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

41–50 of 550 posts

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

#41

Post by beamgirl »

Hamuko wrote: post #26
RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #12

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 s…

I can't wait for people to switch over from search engine optimization to AI model optimization: figuring out what kind of content you need to produce in order for Google's and OpenAI's models to deliver your message as gospel.

I'm actually expecting AI training data to turn into a snake eating its tail. I've been spending the last month not sleeping so I could try to get up to speed on deep learning, and my understanding is that AI trained on AI generated output becomes crap surprisingly quickly, and AI generated content is already starting to proliferate. I have no idea the extent to which this will hinder new models being generated, but I could see it becoming quite the problem.

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

#42

Post by saudade97 »

I don't get the HN hate of Google as a search tool. Yes, SEO has made searching more difficult, but Google is still by far the best search engine provided that your searches are focused and you use search tools (e.g., excluding terms, focusing on certain sites, etc.). I've tried other search engines (e.g., DDG, Bing) and they just aren't as good as Google.

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

#43

Post by goatlover »

dilap wrote: post #31

Microsoft's integration of ChatGPT with Bing is really bad. No-one wants a busy search page with a side-bar of ChatGPT; what's the point of that? The correct interface for ChatGPT + search is just...ChatGPT. But it can also show you a list of web search results, when it's appropriate. A super-clean interface, that always shows you exactly what you want. That would be a killer feature and represent a real threat to Go…

As long as it's easy to see the list of web results so I can go there instead of just relying on the model. Also because there are reasons to go to sites other than just getting a summary. Like maybe you need or want to use that site to do something.

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

#45

Post by kec »

josu wrote: post #24
marcopicentini wrote: post #15

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 busine…

>It has been many years since Google has launched an innovative new product. Stadia launched in 2019.

OnLive was 2009, PS Now was 2014, and Geforce Now launched in 2015.

Stadia might have been well executed from a technical standpoint but AAA game streaming wasn't exactly a new and innovative idea in 2019.

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

#46

Post by RockyMcNuts »

dilap wrote: post #31

Microsoft's integration of ChatGPT with Bing is really bad. No-one wants a busy search page with a side-bar of ChatGPT; what's the point of that? The correct interface for ChatGPT + search is just...ChatGPT. But it can also show you a list of web search results, when it's appropriate. A super-clean interface, that always shows you exactly what you want. That would be a killer feature and represent a real threat to Go…

I haven't seen anything like Bing + ChatGPT since the Road Runner's rocket powered roller skates.

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

#47

Post by karaterobot »

humanizersequel wrote: post #29
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…

>Touchscreens are worse than buttons Hottest take I've seen on here for a while. In a very specific, very limited set of mobile usecases, buttons may offer a more pleasant experience than a touchscreen. I only say that because there's usually exceptions to any statement, but I can't actually think of one. Touchscreens didn't win because of some lazy sheep-like consumerism, they won because the product is superior. If…

I think it's more that touchscreens are superior for certain kinds of activities, like consuming information in the form of feeds, videos, and images. Mostly because the screen is larger for the same device size. Buttons are more accurate for typing, and often (I believe, without citation) faster for typing as well, even compared to swipe systems.

One is not superior to the other over all, but each is better at certain things. The difference is that more people will pay money to maximize their user experience scrolling through feeds and watching videos, compared to typing emails.

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

#48

Post by lyu07282 »

marcopicentini wrote: post #15

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 busine…

They are kind of forced to keep up or die now, not a good place to be in. It feels like everyone always just assumed they must have super advanced AI behind closed doors. Perhaps that was a wrong assumption because they never actually seem to *do* anything with it, but we will probably know that for sure very soon.

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

#49

Post by quickthrower2 »

Hamuko wrote: post #26
RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #12

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 s…

I can't wait for people to switch over from search engine optimization to AI model optimization: figuring out what kind of content you need to produce in order for Google's and OpenAI's models to deliver your message as gospel.

It will be hilarious. Chat GPT is standing on the shoulders of there being no AI-EO, a bit like Google 1.0 did.

AI will be a victim of it’s own success too. Or it will need to be human researched and curated rather than just letting an algorithm run freely across the web.

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

#50

Post by tester756 »

saudade97 wrote: post #42

I don't get the HN hate of Google as a search tool. Yes, SEO has made searching more difficult, but Google is still by far the best search engine provided that your searches are focused and you use search tools (e.g., excluding terms, focusing on certain sites, etc.). I've tried other search engines (e.g., DDG, Bing) and they just aren't as good as Google.

>your searches are focused

are what?

>I don't get the HN hate of Google as a search tool. Yes, SEO has made searching more difficult, but Google is still by far the best search engine provided that your searches are focused and you use search tools (e.g., excluding terms, focusing on certain sites, etc.). I've tried other search engines (e.g., DDG, Bing) and they just aren't as good as Google.

What if their search is better just because way, way way more people use it?

Post reply on HN