[samtho]

Given how infamously hostile Fandom wikis are to users, most people who have visited any Fandom hosted wiki in the past will understand this. The top position, which I do want to point out does change, doesn’t always mean people will immediately click on it. This automatic behavior of indiscriminately clicking the top result is being disrupted in part due to how many ads google is stuffing on the top now that look like real results, compounded with the fact of how truly awful google search has become. People are beginning to be much more choosy with what site they click through to.

The thing that bothers me is how much weight you are ascribing to organic search given each of the communities’ niche. Being in “the know” here usually comes with the knowledge of where to find the wiki and other resources. If they have to stumble around to find it the first time, maybe they see the old (or replacement) Fandom site and instantly realize what a horrible mistake they made by clicking thru to the trash heap it is.

[frutiger]

> People are beginning to be much more choosy with what site they click through to.

I would love to believe you (especially as someone who exclusively uses Kagi now); but do you have statistical data on this, as it pertains to the median usage of Google results?

[samtho]

Nope that remains unstudied. Trust me, I’ve looked. A lot of my assertions are based on how I’ve seen other people behave - which I fully acknowledge is subject to stuff like confirmation bias.

For context, I volunteer at a community center and library helping people use computers (usually focused on kids going into stem field, but the general public uses it too). It’s not a diverse sample as this serves only a only a specific middle and working class neighborhood, and I have not been rigorous in data collection (or have literally any strategy to do so).