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

Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 550 posts

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#12

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

The gaming of SEO has been quietly destroying the utility of search writ large as a mechanism for quite a while.

Over the last year, its become palpable.

Google has such utility in this regard that in some cases, a hallucinating lie-machine offers better answer than an index of what information is available on the internet.

This issue with with Googles failure to respond to the deluge of SEO driven content in their searches. They can do better. They've chosen to not do so.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#14

Post by marginalia_nu »

dontreact wrote: post #2

I would bet money that the answer here is no

Yeah, people underestimate Google.

They have a really compelling package that is hard to replace, especially how well they understand local queries.

That as well as strong funneling factors in place, Chrome and Android being some of the biggest.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#15

Post by marcopicentini »

It's been a while since they stopped innovating.

Although Google, Maps, Youtube are of daily use they are monetized exclusively by advertising which is annoying and hated by many. It has been many years since Google has launched an innovative new product.

I don't think ChatGPT will gain daily traction after this hype. Anyway we could say that MSFT and AMZN have demostrated more power to innovate with different business models (not only adv) and products.

The GOOG stock has a PE (Price/earning) of 23, while Coca cola 26. So the stock market expect higher growth from CocaCola than Google. Quite surprising.

- GOOGLE PE (23): https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GOOGL/alphabet/pe-...

- COCA COLA PE (26): https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/pe-rat...

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#16

Post by rileyphone »

chias wrote: post #8

While Google certainly has its faults and I am frustrated with its trajectory, I would bet money that this is an article pushing the nonsensical notion that AI language models will replace search engines. Edit: based on the subtitle, it seems like I am correct.

How is that nonsensical? Seems quite likely to me, especially if they can ground them better in a factual knowledge base. Most search engine queries are looking for information.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#17

Post by bobthepanda »

marricks wrote: post #7

I think it’s interesting to consider why touchscreen mobile phones won out over their predecessors. Touchscreens are the worst interface option. The feedback of feeling a button, or anything made for the job, is better than typing without specific feedback onto a screen. It won out because of you don’t have a set interface it’s bettor. Now for search, chat gpt will likely always be less reliable than a list of result…

Touchscreen keyboards disappear and free up their real estate. That’s the main advantage on phones.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#18

Post by chomp »

Invictus0 wrote: post #9

Do you people really want AI generated answers? As if the internet wasn't bland enough as it is. This forum has been soapboxing for years about the longtail of blogs and BBs and niche sites, right up to the moment that Bing got chatgpt.

I just want Google to fall, nothing much more than that. I personally am going to continue using Kagi, but will quietly cheer Microsoft eating Google's lunch.
Post reply on HN