Google Is Now the Only Search Engine Reddit Allows to Index It
Emanuel Maiberg, reporting for 404 Media:
If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other
alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing
and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any
results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up
seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where
the links go or why, instead only saying that “We would like to
show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.” Older
results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer
able to “crawl” Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search
engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward.
Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid
search engine that buys part of its search index from Google.
The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now
actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time
when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its
search results. This exclusion of other search engines also comes
after Reddit locked down access to its site to stop companies from
scraping it for AI training data, which at the moment only Google
can do as a result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives
Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI
products.
“They’re [Reddit] killing everything for search but Google,”
Colin Hayhurst, CEO of the search engine Mojeek told me on a call.
I have to blame Reddit for this, not Google. But it’s not a good look for Google, either.
★
Emanuel Maiberg, reporting for 404 Media:
If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other
alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing
and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any
results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up
seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where
the links go or why, instead only saying that “We would like to
show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.” Older
results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer
able to “crawl” Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search
engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward.
Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid
search engine that buys part of its search index from Google.
The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now
actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time
when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its
search results. This exclusion of other search engines also comes
after Reddit locked down access to its site to stop companies from
scraping it for AI training data, which at the moment only Google
can do as a result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives
Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI
products.
“They’re [Reddit] killing everything for search but Google,”
Colin Hayhurst, CEO of the search engine Mojeek told me on a call.
I have to blame Reddit for this, not Google. But it’s not a good look for Google, either.