Ask HN: Do you still use search engines? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#131

Post by dijksterhuis » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:14 PM UTC

inferiorhuman wrote: post #110

RattlesnakeJake wrote: post #27

I use DuckDuckGo, with the occasional reddit !g appended if I'm looking for something experience-based. For me, searches fall into one of three categories, none of which are a good fit for LLMs: 1. A single business, location, object, or concept (I really just want the Google Maps or Wikipedia page, and I'm too lazy to go straight to the site). For these queries, LLMs are either overkill or outdated. 2. Product revie…

Unfortunately DDG still enshittifies their results with AI garbage as much as they can. Both with the intrusive AI blob at the top and replacing the page summaries with dreadful AI goobleygook.

You can disable the AI summary thing: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/duckai/how-to-h...

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#132

Post by entropyneur » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:14 PM UTC

Do you have that friend who knows the answer to anything and who you thought was a genius until smartphones appeared and you started googling his answers? LLMs are that guy.

For programming stuff that can be immediately verified LLMs are good. They also cover many cases where search engines can't go (e.g. "what was that song where X did Y?"). But looking up facts? Not yet. Burned many times and not trying it again until I hear something changed fundamentally.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#133

Post by coryrc » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

FloorEgg wrote: post #112

wavemode wrote: post #69

Search is primarily a portal - you know a particular resource exists, you just don't know its exact URL. You hear about this new programming language called "Frob", and you assume it must have a website. So you google "Frob language". You hear that there was a plane crash in DC, and assume (CNN/AP/your_favorite_news_site) has almost certainly written an article about it. You google "DC plane crash." LLMs aren't ever…

Except when search engines bury the thing you're obviously looking for under an entire page of sponsored ads, then that convenience argument starts to not hold up as well...

Do you not use an ad blocker?

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#134

Post by nfriedly » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:16 PM UTC

It's a mix of both for me.

I use gemini more on my phone, where I feel like going through search results and reading is more effort, but I'll fall back to searching on duck duck go fairly often.

On a desktop I generally start at duck duck go, and if it's not there, then I don't bother with AI. (I use copilot in my editor, and it's usually helpful, but not really "search").

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#135

Post by omarozr » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:19 PM UTC

Most engines now include LLM outputs on top pf search results now. Solely using an LLM is just not practical

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#136

Post by jasonvorhe » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:20 PM UTC

Kagi with a lengthy exclusion/block list (fact checkers, Pinterest, etc), Brave Search, DDG as a rare 3rd option. Not using any explicit AI search engines like Perplexity, but I make use of Kagi's summaries a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#137

Post by nashashmi » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:21 PM UTC

This is pretty much the reason why I think Google should divest of its search engine to private equity, and go all in on AI query while it is still high in valuation.

It will also help get rid of the antitrust issues that the chrome browser has created

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#138

Post by intellectronica » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:21 PM UTC

Only if I know exactly what I'm looking for but don't want to type the URL or don't remember it. I never actually search for information with a search engine anymore.

The only advantage Google and other traditional search engines have over AIs is that they're very fast. If I know for certain I can get what I want in under 1s I might as well use Google. For everything else, Perplexity or ChatGPT is going to be faster.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#139

Post by dkkergoog » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

pdabbadabba wrote: post #107

supportengineer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one who double checks all of the information presented to me, from any source?

If what you say is literally true: yes, I think you probably are the only one!

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#140

Post by pcthrowaway » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

I mainly use Google or Duckduckgo (depending on what I'm searching for), but I think search quality has been declining because of AI slop.

Which is kind of a problem, especially for Google, because their incentive to limit AI slop in search results is reduced when AI is one of their products, and they stand to benefit from search quality declining across the board in relation to AI answers.