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Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

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

#501

Post by miki123211 »

Here's what I do:

1. questions where I expect SEO crap, like for cooking recipes, are for LLMs. I use the best available LLM for those to avoid hallucinations as much as possible, 2.5 pro these days. With so much blogspam, LLMs are actually less likely to hallucinate at this point than the real internet IMO.

2. Questions whose answer I can immediately verify, like "how do I do x in language y", also go to an LLM. If the suggestion doesn't work, then I google. My stackoverflow usage has fallen to almost 0.

3. General overviews / "how is this algorithm called" / "is there a library that does x" are LLMs, usually followed by Googling about the solutions discussed.

4. When there's no answer to my exact question anywhere, or when I need a more detailed overview of a new library / language, I still read tutorials and reference docs.

5. Local / company stuff, things like "when is this place open and how do I call them" or "what is the refund policy of this store" are exclusively Google. Same for shopping (not an American, so LLM shopping comparisons aren't very useful to me). Sadly, online reviews are still a cesspool.

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

#502

Post by mohi-kalantari »

justonceokay wrote: post #17
mohi-kalantari wrote: post #6

I'm also using chatgpt with its search enabled or perplexity for searching almost anything. Way more accurate and to the point. I feel like the google search will become obsolete in a short time and they have to make big changes to their UX and search engine. Although I guess most of its user base are still relying on the old ways so changing it right now has huge impacts on older users.

Interested in what your benchmark for accuracy is. I feel like for my searches that I am normally looking at a few different sources and cross referencing them to come to a conclusion about what is best for me. Do you find that AI is good at automatically figuring out what is best for you? For instance I wanted help cooking Coq au vin yesterday. I’ve cooked it before but I couldn’t remember what temperature to set th…

Honestly, I haven't really thought about how much better my searches have gotten but one thing for sure is that now it's way faster.

I can only really validate the generated response when it's code. Usually on other stuff, I trust and read the response which is not good I guess.

Hope you were satisfied with the food at the end :)

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

#503

Post by jonathanstrange »

I don't use ChatGPT or any other AI. If I search for something, I search for authoritative documents on the topic. That is, official docs, articles, books. Asking ChatGPT would be like asking a random person who provides an opinion without any guarantees. It's potentially useful information but needs to be verified. So I need to search again to verify the information and get to an authoritative source.

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

#504

Post by marvinblum »

miloignis wrote: post #281

Yes, I use search engine(s) constantly - namely Kagi, which really does feel like Google used to. I tried using LLMs for a recent project of mine when I was trying to figure out if something was possible, and they were actively misleading, every time. My issue for this project was that what I was asking for did end up not being currently possible, but LLMs wouldn't tell me that and would make up incorrect ways to sol…

It's the same for me. I've switched to DuckDuckGo about 2 or 3 years ago and it feels like Google used to. I'm always shocked to see how bad the results are and how cluttered the top section is on Google if I happen to search there on someone else's computer.

LLMs have mostly been useful for three things: single line code completion (in GoLand), quickly translating JSON, and generating/optimizing marketing texts.

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

#505

Post by bigomega »

owlninja wrote: post #165
bigomega wrote: post #3

Not really, no. My peers and I were constantly opening ChatGPT when probing new topics. But now, with Gemini integrated within Google and the hallucinations of LLMs, seeing the SEO result along with the AI summary has become my goto choice. The one thing I find extremely frustrating (which I hope Google fixes) is not being able to continue the conversation with Gemini if I have follow-up questions. I think this also…

You may have to enable it, but their experimental 'AI Mode' does basically what you are saying (I think). I can hit 'dive deeper with AI mode' at the bottom of the 'AI Overview', and it just becomes an interactive search session...sort of.

Yeah I looked it up and found it here: https://labs.google.com/search/experiment/22?source=googlela... but it's not available for me (or my region) yet.

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

#506

Post by nullbio »

Only a matter of time before OpenAI starts selling advertising services and weighting specific websites and services higher than others in their response generation for money. We should really outlaw this before it becomes a problem, and before it becomes a thing, because once it happens there is no turning back. Unlikely that anyone with the power to do this will actually have the foresight to do it though.

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

#507

Post by sshine »

dharmab wrote: post #471
sshine wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And sometimes you have all the data, but it’s too much, so you ask for a summary and ask elaborating questions.

I've found this ineffective for anything where I need a factual answer and brilliantly where I need the vibe of subjective or fictional things. Bad: summarizing scientific research or technical data Great: finding travel ideas or clarifying aspects of a franchise's fictional universe.

I've found Kagi's Universal Summarizer useful for:

  - Long reads when I just want to know the conclusion
  - Reading terms of services that I would otherwise have blindly accepted
  - Summarizing key requirements in large tender documents prior to bidding on work
As for summaries in general, FastGPT is so useful I apply it to most of my searches.

Especially if I'm looking for a small fact buried in the first results.

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

#508

Post by Cthulhu_ »

I use search engines, but that's because I just yeet in a few words and I get a result, either directly through the preview or after a click through to the results.

With chatbots I first need to formulate a question (or, I feel like I do), then wait for it to slowly churn out an overly wordy response. Or I need to prompt it first to keep it short.

I suppose this difference is different if you already used a search engine by asking it a fully formulated question like "What is a html fieldset and how do I use it?" instead of "html fieldset" and clicking through to MDN.

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

#509

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Modified3019 wrote: post #264
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…

IMO an example of a good use case for an LLM, which would be otherwise very hard to search for, is clarifying vague technical concepts. Just yesterday I was trying to remember the name of a vague concept I’d forgotten, with my overall question being: “Is there a technical term in biology for the equilibrium that occurs between plant species producing defensive toxins, and toxin resistance in the insect species that f…

I just want to say that this thread / the responses to your question are better than either search engines or LLMs can ever come up with, and shows the truth of Cunningham's Law: "The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer"

Or updated for the LLM age, "the best way to get the right answer from an LLM is not to ask it a question and use its answer; it's to post its response on a site of well-educated and easily nerdsniped people"

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

#510

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Slow_Hand wrote: post #318
Modified3019 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO an example of a good use case for an LLM, which would be otherwise very hard to search for, is clarifying vague technical concepts. Just yesterday I was trying to remember the name of a vague concept I’d forgotten, with my overall question being: “Is there a technical term in biology for the equilibrium that occurs between plant species producing defensive toxins, and toxin resistance in the insect species that f…

Same. This is one of the few uses for LLMs that I actually find useful and that I trust. They’re very helpful for helping me ask more refined questions by getting the terminology correct.

That's the truth behind finding answers; it's not about finding the answer, it's about asking the right question.
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