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So The Verge has an article[^] right now from the Google trial that's currently underway. They included a sample of "the most lucrative search queries" for a given week. They (well, Google) claim that, based on the sample week for September 22nd 2018, the top queries ordered by revenue consisted of:
iphone 8
iphone 8 plus
auto insurance
car insurance
cheap flights
car insurance quotes
direct tv
online colleges
at&t
hulu
iphone
uber
spectrum
comcast
xfinity
insurance quotes
free credit report
cheap car insurance
aarp
lifelock
If that's the case, man, I guess I just never learned how you're supposed to use Google, and they must hate my guts. For the most part, these can all be categorized as "things people search for because they're buying something".
Honestly, I never use Google for those types of things. My searches are way more arcane. I'll google for some factual tidbit someone mentioned that I want to know more about - generally the answer will lead me to Wikipedia types of sites. I'll google for the documentation or sample usage for some obscure API I'm trying to use. Generally, I'll end up at learn.microsoft.com/[some SDK page], or here on CP, or StackOverflow. Again, little chance for anyone to monetize anything.
I understand how the article's list makes sense, in that these are the "most lucrative" queries. Mine aren't. All these years, I can't think of many queries I might've submitted to Google that might be candidates for that list. I guess I just never search for "consumer stuff".
Just to be topical, if I was looking for the best price for snow tires, I'd bring up the sites for local stores that I know sell tires, and do the search on there, because I'm not gonna buy snow tires from a store from another continent, even if they have the best price in the entire world. And even if I search Google to find a store's site (because it happens to be less straightforward than [storename].com or .ca), Google still has no idea what it is I'm going on that site to search for. Sure, Google searches can be geo-located, so it might only return results from "local" stores, but my ISP is in another city altogether, so as far as Google knows, those "local" stores it's giving me results for are hundreds of kilometers away.
What do you say, do you use Google "as a consumer", in a way that makes them money because of an eventual purchase, or do you stick to "things that don't have a price tag associated with them"? I get the impression if I was the typical Google user, it never would've gotten off the ground...
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I mostly look for correct spellings, meanings, or synonyms.
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my most recent bing search history ...
translate saara saty bheetar rahata hai
Viktoria Miskunaite
how to obtain my search history
GT3-HD atohm review
T66 Tower Speaker with Powered Bass
Triton Seven
GOLDENEAR
ATOHM SUBWOOFER
GT-SW2-HD - ATOHM
Wharfedale Evo4.2 speakers
NHT C3
is record output same as pre out
Jadis Speakers
rel t/5x
do the english have bad teeth
Formate
food lion cream cheese
sprouts organic pbyay
gene tierney
western movies 2022
marlin brando
western movies list
John Luther Adams’s “Drums of Winter”
spendor a7
haldi powder
karela
samsung ssd 980 1Tb blue led
iodine sources
actresses from the 40s
i often search for best products exempli gratia ...
coffee
sub-base woofer
audio speaker cable
Maple Syrup
cockroach repellent
audiophile power cord
also ...
C++ tree visualization software
C++ how to obtain pointer to class method
सारा सत्य भीतर रहता है
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What surprises me is that pr0n is not on the list. Have people really stopped searching for it?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Have people really stopped searching for it?
Undoubtedly not, but I guess it's just not as profitable. For Google, that is, not the pr0n sites (I'm sure).
Or maybe Google sanitized that list they presented in court. I noticed they picked September, which I believe is traditionally when Apple presents their latest lineup. Not surprising there's so many searches for their phones for that time period as a result. Surely they were very selective about what to bring up, and it's not entirely representative of reality...
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Generally speaking, I think people find their site of choice and just go to it without searching for it in google. Kind of like how you don't google facebook, yahoo, or any other sites that you can remember or have saved as a favorite.
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It is what it says. 'most profitable' not most common
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I generally search for Indian philosophical terms in my languages, Kannada and Sanskrit.
For example, this Kannada term ಅನನ್ಯಾರ್ಹಶೇಷತ್ವ (too tough for an English translation) fetches only three search results.
This Sanskrit term from a popular saying - आरम्भगुर्वी ... - fetches a little more than a pageful of results.
Very little probability of revenue to Google, from these searches.
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I wonder it that list is based off of people typing at google or it it comes from, or is combined with google analytics.
I'm like you, in that if I search for something to buy, it is either directly on Amazon or like tires, I'll search for tire stores.
