Why Reddit’s ‘dark’ protest have Google Search users unhappy, and what’s Google’s ‘perspective’ – Times of India

Earlier this month, Reddit communities went on a ‘dark’ protest, shutting their doors to outsiders. Even though some subreddits are back online, Google Search users have still not been able to find relevant results with “Reddit” in their search queries, growing frustration among the Search users.
Several search result pages have become unavailable or due to the moderators of popular forums making their pages private as part of a widespread protest against Reddit’s decision to charge developers for data access.
Google Search users want answers instead of “blue links”
During a companywide meeting, a worker asked if Google could improve the visibility of “authentic discussions” due to difficulties finding such content after the “Reddit blackout.” CEO Sundar Pichai responded by stating that users prefer “more comprehensive answers” over just “blue links. “He added further, “That is why they add the name of forum sites like Reddit to their searches.”
Perspectives to be the face of Search at Google
Google recently introduced a new feature called Perspectives to address an issue. This feature is now available on mobile web and the Google app in the US, and aims to provide discussion forums and videos from social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Quora.
HJ Kim, the Vice President of Engineering in Search, mentioned that users have a desire for more content from sites like Reddit. To address this request, the company has been working on a feature called Perspectives tab, but Kim acknowledged that there is still room for improvement.
Google’s senior vice president, Prabhakar Raghavan, shared during the all-hands meeting that the company is working on improving search results by displaying helpful resources without users having to add “Reddit” to their searches. Raghavan recognized that users had expressed frustration with the current search experience.
During the meeting, an employee expressed concerns about negative user feedback due to excessive ads and irrelevant results. The employee asked Raghavan for suggestions on how to enhance the user experience on Google’s core product, which has become a household name, as per a report from CNBC.
“Many of you may wonder how we have a search team that’s iterating and building all this new stuff and yet somehow, users are still not quite happy,” Raghavan said. “We need to make users happy.”
Raghavan emphasised that while AI is a priority for the company, it is not the only solution to this challenge. Google is experimenting with different approaches, including Perspectives. Raghavan stressed the importance of keeping up with new and emerging needs and doing a better job of addressing them.