Tell HN: I have a new google.com tab labeled "Forums" – Is everyone seeing this?

3 pointsby consumer451قبل سنتين11 comments

I am in the EU, while signed into my USA Google account, suddenly I have a new tab on google.com labeled: "Forums"

Let's discuss please, this is a huge change, is it not?

Is this an entire tab along the lines of adding something like "reddit" to the query, but not just reddit?

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/adma1LO

13 comments

4684499قبل سنتين

It seems someone discovered this (along with other udm values) back in June https://medium.com/@tanyongsheng0805/every-google-udm-in-the...

wruzaقبل سنتين

Can you post the resulting url here? Someone may try following it.

Please note that a link may(?) encode info you may not want to share, so maybe remove long parts from it. Section selectors are usually short: tbm=isch, tbm=shop, etc.

consumer451قبل سنتين

Here is a google search for Hacker News after I clicked on the "Forums" tab. I was sure to use the same google account that is associated with HN, and little else. I appreciate the heads up on that though. People should know these things. BTW, this was Mullvad into Prague.

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=ccfd9b9fc01db35a&authu...

wruzaقبل سنتين

Yes, when I follow it, it now shows the "Forums" section, and it stays there if I switch to e.g. All or Web from there. It's likely encoded somewhere in the long "fbs" parameter, cause it disappears once I remove it.

But you can search forums with just udm=18. E.g. https://google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=18 -- this means you can create a custom "search with >" item for it.

Also,

6 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=6 -- "Learn", returns mostly learning resources and references.

8 https://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+near+san+francisc... -- "Jobs", seems to use "<title> near <location>" format.

15 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=15 -- "Attractions", seems defunct.

36 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=36 -- "Books"

37 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=37 -- "Products", strange one

44 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=44 -- "Visual matches" ???

48 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=48 -- "Exact matches" ???

51 https://www.google.com/search?q=Foo&udm=51 -- "Homework", looks like "Learn"

I guess 44, 48 is probably how image search works.

blackeyeblitzarقبل سنتين

I didn’t notice it before so I am not sure it is new. But I do see it in the US. Seems like it aggregates sites with primarily user generated content. Reddit, Quora, Stackoverflow, etc

consumer451قبل سنتين

Thanks for the sanity check... but, we would have noticed this previously if it wasn't new, right? This is a major change to google.com, isn't it?

If I am not tripping, then this is a billion dollar SEO change, right?

esperentقبل سنتين

I've had all kinds of random categories turn up there over the last few months. I'm pretty sure it's just an AI system that can create search categories on the fly.

consumer451قبل سنتين

Do you see a "Forums" tab at this moment? In any case, would you mind sharing a ~geo?

consumer451قبل سنتين

Link for the lazy: https://imgur.com/a/adma1LO

[deleted]قبل سنتين

getwiththeprogقبل سنتين

Do not have it in google.com.au, just the old All Images Shopping Videos News Web Maps More (Books, Flights, Finance) Tools

Oh well, hopefully soon.

consumer451قبل سنتين

Thanks for the geo sanity check.

[deleted]قبل سنتين