https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-getting-worse-spam-affiliate-links-duckduckgo-bing-2024-1 Jump to 1. Main content 2. Search 3. Account A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal lines. A magnifying glass. It indicates, "Click to perform a search". The words "Business Insider" The words "Business Insider" Newsletters Subscribe An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log in An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. 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It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE Newsletters An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log in Subscribe Tech Google is getting worse as it loses its fight against search engine spam Lakshmi Varanasi 2024-01-21T17:17:03Z An curved arrow pointing right. Share The letter F. Facebook An envelope. It indicates the ability to send an email. Email A stylized bird with an open mouth, tweeting. Twitter The word "in". LinkedIn An image of a chain link. It symobilizes a website link url. Copy Link A bookmark Save Read in app Google Search [ ] An icon in the shape of an angle pointing down. Google Search is the world's most popular search engine. But researchers say it's not as good as it used to be. Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images [top-left] [bottom-rig] Redeem now * Search engines like Google are getting less helpful, according to a new study. * They're more likely to retrieve SEO-optimized web pages monetized with affiliate links. * These types of pages "show signs of lower text quality," according to the study. Insider Today [insider-to] NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today's biggest stories in markets, tech, and business -- delivered daily. Read preview Bull [newsletter] Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address [ ] Sign up By clicking "Sign Up", you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time. Bull [newsletter] Advertisement It appears to be true: Search engines like Google are getting worse. These days, search engine results are filled with spam content, according to a new paper from a team of researchers in Germany. And it's making it harder for people to access helpful information online -- the core function of the internet. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. The researchers searched for product reviews that "offer tests and purchase recommendations." They spent a year analyzing almost 7,400 of these queries on three search engines: Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Their baseline finding was that search engines have "significant problems" with affiliate links -- paid-for links that refer a customer to a seller. While the number of product reviews online that contain affiliate links isn't huge, the researchers said these reviews are overrepresented in search engine results. Advertisement The problem with affiliate links boils down to "trust," the researchers said. "Since users often trust their search engines already, the affiliate inherits this trust as a byproduct of a high ranking," the authors wrote. But this also creates tension between affiliates, search providers, and users because affiliates are more likely to design web pages to optimize their rankings as opposed to investing in higher-quality product reviews. Though webpages that have more affiliate links and are more optimized are more likely to come up in search results, on average, they also "show signs of lower text quality," the researchers said. And as content generated by AI continues to flood the internet, the researchers said search engine results are likely to get worse. A spokesperson for Google told Business Insider in an email that the study looked "narrowly at product review content," so it doesn't reflect the "overall quality" of Google Search. Advertisement "We've launched specific improvements to address these issues -- and the study itself points out that Google has improved over the past year and is performing better than other search engines." The study's researchers said that they believed the issue "deserves more attention" but that, for now, they don't see an obvious solution. "Affiliate marketing itself is in part responsible for what online content looks like now," Janek Bevendorff, a research assistant at Leipzig University and coauthor on the paper, told The Register. "Banning it entirely is probably not a solution" since many legitimate websites rely on affiliate marketing and SEO optimization as an important revenue stream, Bevendorff told the outlet. "In the end, it may remain a cat-and-mouse game," Bevendorff said. A picture of a switch and lightbulb [light-swit] Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. 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