problems. There's garbage with the good stuff, but that's expected.

The reason why google became so popular is because they managed to filter out all the garbage and give you good stuff for sometimes 4-5 pages! Now, I am lucky to get past the first page and find something good. I know google has the best engineers out there, but if someone finds a way to get 4-5 pages of good searches consistently, google will be in for a lot of trouble.

 

[OutHouse]

ive run into this when looking up issues for work and it seems to be getting worse.. i find something that is somewhat close to my problem and its the original but as i keep searching i find that other people have copied and pasted what i just found onto their own blog or forum... pisses me off.

 

[SaurusX]

One site that always seems to come up when I have a tech question that needs answering in Experts Exchange. Who the hell is going to pay $$ to MAYBE get a single question answered? Their site compounds the aggravation by having the question you need on top and the answer blurred out below. Stupid.

 

[OutHouse]

One site that always seems to come up when I have a tech question that needs answering in Experts Exchange. Who the hell is going to pay $$ to MAYBE get a single question answered? Their site compounds the aggravation by having the question you need on top and the answer blurred out below. Stupid.

scroll down.... the answers are there.

oh and a fyi. their URL used to be expertsexchange.com lol

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I especially dislike this "alternative.to" site. It is like they have a monopoly on any phrase with "versus" in it.

Alternative.to is awesome. It's a great way to find apps when you're working with multiple platforms.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

1. Keep track of recurring bullshit sites.
2. Copy and past their URL into Notepad.
3. Put the word "not" in front of each URL and save.
4. Input your search and append the Notepad file.

Just like magic, you will never get hits from those sites again. Think of it as clicking past annoying ads.

 

[Ichinisan]

Is it possible you have malware on your PC? I had this happen to me recently and it was because there was a piece of malware modifying google's search results (basically redirecting to a fake google page), so the results were all for some annoying "answers" page, I think it was ifixit.com or something. It made the first few pages of results useless.

Once I removed the malware it went back to normal.

ifixit.com is legit and useful.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

ifixit.com is legit and useful.

This totally.

 

[KeithTalent]

http://forums.anandtech.com/announcement.php?f=14&a=61

KT

 

[Wyndru]

ifixit.com is legit and useful.

It's probably not the one I was thinking then. The one I got results for reminded me of a yahoo answers, but a much crappier and disorganized layout. I'm not about to try and find it now though, I'd rather not get infected again.


Instead of answers, it just repeats your google search term in the form of a question, and provides random links as answers..links that have nothing to do with your question, and probably malware filled pages.

 

[Markbnj]

Google needs to put that results blocking feature back up. When they first rolled it out I immediately blocked Experts Exchange, Ask.com, and a few other sites. It does seem to me that lately useless content farm links are more often at the top of Google's results. I thought they just did some things that were supposed to make it harder to game their results?

 

[Ichinisan]

It's probably not the one I was thinking then. The one I got results for reminded me of a yahoo answers, but a much crappier and disorganized layout. I'm not about to try and find it now though, I'd rather not get infected again.


Instead of answers, it just repeats your google search term in the form of a question, and provides random links as answers..links that have nothing to do with your question, and probably malware filled pages.

Probably something like "fixya" or "wikihow." Never got a single useful result from them.

 

[TwiceOver]

Google needs to put that results blocking feature back up. When they first rolled it out I immediately blocked Experts Exchange, Ask.com, and a few other sites. It does seem to me that lately useless content farm links are more often at the top of Google's results. I thought they just did some things that were supposed to make it harder to game their results?

You know you can just scroll to the bottom of Experts Exchange and see the rest of the posts, right? I find useful stuff there (via search only) every now and again.

The ones I hate are like "Big Resource" fuck that place.

 

[Markbnj]

You know you can just scroll to the bottom of Experts Exchange and see the rest of the posts, right? I find useful stuff there (via search only) every now and again.

The ones I hate are like "Big Resource" fuck that place.

Honestly I stopped even reading them years ago, but at that time it was "Sign in to see the rest of this answer for free!"

Basically my philosophy is that if I search something on Google, click on a top result, and get redirected to any kind of wall then I never want to see that site in my search results again.

 

[Ichinisan]

You know you can just scroll to the bottom of Experts Exchange and see the rest of the posts, right? I find useful stuff there (via search only) every now and again.

The ones I hate are like "Big Resource" fuck that place.

I think that only works if you are looking at the Google cached version of the EE page.

 

[TwiceOver]

I think that only works if you are looking at the Google cached version of the EE page.

Not that I've noticed. I can't even figure out how to get to the google cache page anymore.

 

[JEDI]

1. Keep track of recurring bullshit sites.
2. Copy and past their URL into Notepad.
3. Put the word "not" in front of each URL and save.
4. Input your search and append the Notepad file.

Just like magic, you will never get hits from those sites again. Think of it as clicking past annoying ads.

what? how does google interact with your notepad file?!

 

[TwiceOver]

what? how does google interact with your notepad file?!

Rather than "Append" I think he meant copy and paste.

 

[Muse]

It's not the site, it's Google. Learn Boolean searches and keep a template in Notepad.

Link?