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Google Search Is Dying (2022)

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Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#481

Post by pcrh »

MikusR wrote: post #173
pcrh wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

User: How do I fix large pdf files? ChatGPT: delete system32

Had to finally register there to check. This was the answer. "There are a few things you can try to fix large PDF files: Compress the PDF: You can use online or offline tools to compress the PDF file. This will reduce the file size and make it easier to work with. Some popular tools for compressing PDFs include Adobe Acrobat, Smallpdf, and PDF Compressor. Remove unnecessary elements: If the PDF file contains images,…

Thanks for doing that!

It isn't very helpful, though.

Adobe has a method of compressing pdf files that is quite effective while retaining the quality of images, etc, e.g. 50 MB to 3 MB, so you can now email it. However you can only use the free version a few times before it wants all your data as well as the data of your first born. I'm too stingy to pay Adobe...

I haven't (yet) found free pdf compression that doesn't mangle images... (would be glad to try any that HN might suggest!).

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#482

Post by josephjrobison »

For the longest time I’ve been against this train of thought. Even resisted this when GPT-3 was announced and then ChatGPT was said to replace Google.

But I’m slowly coming around to the camp that for specific searchers where you want a quick answer, ChatGPT beats Google hands down and my searching habits are changing. Interesting times.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#483

Post by XCSme »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #254

I don't know if it's Google that is dying. It's more like a large segment of the public facing internet is wilting. The user experience without an adblocker is almost nothing but ads, popovers, permission requests and chat boxes, sign-up-to-the-newsletter requests. And these are the websites that aren't trying to bait-and-switch you For example, this is the screen I'm showed when I navigate to www.producthunt.com: ht…

> a large segment of the public facing internet is wiltin

I noticed that many teenagers today, despite the abundance of technology around them, are a lot less technological than the previous generation. When I was young, almost everyone in my school knew how to download (pirate) stuff from the internet, burn CDs, copy cracks, modify config files, etc. Nowadays, I see some young people not knowing how to use the maps' functionality on their phones, and only be "proficient" in a few apps like Email, TikTok and Instagram.

I do think that the PC/internet being less accessible before forced people to learn more about computers. Because everything is so fast and easy nowadays and there are so many sources of information, no one really needs to spend that time.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#484

Post by zamadatix »

IAmNotACellist wrote: post #397
moffkalast wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> forums have opened that are full of "support specialists" telling you to reset your windows install God this is such a pet peeve, those stupid Microsoft forums especially where the customer reps spend 80% of the comment apologizing and wishing a good day and suggest fuck all. They ought to just pull the plug on the site and let reddit handle their support for free.

Hello moffkalast, I'm Kevin from the Microsoft Customer Support Team. I'm sorry to hear you're having a problem with Windows 10 support forums today. We're here to help and would like to get this problem resolved for you! I understand that the issue you're currently facing is that "Microsoft forums where the customer reps spend 80% of the comment apologizing" are appearing on your Windows 10 forum search results? Oft…

Obviously fake, it didn't tell us to run sfc /scannow.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#485

Post by zamadatix »

pcrh wrote: post #481
MikusR wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to finally register there to check. This was the answer. "There are a few things you can try to fix large PDF files: Compress the PDF: You can use online or offline tools to compress the PDF file. This will reduce the file size and make it easier to work with. Some popular tools for compressing PDFs include Adobe Acrobat, Smallpdf, and PDF Compressor. Remove unnecessary elements: If the PDF file contains images,…

Thanks for doing that! It isn't very helpful, though. Adobe has a method of compressing pdf files that is quite effective while retaining the quality of images, etc, e.g. 50 MB to 3 MB, so you can now email it. However you can only use the free version a few times before it wants all your data as well as the data of your first born. I'm too stingy to pay Adobe... I haven't (yet) found free pdf compression that doesn'…

Asking it "What is the best open source software to do option 1" it's first suggestion is Ghostscript, which is actually what I use. It can walk you through installing it and describing how to change the quality of the compression.

Or if you prefer the old fashioned way you can just read about it yourself here https://ghostscript.readthedocs.io/en/gs10.0.0/VectorDevices... the settings are modeled around what Adobe does and names them. I've never really messed with any GUI options though.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#486

Post by ajsnigrutin »

marcosdumay wrote: post #342
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recipes are a pain in general, even without google, doubly so for baking. Baking is a science, not art... so recipes calling for a cup of flour and two teaspoons of butter are useless to me, while recipes with ingredients in grams are useless to many american grandmas. On the other hand, a pinterest page with a photo and a large overlay asking me to register is useless to both of us.

Nowadays a cup and a tablespoon are standard unities of volume. They are not any worse than milliliters. There are a few people that insist on ignoring the standards, but those also tend to not publish their recipes.

You cannot measure flour, sugar, salt, etc by volume. Cups of flour and *spoins of sugar/salt/cinnamon and even butter are used in (too) many recipes.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#487

Post by thewebcount »

mmcdermott wrote: post #398
kjs3 wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must create account to use a search engine. Hard Nope.

