Comment by Lammy
1 year ago
> Google slowly stopped ranking traditional forum posts and blogs as well around that time
IMO the true inflection point was 2014 when Google first hid (from the UI) and then fully removed (no longer accessible by magic URL) the “Blogs” and especially the “Discussions” filters. Some contemporary discussions on “Discussions”:
- https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/23/googles-search-filters-now...
- http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2014/03/bring-back-forum-se... (details the briefly-working magic URLs)
- https://www.ghacks.net/2014/01/23/search-discussions-blogs-p...
- https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-filters-gone-1799...
- https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4687960.htm
- https://www.thecoli.com/threads/i-cant-google-search-by-disc...
- https://www.neogaf.com/threads/anyone-else-annoyed-google-re...
- https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/57249/has-the-op...
- https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/how-to-do-google-discuss...
- https://browsermedia.agency/blog/alternatives-discussion-sea...
I recently noticed that there is now a not-visible-by-default “Forums” option in Google Search. It is selected by specifying the query parameter udm=18:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hp+50g&udm=18
This is interesting. I wonder why it's not visible by default.
Maybe it is/was an A/B test, to see if it hurts ad revenue (it probably does).
The option appeared randomly for me on a search, and I took immediately note of the udm number. :)
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