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

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

#51

Post by guillaume8375 » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #26

guillaume8375 wrote: post #2

I’m a Kagi subscriber; I like it but I use it less and less. The more times goes by, the more I use both ChatGPT and Claude to search (at the same time, to cross-check the results) with Kagi used to either check the results when I know strictly nothing of the subject or for specific searches (restaurants, movie showings…). I’ve almost completely stopped using Google.

A question mark after a search on Kagi gives you an AI summary, the latency is good. If you go for the highest tier subscription on kagi, you get https://kagi.com/assistant which gives you a huge swath of AI models to handle your searching.

True, but I still pay for both Claude and ChatGPT so that I can use the latest models.

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

#52

Post by linacica » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

Depends on content, sometimes i use GPT to find stuff im lazy for and i know google would waste my time more likely, but generally i still use google, there are a lot of miscellaneous searches where an LLM would do worse than a search engine (currency exchange rate, stock price, quick facts etc..) tho I wish google had an option to block some sites from showing up, some searches are just filled with garbage - and i would like to block the whole domain from ever showing up

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

#53

Post by npoc » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

supportengineer wrote: post #46

Okawari wrote: post #35

I still prefer tranditional search engines over LLMs but I admit, its results feels worse than it has traditionally. I don't like LLMs for two reasons: * I can't really get a feel for the veracity of the information without double checking it. A lot of context I get from just reading results from a traditional search engine is lost when I get an answer from a LLM. I find it somewhat uncomfortable to just accept the a…

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

How deep do you go? Where do you stop?

Just because you can find multiple independent sources saying the same thing doesn't mean it's correct.

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

#54

Post by jeffwask » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 5:50 PM UTC

Considering I have been using different search engines since Excite and Alta Vista, the state of modern search is worse than when crawlers were in their infancy. It is so front loaded with SEO, a search for a simple doc reference gives you ten pages of links back to the sales and marketing pages for 12 applications that do something similar.

AI is a better search for now because SEO and paid prioritization in search hasn't infested that ecosystem yet but it's only a matter of time.

I dropped Google search years ago but every engine is experiencing enshitification.

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

#55

Post by thiht » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:06 PM UTC

Nope. I’ve despised using Google Search for years, and thought it would eventually be replaced with another better search engine. At one point I even switched to a paid Kagi subscription for a few months and it was sooo much better than Google. I only stopped using Kagi because I’ve completely switched to ChatGPT now. It’s a really great search engine but for my daily use ChatGPT is more convenient and faster to use.

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

#56

Post by superkuh » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:16 PM UTC

I still use google scholar, right dao for deep search (tens of thousands of results), searx instances, and kagi for now but it's not worth the $10/mo for only ~200 results per search.

The serendipity of doing search with your own eyes and brain on page 34 of the results cannot be understated. Web surfing is good and does things that curated results (ie, google's <400, bing's <900, kagi's <200, LLM's very limited single results) cannot.

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

#57

Post by JKCalhoun » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

linacica wrote: post #52

Depends on content, sometimes i use GPT to find stuff im lazy for and i know google would waste my time more likely, but generally i still use google, there are a lot of miscellaneous searches where an LLM would do worse than a search engine (currency exchange rate, stock price, quick facts etc..) tho I wish google had an option to block some sites from showing up, some searches are just filled with garbage - and i w…

Actually "quick facts", as I define them, are much better with an LLM for me. I prefer not having to wade through pages of links to sites trying to sell me something.

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

#58

Post by runarberg » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:20 PM UTC

How do you know the information it generates is correct?

Just now for example I wanted to know how Emma Goldman was deported despite being a US citizen. Or whether she was a citizen to begin with. If an LLM gave me an answer I for sure would not trust it to be factual.

My search was simple: Emma Goldman citizenship. I got a wikipedia article, claiming it was argued that her citizenship was considered void after her ex husband’s citizenship was revoked. Now I needed to confirm it from a different source and also find out why her ex’s citizenship was revoked. So I searched his name + citizenship and got an New Yorker article claiming it was revoked because of some falsified papers. Done

If an LLM told me that, I simply wouldn’t trust it and would need to search for it anyway.

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

#59

Post by mepian » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:21 PM UTC

Yes, I'm still using Google as I haven't found LLMs useful as a search engine replacement.

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

#60

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 6:21 PM UTC

supportengineer wrote: post #46

Okawari wrote: post #35

I still prefer tranditional search engines over LLMs but I admit, its results feels worse than it has traditionally. I don't like LLMs for two reasons: * I can't really get a feel for the veracity of the information without double checking it. A lot of context I get from just reading results from a traditional search engine is lost when I get an answer from a LLM. I find it somewhat uncomfortable to just accept the a…

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

Unless someone's life is on the line, usually eyeballing the source URL is enough for me. If I'm looking for API documentation, there are a few well-known URLs I trust as authoritative. If I'm looking for product information, same thing. If the search engine points me to totallyawesomeproductleadgen19995.biz, I'm probably not getting reliable information.

An LLM response without explicit mention of its provenance... There's no way to even guess whether it is authoritative.