Reddit and Quora posts are appearing more and more at the top of Google Search results as website visits on the social platforms continued to increase, Business Insider reported.
Google has finally caught up to people attaching the word "Reddit" at the end of their search inquiries and seems to be making moves to further push the site to users over article websites.
This is backed by a data analysis from Semrush showing an upturn in Reddit and Quora visits to last year, growing from 132 million visits in August 2023 to 346 million for April alone.
The changes in search results are even more visible if the search inquiry is presented as a question.
The changes in search results were first hinted back in 2022 but have begun being noticeable after Google recently secured a deal with Reddit to use its content as training datasets for its AI models.
A representative from the company, however, told BI that its deal with Reddit "did not include ranking its content higher on Search."
Spammers are Exploiting Reddit Search Trends
Reddit and Quora are among the popular go-to platforms for many people inquiring about specific or niche topics.
In some cases, the forum boards are being used as alternatives for information to avoid clickbait articles and bogus websites.
So, it comes as no surprise that spammers and scammers have also started using the changes in the search results to hook more unaware victims much like how clickbait websites have exploited Google's search optimization system.
A Detailed report from February raised concerns about the rise of spam posts flooding the top comments of suggested Reddit posts via Google Search.
Google has yet to give detailed plans on how to resolve the issue, especially with the search engine beginning to rely more on forum boards for results suggestions.
User Dissatisfaction from Google Search Results Increasing
It is not only Reddit and Quora that are experiencing an uptick as an alternative search engine over Google.
TikTok and YouTube have also been noted to become increasingly popular among younger generations to search for certain topics, browse shopping items, and look for reviews.
The departure from the conventional search engines marks the growing dissatisfaction of users from Google Search, especially with the platform becoming congested with irrelevant result suggestions.
