Top all-time · #782
SparkToro
Company blog · sparktoro.com/blog · on HN as randfishbusinessdata
SparkToro is the company blog at sparktoro.com, writing about business and data. Since 2018, 84 different Hacker News readers have linked it 123 times, most often “Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 36 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link SparkToro's posts as research on Google search, including no-click searches, referral traffic and the leaked Google search documents, plus Rand Fishkin's writing on marketing and the industry.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 36 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
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Most-linked posts?
- Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-08-13
- Something Is Rotten in Online Advertising5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-01-06
- As the Antitrust Case Against Google Kicks Off Here’s Where the DOJ Should Start5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-06-04
- Nearly 20% of active Twitter accounts likely to be fake or spam4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-05-16
- My Last Day at Moz, My First Day at SparkToro4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-02-28
- Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-05-28
- In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-22
- How Much of Google's Search Traffic Is Left for Anyone but Themselves?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-06-19
- Avast's Shutdown of Jumpshot Will Harm the Web and the World3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-01-30
- Raising a Very Unusual Round of Funding and Open-Sourcing Our Docs3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-06-07
What Hacker News says?
The black box leaked recently. https://sparktoro.com/blog/an-anonymous-source-shared-thousa...
Comment linking /blog/an-anonymous-source-shared-thousands-of-leaked-google-search-api-documents-with-me-everyone-in-seo-should-see-them/
on “Helping wikis move away from Fandom”Submitted Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click as a story · 755 points
HN discussionI am not a Google search user so I am not sure what they are doing with "cards", however it sounds as though they are trying more to themselves become a "secondary source" (versus, e.g., just providing some "context" around the matched terms). The goal being that the user never has to leave the Google website. For example, say the film credits for Spiderman is a "primary source", and a cast list for Spiderman derive…
Comment linking /blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches-now-result-in-a-click/
on “The world needs more search engines”Submitted Nearly 20% of active Twitter accounts likely to be fake or spam as a story · 508 points
HN discussionThe authors of that HBR article along with a few others [0][1] should be ashamed of themselves. They keep perpetuating a false narrative that really hurts our community's know-how in how to build and scale businesses. Why is it a false narrative? The basic premise is simple: company X spends money on ads, then turns those ads off and finds that the revenue does not change. Then the conclusion is made that ads don't…
Comment linking /blog/something-is-rotten-in-online-advertising/
on “I stopped advertising and nothing happened”Submitted What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam? as a story · 491 points
HN discussionhttps://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twit... Their methodology is very detailed. Maybe Twitter can post theirs to give more confidence in their 5%. They used multiple datasets and posted the calculated mDAU for each.
Comment linking /blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/
on “Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot”Submitted In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click as a story · 406 points
HN discussionI'm not talking about all bots. I'm talking about mDAU bots. You guys are trying to argue against a point I'm not making. 3rd party estimations range from 10-20% for mDAU bots, Twitter's is 5%. Others were defending it by saying "well the number doesn't have to be accurate legally" or "well Musk should have known it's not really accurate". My counter is that weasel legal wording and logic doesn't give much confidenc…
Comment linking /blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/
on “Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot”Submitted Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents as a story · 333 points
HN discussionThe best supporting data is the rise in no-click searches. See https://sparktoro.com/blog/in-2020-two-thirds-of-google-sear... No-click searches continue to grow in share while google continues to adopt design that presents information outside a traditional link, like a weather widget or the fact you were looking for presented at the top in large text outside the scope of a link. This suggests a growing share of sea…
Comment linking /blog/in-2020-two-thirds-of-google-searches-ended-without-a-click/
on “DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation””Submitted Attribution is dying, clicks are dying as a story · 261 points
HN discussionThere's evidence the entire online ad industry is a scam and that Facebook and Google are aware [1] [1] https://sparktoro.com/blog/what-if-performance-advertising-i...
