ATS getting much lower Google search rankings?

My subjective impression is that any material on ATS appears _much_ lower down in Google search results now than, say, 10 years ago.

My recollection is that ATS used to regularly be in the top result or two when doing UFO searches on Google, but now it seems that results from ATS are fairly low down even if - say - a search is done for a partial title from an ATS thread.

I wonder:

(1) Is there some objective measure of search rankings to know if that subjective impression is right or not?

(2) If that subjective impression is correct, is there any known reason for this fall and is it possible to rectify it?


Just by way of an illustration, a search today for "UFO discussion forum" does not include any results from ATS until the bottom of Page 4 of Google search results (i.e. about the 40th result):

There are more conspiracies being spread on MSM and the social media giants than there are here. On facebook, if you try to say something someone says is not real, the people say you are basically off topic, you are responding inappropriately unless you are backing their beliefs. Kind of sucks when they are spreading BS and you become the demon for mentioning it on their post.

I think it’s a few things probably like censorship and other factors but I think content plays a part too.

Here we are a few months into a pandemic and not one thread on plague spirits. Throughout history apparitions have been said to appear as a manifestation of the plague. I wish I had more time to post but it would probably have been washed away under the deluge of threads that have devolved into a if you don’t 100 percent agree with my opinion you’re my enemy tennis match between two extreme sides. That sums up the activity in the past few months.

originally posted by: DetectiveT
I think it’s a few things probably like censorship and other factors but I think content plays a part too.

Here we are a few months into a pandemic and not one thread on plague spirits. Throughout history apparitions have been said to appear as a manifestation of the plague. I wish I had more time to post...

I'd like to read that thread!!!

I hope you find the time to post about it...

Google censors its search results.

They will put any site or any entry that is conservative in nature, or with a conservative idea, or has anything written by a conservative or Republican as far down the google results as possible. ATS, gasp, horror of horrors, allows people with conservative ideas a chance to speak and be heard. I know that is awful, horrific, and terrible, as no one who doesn't have a progressive/liberal/Democratic Party line should ever be allowed to be heard in the US. That is totally against the American ethos to allow people with unapproved ideas a chance to speak.

FYI, don't use Google!

I use duckduckgo

Google is bad news, they made the 24/7 social media spying on ordinary citizens, social credit system for China that limits where people are allowed to travel based on their ideology and the way they think via google assisted tracking of what they read, where they go, who their friends are, and google created for China tech creates a rating for the Chinese government of each and every single individual.

Google said they are no longer doing this, don't believe them. Word from Google corporate is that they have temporarily stopped working on it with no pledge to stop working on a platform that can track every single human being on the planet with a smart phone or computer.

DON"T USE GOOGLE, DON'T use Google Chrome unless you want to be in their "for sale to anyone who wants it" data base of who you call, what you search, what you look at, where you go.

If we spread the word as to the evils of Google, even if you are a liberal - do you want your information for sale to anyone, even the government, even to Trump, even to the Republican Party if they buy it - of who you call, what you search, what you look at online, what you say online, and where you go.

ABANDON GOOGLE as much as possible, and maybe we can lesson the evil of the corporation through loss of revenue because we have stopped using it.

a reply to: IsaacKoi

My general thought is that too many ATS threads these days are "mainstream" on too many other websites, so search results reflect the many many places that information can be found.

And probably nine times out of ten, partisan websites will get more traffic from their true believers who don't want to be bothered with dissenting opinions, other perspectives, and those pesky little things called facts.

In today's partisan bubbles and echo chambers, ATS just doesn't fit their bill.

originally posted by: buddha
POST REMOVED BY STAFF

Well ya know....

The guy that pays the bills makes the rules. Here at ATS and Facebook as well.

Create your own website and you can make the rules about who and what gets posted.

Any fool can have a website now. But, the right wing does seem to have a prominent presence here. Not my circus, not my monkey...I'm just here for the cookies.

a reply to: IsaacKoi

I have trouble searching my own threads which often have very unique titles.

I have to add in "abovetopsecret" and "Muzzleflash" to the search just to find a thread half the time despite my title being the only phrase ever uttered on Earth with those exact words in that exact arrangement.

a reply to: Borderlands

Have you checked your messages?

Therein should be your answer

originally posted by: rickymouse
Kind of sucks when they are spreading BS and you become the demon for mentioning it on their post.

Well that sounds like the Alien Forum.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
I have trouble searching my own threads which often have very unique titles.

I have to add in "abovetopsecret" and "Muzzleflash" to the search just to find a thread half the time despite my title being the only phrase ever uttered on Earth with those exact words in that exact arrangement.

Yes, that's the sort of issue that I've noticed in the last few years (say, 3 or 4 years).

I'm not sure why.

Is this apparent change related to technical issues with the ATS website, the amount of advertising, or is the content being rated as poor??

originally posted by: The2Billies

ABANDON GOOGLE as much as possible, and maybe we can lesson the evil of the corporation through loss of revenue because we have stopped using it.

Even if I didn't use Google (which I do, a lot...), a sizeable fraction of _other_ Internet users use Google and I don't see that changing in the immediate future - so I'd still be interested in where ATS material is ranked in Google search results.

originally posted by: IsaacKoi

originally posted by: The2Billies

ABANDON GOOGLE as much as possible, and maybe we can lesson the evil of the corporation through loss of revenue because we have stopped using it.

Even if I didn't use Google (which I do, a lot...), a sizeable fraction of _other_ Internet users use Google and I don't see that changing in the immediate future - so I'd still be interested in where ATS material is ranked in Google search results.

I know others use it, but I highly recommend for your personal safety that you abandon Google.

Google, uses it's knowledge about you for evil purposes like it has in China with Dragonfly. Research it and research it well because they have only halted working on it because of bad publicity.

If people knew how openly they use the information for evil purposes to give to governments or literally anyone who will pay for it, to spy on your movements, your thoughts, your writings, as much as they can gather from you, they would see it is imperative for as many as possible to abandon Google as much as one can.

I am not at all surprised if ATS is ranked quite low because right now diversity of thought is allowed. Google does not like diversity of thought. They support highly socialist/communist thinking as correct and the best kind of thought and the only thinking out there that people should be exposed to.

Go to duckduckgo and put in above top secret, it comes up as the #1 response, takes you directly to the website.

I'm no expert but it might have something to do with the fact that certain browsers, silk on Amazon fire tab especially, will not even let you access ats as it doesn't deem it secure.

a reply to: The2Billies

Do you know how many companies ARE Google's?

Most of them. You can't get away....

A - Alphabet / Android / AdSense / Analytics / Ara / AdMob / Alerts
B - Blogger / Boston Dynamics / Books
C - Calico / Cardboard / Capital
D - Drive / DeepMind / Design / DoubleClick
E - Earth / Express
F - Fiber / Fi / Flights / FeedBurner / Firebase / Finance
G - Google / Gmail / Glass / Groups
H - Hangouts
I - Images / Ingress / Inbox / Invite Media
J - Jump
K - Keep
L - Life Sciences / Local / Loon
M - Maps / My Business / Makani
N - Nest / News / Nexus / Now
O - Offers
P - Plus / Play / Photos / Picasa / Pixate / Patents
Q - (Nexus) Q
R - Refine / reCaptcha
S - Search / Shopping / SageTV /Stackdriver / Skybox / Skia / Scholar
T - Translate / Tango
U - N/A
V - Voice / Ventures / VirusTotal / Video
W - Wallet / Wing
X - X Labs

C/o : Google (of course). And we all have a few of the above. And it's an older list