posted in Technology
Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain
cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/25347642
www.404media.co/googles-ai-is-destroying-search-the-internet-and-your-brain/
Replying to @GolfFoxtrotLima@sh.itjust.works
I haven’t used Google as a primary search engine in a decade or more. Nothing I do depends on Gemini (I don’t even use Apple Intelligence that’s a Gemini white label).
Personally, I think what Gemini is destroying is a market-based financial model that many came to associate with the Internet, information access and lifestyle.
Most of the websites I visit pre-date Google and some have gone as far as blocking all bots via robots.txt. They survive not via predatory ad networks but by donations and volunteers.
It’s why I like Lemmy; it follows the same model.
Replying to @adespoton@lemmy.ca
So, I disabled everything AI the I can think of, use DDG as a search engine, ad block wherever, blah blah blah, my search results SUCK. Is there a better way to fix it?
And I use Linux at home…no blows crap
Replying to @newbeni@lemmy.world
Suck in what way? And what kind of stuff do you usually search?
I used to think search was kind of an universal thing but after looking at some people’s examples of what is a good or bad result I noticed that is definitely not the case.
For me a good search result is a list of sites that contain the words I typed on the search bar, sorted by how closely the words match and then perhaps subsorted by some website ranking system. For that, DDG has been quite decent.
Replying to @Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Not OP, but I find the DDG results are SEO sites at the top for pages.
My search: how to fit a dog collar
Top 50 results from DDG:
fitting a dog collar is difficult and many people wonder how to fit a dog collar. This article will show you how to fit a dog collar.
A dog collar is difficult to fit. Perhaps you’ve wondered how to fit a dog collar.
To be fair, SEO ruined the internet and Internet searches well before AI and it’s not DDG’s fault. But I would love it if blatant SEO was filtered out of my results.
Replying to @FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
True, I think I probably just skip over those results and don’t even register them anymore. They definitely happen a lot but it’s not something I even remembered when I thought about search results.
Replying to @FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
Part of it might be how Google trained everyone to use natural language queries in their searches.
Instead of “how to fit a dog collar” does
“pet advice” +”dog collar” “guidance for new dog owners”
give you better results?
The idea is to search for a cluster of terms that are likely to be on the page you want to find, but aren’t hyper-focused like SEO pages.
Replying to @Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Very curious whether you’re old enough to remember how google used to be in say, 2007.
Replying to @chunes@lemmy.world
I am and I do, but I didn’t mean to say DDG is just as good. It’s just been good enough for me.
Replying to @Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
So, I can’t really mention actual results after actual queries, a lot of it would be doxxing myself. Maybe that’s what it is, I’m trying to get way into my personal life instead of a general search. What I usually look for is not like “this specific thing happened to me” type things, but more like a general consensus. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes I’m wondering what the heck happened.
Replying to @Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
So, I’m sorry for the late update, but I finally have a good example. My phone recently updated which changed the time appreance to have a zero before any single digit number. I searched for my particular phone, adjusting the time appearance, and it happened after an update, the only results I got back were to change the month format.