Comment linking /blog/what-if-performance-advertising-is-just-an-analytics-scam/
on “Y Combinator narrows current cohort size by 40%, citing downturn and funding”Submitted "AI Will Replace All the Jobs " Is Just Tech Execs Doing Marketing as a story · 190 points
HN discussionThey have over 90% of the search market globally[1]. 1. https://sparktoro.com/blog/as-the-antitrust-case-against-goo...
Comment linking /blog/as-the-antitrust-case-against-google-kicks-off-heres-where-the-doj-should-start/
on “Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps”Submitted Raising a Very Unusual Round of Funding and Open-Sourcing Our Docs as a story · 148 points
HN discussionCheck out this post by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz fame on the topic, where he advocates for hiring consultancies https://sparktoro.com/blog/why-you-should-hire-agencies-cons... To be fair, I think your point about "except for very boutique consultancies" may apply to his recommendation. I can't imagine him advocating for an Accenture or similar, instead the message is bring on expertise for specific initiatives as neede…
Comment linking /blog/why-you-should-hire-agencies-consultants-for-everything-you-can/
on “What's Accenture? (2020)”Submitted Why Marketing Flywheels Work as a story · 87 points
HN discussionThis is a topic near and dear to my heart. First, didn't realize this was Rand Fishkin writing it. He knows his stuff. He also has another linked article in there that is more prescriptive on incrementality measurement being all that matters and how to think about it at a high level and I completely agree it is all the matters. https://sparktoro.com/blog/how-to-measure-hard-to-measure-ma... That in turn links to ano…
Comment linking /blog/how-to-measure-hard-to-measure-marketing-channels/
on “Attribution is dying, clicks are dying”Submitted My Last Day at Moz, My First Day at SparkToro as a story · 75 points
HN discussionFundamentally, Google's initiative on differential privacy is motivated by a desire to not lose data-based ad targeting while trying to hinder the real solution: Blocking data collection entirely and letting their business fail. In a world where Google is now hurting content creators and site owners more than it is helping them[1], I see no reason to help Google via differential privacy when outright blocking tracki…
Comment linking /blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches-now-result-in-a-click/
on “Enabling developers and organizations to use differential privacy”Submitted The “Marketing Is Evil” Problem as a story · 28 points
HN discussionThe result is minor AND Google spent a (relative) lot of money to achieve it (especially in the eyes of the new CFO). Jeff Dean is desperately trying to save the prestige of the research (in a very insular, Google-y way) because he wants to save the 2017-era economically-not-viable blue sky culture where Tensorflow & the TPU flourished and the transformer was born. But the reality is that Google’s core businesses ar…
Comment linking /blog/is-google-losing-search-market-share/
on “Jeff Dean responds to EDA industry about AlphaChip”Submitted Better Than Product-Market Fit: The Customer Adoption Spectrum as a story · 24 points
HN discussionFewer than 50% of Google searches result in a click these days. Largely thanks to the helpful (to the user) excerpts they provide ... and (I think) the trashy SEO-focused barely readable writing that you often find upon clicking through. https://sparktoro.com/blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches...
Comment linking /blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches-now-result-in-a-click/
on “Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook”Submitted The Chill Work Manifesto as a story · 17 points
HN discussion> We're a nonsensical investment for a standard VC, sure. Maybe there's a venture investment philosophy for non-unicorns. [0] [0] https://sparktoro.com/blog/raised-a-very-unusual-round-of-fu...
Comment linking /blog/raised-a-very-unusual-round-of-funding-were-open-sourcing-our-docs/
on “Do VCs really add value? Founders say sometimes”Submitted My Last Day at Moz, My First Day at SparkToro as a story · 10 points
HN discussion> How can you say that with a straight face? I didn't. > They're both 10x engineers. https://medium.com/@yuval.idan5/the-10x-engineer-myth-is-wro... https://sparktoro.com/blog/belief-in-the-mythical-10x-hire-h...
Comment linking /blog/belief-in-the-mythical-10x-hire-hurts-your-team/
on “Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher”Submitted The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 on Google as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