But what if those tire stores are using google analytics? Wouldn't that skew the numbers? Besides I doubt that is the real list, just the list most likely to help google.
P.S. Full disclaimer: I use DuckDuckGo.
P.P.S. I would imagine that Pr0n is the most lucrative, but since it isn't listed, I doubt the validity of the list.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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dandy72 wrote: I get the impression if I was the typical Google user, it never would've gotten off the ground..
To be fair google did not make money for a long time. Investors knew that it could - it just took a while.
I suspect there were several initial attempts but 'adwords' was how it really started rolling.
Keeping in mind of course now and then that they were not making money on what you looked at but rather on whether they could get you to click on a link that went somewhere that had paid for that click.
I think now (and for a while) they also do inserts into site pages. So it might be that you went directly to one tire store but then clicked on something on that page that generated some small revenue for google. And if not you then other people do.
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jschell wrote: So it might be that you went directly to one tire store but then clicked on something on that page that generated some small revenue for google
Unless it's entirely done server-side (and admittedly it's likely to work that way), then that's somewhat doubtful, as I use Pi-Hole, which does a decent job block anything injected into a site by third-party ad company.
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Remember that Google sells the right to associate your ads with specific search terms. Thus, the terms listed may not have been searched that often, just that advertisers paid the most to be associated with those terms. Of course, there had to be enough people searching for those terms to get the click count up, but there might have been only a little correlation.
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Those are ad keywords stuffed into ad links. So that is what people click, accidentally click or are forced to click while playing games or reading articles. It doesn’t represent actual interest, just what Google has money titled to.
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I don't use Google at all, I use DuckDuckGo, but I use it pretty much the same as you.
There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
- Calvin (Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes)
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Remember that there are many millions of people that use Google (or any search engine) in their day to day lives, and your usage pattern is very skewed as evidenced by you being a member of CP.
I sometimes search for things like local companies that provide a specific service: 2 days ago I searched for ‘fire extinguisher inspection recharge’ because our HOA requires proof of operational extinguishers. However, I use Duck Duck Go. I may use Google if necessary, but that hasn’t happened in years.
The point is that there are many, many people going about their lives who need info about something. These people are probably not as tech-savvy as you - nor would Google know whether they navigated to a supplier’s site to refine their search (well, perhaps they would).
So, what’s the point of my reply? You got me. I don’t know either. 
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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Mark Starr wrote: your usage pattern is very skewed as evidenced by you being a member of CP.
I think ultimately that's what I wanted to confirm. Google has been designed with consumers in mind. The way I use it (and others doing the same), I'm probably not very valuable to them.
And that suits me just fine. 
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I don't use google search but I have not searched for any of the items on that list. I usually search for how to disable/enable Windows features (like Copilot), game and product reviews and lots of Youtube DIY videos. Most of the articles I read are from forums I frequent.
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#Worldle #649 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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To be clear, there are some jobs where there are clear, legitimate, reasons to have everyone in a specific location at least once a week. I am not addressing those here. I am using software development and testing as an example. I hope the discussion focuses on whether hybrid work is a good idea within that context or not.
If work can be done remotely 1 day a week or more, with the same or better level of quality and productivity as can be done in an office, then what value does hybrid bring? The hypothesis for debate in this posting is that a position should be 100% remote or 100% in-office, and that hybrid detracts from productivity and employee satisfaction.
Some common arguments for hybrid:
- Face-to-face in the office helps build team relationships. Face-to-face interactions do help build team relationships. But being in-office is not necessary for that. Use conferencing tools like Teams for two or more coworkers having a discussion and require that the video is on. Audio and video together greatly multiply the personal effects of interaction done remotely, to a degree near enough to in-office as to eradicate any in-office value from hybrid for this argument for hybrid.
- Being in-office ensures the person is working. Most of us who have worked for years in-office know how easy it is to appear to be working when in the office. In-office is no guarantee of productivity. Setting goals for each worker works much better. If goals are not met, then work with the worker to see if the goals were too optimistic, or if the worker needs some help to produce at a reasonable level. That works whether in-office or remote.
- As a manager or team lead, it is easier to walk over to a worker's cubicle or call him/her into my office to help build that manager/employee relationship. The same benefits can be had by scheduling a weekly meeting of 15 to 30 minutes with each of your reports using Teams (or whatever you use for that functionality). With both video and audio, the benefits of building that relationship via one-on-one meetings is just as present with remote as with in-office meetings.
