Issues with google search for products
2 March 2022
I was searching for new bed linen today and remembered how bad Google has gotten for this type of consumer research:
- I don't want to get sent to a neverending loop of affiliate marketing spam, just to see a couple of products
- Most of these blogs don't cover the topic I want anyway, which is "what are brands that make high quality bed linen that fits European sizes"
- Google's shopping tab is broken beyond repair, no matter what they say. So there's no use checking it.
The whole combination of search and online bed linen is complicated:
- Bed sizes vary wildly per region. A king size bed in the US is different from a King size bed in Europe.
- Mattress thickness plays a role. (European mattresses tend to be thinner than US ones).
- Most online bed linen is sold from the US, but most of the US population has US format bed sizes.
- But many Europeans have custom, or European bed sizes (with different duvet traditions). So they fit neither the US standard nor their own country standard.
- Online stores almost never tell you which countries' bed sizes they serve.
When I found our duvet brand (SOJAO), I didn't do this through search. It was through a friend who mentioned he loved this D2C brand from Singapore. I found their website via Google directly, but not through search or discovery.
I'm still waiting for social media platforms to get better at "friend-recommendation" tooling. I know Instagram tries, but it doesn't really connect me with products that my friends specifically are recommending.
My best Google hack continues to be putting "site:reddit.com" at the end of my searches. As a way to bypass affiliate marketing and other low quality content, to get to real opinions.
Anyone have a good hack for finding more relevant results?