I find the syllogism here a little hard to follow, because here is what the first bit looks like to me: 1. Web search is useful, both for work/productivity and recreation. 2. Running servers to index the internet is a scale of compute beyond the effort and expense of most or all of home users. 3. Web search has distinct economies of scale when applied. 4. Said economies must be funded in some way. 5. There are two pr…

> 5. There are two proposed models: ad-supported and subscription.

For the record, there are many other possible models. (I realize you may be saying that in this thread there are 2 proposed models, but I want to say this because people here seem to think there are only ever 2 possibilities.)

Some other models include:

1. Patronage ala public radio/TV where you are asked to pay for it, but don't have to. If enough people do, everyone can use it for free. (Wikipedia, one of the top 10 sites on the internet by traffic, works this way.)

2. Donations (probably not viable for most businesses, but sometimes works out)

3. Partially or fully funded by some other business which benefits from people using it. For example, if Apple wanted to start their own search engine without ads, but that only worked with their devices, they could probably figure out a way to do that and they would make money from selling the devices, and not ads on the search engine. (Not that they wouldn't try to have ads, too these days. Ugh.)

4. Pay as you go - instead of a subscription that is recurring even if you don't use the product and that you eventually forget about, you just pay whenever you actually use it and pay for only as much as you use. Not sure it work with a search engine, but nobody's ever tried, so it's hard to say.

5. Government funded. I realize this would rub people the wrong way, but a government search engine funded by tax payer dollars that had no ads could be very useful if done correctly. You just wouldn't want to use it to look up illegal things. (And it doesn't necessarily have to be the Federal government. A state government might benefit from running it, as well.)

Edited to add: For the record, I pay for and use Kagi and love it.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#488

Post by ClumsyPilot »

carlosjobim wrote: post #477
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your content is good, you can rank highly - even if nobody links to you! I m sorry, this is like news from a different universe. There is an absolutely world-shattering report on how children have lost all freedom ovet the past 40 years. They used to roam the neighbourhood, then they were allowed to stay in one street, and today we dont let them out of backyard. I have it on my PC, but can't find it in Google. I…

I can only talk from my own experience, I've launched several websites that became high ranking on Google solely because of content and speed. Without anybody linking to them. Hell, there's still nobody linking to them years later, and Google still keeps them highly ranked. In niches with well established competitors. Without Google, I doubt I would have had any chance to reach a public, because nobody except search…

You seem to be providing a brilliant explanation why Google has failed -> I don't need to be found, I need to find a specific piece of information. It's a report by a major university about children. It's basically impossible to find. The university probably has crap website, maybe it's slow, it doesn't follow google guidelines - but so what? As a consumer, I don't care if the website is fast, if it's providing wrong information.

Alternatively, if I search for something related to registering a company in UK, the top 3 results are scams. Does Google rate scammers higher because their website is fast? Is it too difficult for Google to identify the .gov domain and rank the result appropriately?

I am not claiming Google is evil, I am claiming Google is incompetent.

They have destroyed their own food supply or they failed to protect it, and that's why now their search results have gone to shit.

It seems the average Joe that used to run their own website or forum has gone bankrupt or is berried under SEO spam. Joe was replaced by Average Tom.

Average Tom doesn't even know how to make a website, instead he registers on 5 different platforms - Instagram, Ticktok, Etsy, whatever else is popular, and pushes their content there. No SEO spam, they get results. Yes, they lose freedom, have to deal with arbitrary rules, moderation, etc. They are willing to take that deal over what google is offering. Maybe Google should have parted with some of the profit to convince content creators not to go to closed platforms.

Users have voted with their feet, and most of the world's content is no longer accessible to Google. Today's teenagers don't even search on Google to find a barber, they search on Instagram, and make a booking right there.

Google search is already dead inside, they just don't know it yet.

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#489

Post by trinsic2 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #198
j_crick wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the worst of SEO pages are cooking recipes, where you have to scroll down screens of badly written meaningless text before you actually get to ingredients list. At least Google still keeps indexing recipe microformats.

Search your recipes on YouTube. It is a better way of getting the information and higher quality. Edit: To the friendly people downvoting me: Try for yourself and you'll be surprised how much good and informative content you can find on YouTube.

LOL. Yeah lets all use youtube for our recipe gathering... Thats way better (sacrasm)

Re: Google Search Is Dying (2022)

#490

Post by j_crick »

account42 wrote: post #230
saberience wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse, I've found myself directed to long recipe pages with a huge amount of prose about the history of the recipe, how the author developer it etc, BUT THEN THERE IS NO ACTUAL RECIPE! This has happened multiple times in the past year. And this was often the first or second result when Googling the recipe. wtf?

I've seen some where the recipe was vissible on desktop but hidden behind a button on mobile which can be easy to miss.

That button thing is just the top level of douchebaggery right there. Sad
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