Google admits Reddit blackout tanked search results

After the Reddit blackout took down thousands of forums filled with answers, Google execs have admitted that it has upended the search engine.

The Reddit blackout is weakening, as Reddit admins and staff begin to threaten or forcefully open subreddits that protested against the API changes. However, a huge consequence of moderators blacking out their communities is that it razed tonnes of information from the web’s most used search engine.

In the last few weeks, most users browsing for answers by stringing “Reddit” to the end of their Google search would have been met with a locked community warning. Answers were taken away and unless you knew how to use the unhelpfully hidden cache button, it was hard to get back in.

According to CNBC, an all-hands-on meeting in June was focused on getting back to business, as Google had noticed a hit with its user satisfaction. Senior vice president of search, Prabhakar Raghavan, said that new methods were going to be put in place to avoid this.

Google has been working to integrate its AI into search in recent weeks, and one of those changes has been to introduce search filters. Announced on May 10, and introduced to some Google searches on Monday, “Perspectives” aims to circumvent the ongoing protest.

Perspectives surface more content from other major sources, including TikTok, YouTube, and Quora. While it does include Reddit, the launch appears to be timed to ensure a better experience.

Google execs admit that Reddit blackout has left search in a bad spot

Google

However, Raghavan has admitted that Google search in its current state is not good. In audio acquired by CNBC from the meeting, he said:

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.

“We need to make users happy.”

Also in the meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned that users want “comprehensive answers”. Adding Reddit to the end of a search will often bring that up and without those resources for Google to rely on, it has begun to turn off users from the search engine even more.

A staff member asked whether the influx of advertising and bad search results. Google execs seem to be relying on the Perspectives tab to ensure a return to success for the search engine.