Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#11

Post by witty-name »

Still prefer Google over any other search engine.

Here are the issues I've faced with some of the alternatives: 1. Duck: Used it for years but the quality of results has taken a nosedive lately. 2. Startpage: Was good when it used to get results from Google but now it's a mix of Google and Bing. 3. Metasearch engines (SearX): Unreliable since they rely on scraping. 4. Kagi: Results are not better enough to consider paying for it.

That being said, I don't have my Google account logged in while doing searches.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#14

Post by MostlyAmiable »

yuanhao wrote: post #8
imposterr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't an inherit issue with LLMs. You just need to set up some prompts that you can default to for different use cases. For example, you could set one up that is told to only provide the function arguments, and return value.

I just enjoy reading the MDN articles or stackoverflow / reddit discussions, as well as official docs a lot. I read documentation on my leisure time. Weird hobby of mine lol

> I read documentation on my leisure time.

There are dozens of us!

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#15

Post by dartos »

imposterr wrote: post #6
yuanhao wrote: post #3

I still use google. LLMs talk way too much for what I need. Granted, my searches are usually "toLocaleString() format" or "floor tiles popping reddit" and such. That takes me to MDN, stackoverflow, reddit etc. I recently paid for Kagi since I like their mission but I'm more used to the results from google. I'll see where it takes me.

This isn't an inherit issue with LLMs. You just need to set up some prompts that you can default to for different use cases. For example, you could set one up that is told to only provide the function arguments, and return value.

> This isn't an inherit issue with LLMs

But it is. That’s why you, the user (or an enterprising LLM search tool) need to do things like

> set up some prompts that you can default to for different use cases

Personally, I’d rather look up first party sources than configure a tool to generate 3rd party information that’s not always correct.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#16

Post by dartos »

MostlyAmiable wrote: post #14
yuanhao wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just enjoy reading the MDN articles or stackoverflow / reddit discussions, as well as official docs a lot. I read documentation on my leisure time. Weird hobby of mine lol

> I read documentation on my leisure time. There are dozens of us!

That many?!?

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#17

Post by dartos »

reify wrote: post #7

I have not used any google products for years. Since 2005. For a non business users there really is no need to use them when there are, in my opinion, better open source alternatives. The only product I do use is the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) for my phones.

Not for YouTube :(

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#19

Post by fsflover »

witty-name wrote: post #11

Still prefer Google over any other search engine. Here are the issues I've faced with some of the alternatives: 1. Duck: Used it for years but the quality of results has taken a nosedive lately. 2. Startpage: Was good when it used to get results from Google but now it's a mix of Google and Bing. 3. Metasearch engines (SearX): Unreliable since they rely on scraping. 4. Kagi: Results are not better enough to consider p…

> but the quality of results has taken a nosedive lately

I hate when people bash good things without providing any details. This is so unhelpful. I've been using DDG for 5+ years; switching to Google never helps to find something useful on top.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use Google?

#20

Post by throwaway290 »

yuanhao wrote: post #8
imposterr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't an inherit issue with LLMs. You just need to set up some prompts that you can default to for different use cases. For example, you could set one up that is told to only provide the function arguments, and return value.

I just enjoy reading the MDN articles or stackoverflow / reddit discussions, as well as official docs a lot. I read documentation on my leisure time. Weird hobby of mine lol

Many times this helped me find a new/better way of doing something literally while looking up something else unrelated
Post reply on HN