Ask HN: Why isn't Google indexing information about the AT Protocol?

I've been observing this for a while, where very basic queries about atproto stuff doesn't show up. But yesterday I found a query that makes it VERY obvious: "list of public atproto relays". Here's DuckDuckGo:

1. https://firehose.directory

2. https://atproto.at/relays

3. https://atproto.wiki/en/wiki/reference/core-architecture/relay

4. https://pulsar.feeds.blue

5. https://leaflet.pub/12022731-ae4f-4a13-9f7a-5738b7a83c2e

Of those results, Google only has 3, the only one on the list that... doesn't have a list of public atproto relays. None of the other sites are present anywhere. Trying not to assume malice instead of incompetence here, but it's really ironic that one of the ecosystems with the strongest ties to the open web, with users creating dozens of new websites every week, isn't getting indexed.

49 points | by iameli 2 days ago

12 comments

  • entropyie 2 days ago
    Maybe they should have used a name that wasn't already taken...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_AT_command_set

    [-]
    • UI_at_80x24 2 days ago
      Lol, that's what I thought this was about too.

      Why don't these people/companies think about how hard it will be to search for their $thing !?

      [-]
      • wolvoleo 2 days ago
        Yeah like /e/ os. That's hard to search for because the slash is ignored and the e is only one letter.
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        • flexagoon 2 days ago
          All the results for "e os" are about /e/OS, and that's its full name, so you wouldn't just search for "e". D language is a better example — its just called "D", but searching for that doesn't give results about the language. On the other hand, for "C" and "R" the top results are all about the languages. "Go" is also a pretty bad one, they insist it's not called "golang" but you basically have to search for that to get any useful information.
          [-]
          • wolvoleo 1 day ago
            Yeah but when e/os first changed their name it was much harder. I have a feeling these results have had some human help.

            It used to be called eelo but some prick thought it sounded too similar to his one man consulting company and threatened to sue. In the beginning it worked much better to search for the old name.

  • fragmede 2 days ago
    https://firehose.directory/robots.txt isn't one, but comes up in Google despite that.

    https://atproto.at/robots.txt is good and findable with a direct search

    https://atproto.wiki/robots.txt is empty but findable on Google.

    https://pulsar.feeds.blue/robots.txt is 404 and thus not indexed by Google.

    https://leaflet.pub/robots.txt is good. A logged in google search for this finds this for me.

    Tell the people at https://pulsar.feeds.blue to fix their robots.txt if they want to get indexed.

  • wmf 2 days ago
    Google search has generally rotted. Can't get promoted for maintenance.
    [-]
    • therobots927 2 days ago
      That’s best case scenario. Worst case is that they’re censoring the internet on a massive scale but have rolled it out slowly enough that no one noticed
      [-]
      • alightsoul 2 days ago
        Here's a way to fix that: post the info you're looking for on reddit. Google will index that instead. Happened here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1umokol

        You could post links instead of the actual info to avoid centralizing info on reddit

      • gnz11 1 day ago
        No, they want you to search multiple times to show you more ads.
      • bilbo-b-baggins 2 days ago
        They are. There’s been a bunch of studies already showing how Google skews its results to align with oligarch interests.
        [-]
  • iameli 2 days ago
    I'm now getting _this HN article_ as the top Google result for "list of public atproto relays". Weird.

    Yes, I "used an incognito window". Yes, I checked on multiple devices. Yes, Google is personalized. Maybe if you search "list of public atproto relays" from East Timor you get lists of public atproto relays. But you sure don't from Seattle right now.

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    • Suppafly 1 day ago
      >I'm now getting _this HN article_ as the top Google result for "list of public atproto relays". Weird.

      I find that happening all the time when I google stuff discussed in reddit threads, the top result is often the thread I just came from, despite whatever quote or lyric or whatever having existed for years outside of reddit.

    • alightsoul 1 day ago
      Yes happened on reddit too here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1umokol
  • EnglishMobster 2 days ago
    Can confirm that I can also reproduce this. Interesting.
    [-]
  • alightsoul 2 days ago
    Here's a way to fix that: post the info you're looking for on reddit. Google will index that instead. Happened here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1umokol/meituan... You could post links instead of the actual info to avoid centralizing info on reddit
  • runningmike 2 days ago
    I got 2300 results. DuckDuckGo Uses google. Google is very personalised. They use many dirty tricks to give personalised results. Use another box and check the results again.
    [-]
  • PaiDxng 2 days ago
    That result set is pretty damning: Google finds the architecture explainer but misses four pages that actually answer the query. Whatever the cause, atproto clearly has a discoverability problem.
  • whateverboat 2 days ago
    https://imgur.com/a/OS7P9jh Seems working for me.
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    • iameli 2 days ago
      In the AI overview yeah, but do you see the sites below? I wonder if it's being tuned to prefer generating its own "list of X" implementations and downranking other peoples' lists.
  • seanhunter 2 days ago
    Use incognito/private browsing mode to get a genuine sense of whether something isn’t in the index or whether google decides that even though you’re asking for it you probably don’t want it.
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    • danabramov 2 days ago
      I can reproduce the same in incognito mode.
  • ChrisArchitect 2 days ago
    Spare us the conspiracy; atproto.at? firehose.directory? Why would google index any of those sites with no authority/age? Maybe the owners didn't submit them to give them some credibility to start. Maybe the results vary.
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    • iameli 2 days ago
      Google has indexed both of them, actually, you can search successfully for those two domains directly. They just don't come up when you search for "list of public atproto relays". Any other theories?
    • inigyou 2 days ago
      "Credibility" for Google seems to mean being around for 5 years or having over 10 million dollars. They no longer try to surface the long tail of websites.
  • mmakeev 1 day ago
    [dead]