Some common arguments against hybrid:
- The travel time for the employee is wasted time. A typical hybrid employee wastes 1 to 3 hours every day they travel into the office. Plus the cost of commuting. Getting rid of this pain for the employee improves employee loyalty and reduces turnover.
- Tracking each employee's schedule for when to be in the office or working remote is a burden on managers. Either the manager has to keep track of the schedule, opening opportunities for negative effects on work, or the schedule becomes a "one size fits all" that results in ad hoc changes that are also a burden to manage.
- Remote workdays are not just flexible for the employee, but also for the project. There are times an hour or two extra is needed to work on a project. If in the office, traffic and home obligations cause that extra time on a project to be missed or postponed.
The truth is that, in most cases, there is a non-technical (meaning not a software engineer, in this case) manager who is concerned that because they do not understand the technology and sociology of what their team does, the natural (and understandable) concerns arise that their reports may be taking advantage of their lack of knowledge and experience in the hands-on portion of the discipline. Add to that the management that they report to who, for lack of knowing better, have unreasonable expectations.
There is a common perception among non-technical management that developing software is a process of assembling widgets to build something. In fact, a lot of modern Agile is based on taking the manufacturing origins of Agile and trying to apply it to software development. In most manufacturing of material goods, the work done is assembling parts in a pre-described manner on a production line, requiring little, if any, creativity to ensure success. Software engineering is not like that. Software engineering includes some assembly of purchased third party components (the "buy" in the buy vs. build analysis), but usually around half to three-fourths involves applying engineering knowledge to the specific requirements of the project, which takes engineering knowledge and creativity. Software development is not an assembly line process, nor will it ever be.
That is the downside in having software engineers report to those who are not software engineers. Scrum masters, project managers, etc. rarely have the software engineering background to know how to do the work their team does. Unfortunately, this too often manifests with unreasonable expectations, a lack of trust of team members, and a lack of knowledge of how to effectively supervise and lead software engineers.
The two best ways to correct that imbalance are:
1. Hire experienced software engineers to be "hands on" team leads, scrum masters, and software project managers (combining roles into one position is a good idea where practical), with enough allotted time for the manager/team lead to be responsible for at least some of the coding. That garners respect and trust from the team members and provides a team lead/manager who truly understands what their team is doing, why they do it, and what it takes to complete a software project successfully. It is easier, and less expensive, to train a seasoned software engineer in managerial skills, how business works outside the technical areas, and how to relate to non-technical management.
2. Train the scrum masters and project managers in how to be software developers, so they understand what and why their reports do what they do. Having that ability in common, and even requiring some appropriate "hands on" work in the project will help that leader gain respect from the team, and respect for, and better understanding of, what their team does. This approach will take more time, as software engineering is a much more academically challenging discipline than what scrum masters and project managers normally deal with. But it can sometimes be worth the effort. An added bonus is that some team members will gladly help that leader in the learning process becauwse it now becomes a method of bonding manager to the ones being managed.
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Work from home and hybrid on a massive scale that we've seen in the last 3 years is still a new thing.
There's is a lot of experimentation still going on.
There are probably not many large scale studies on the effects of WFH or hybrid.
In my experience, a good PM/PO/ScrumMaster will make sure work is efficient, both at the office and at home.
Anecdotal : hybrid works very well when you know there will always be a good rotation of employees at the office and if the office is (re)build for hybrid work.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Thank you for your explanation.
But how does the in-office portion of hybrid offer any advantages over 100% remote?
Hybrid, as was 100% remote, was in use years before COVID-19 hit. Neither are anything new.
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MSBassSinger wrote: But how does the in-office portion of hybrid offer any advantages over 100% remote?
Human interactions.
MSBassSinger wrote: Hybrid, as was 100% remote, was in use years before COVID-19 hit. Neither are anything new.
But not at the scale we're seeing it; not just for programmers but for a lot of white collar jobs that was in office only before (insurances, finance, ... )
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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I can't speak for other disciplines, but in software engineering it has been around a very long time.
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Why not allow both? I'm a hybrid worker and I love it. I like the human interaction begin in the office. I also like the convenience of being remote (HVAC appointment tomorrow, packages being delivered). I wouldn't mind 99% in office (minus some days for home appointments) if the travel wasn't too far. I think hybrid is great for the environment (less travel) and my sanity seeing people in person every week.
Hogan
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It is not a question of "allow" for hybrid. I contend that all three should be supported.
I agree that for some folks with a short commute, or single people whose social life revolves around work, hybrid is a very good alternative.
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