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Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#341

Post by Too »

Roark66 wrote: post #278
Too wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well does that work? I would imagine recipes iate really hard to entrust to chatgpt. At least for baking, where ratios and timing is crucial. LLMs have very bad sense of numbers generally. How would you verify it’s not all bogus hallucinations? At best it’s a source of inspiration, for ingredients you can freestyle from yourself.

I didn't mean recipes specifically, but this type of question where I'm looking for a very specific short answer. For example, I don't know if some software has some specific feature, or I ask, write me a short python script fragment that does this or that. Or how do I reverse a git commit that was pushed etc. Or what is the thermal conductivity of kingpin extreme paste. All are very specific things years ago I would…

A programming snippet and a baking recipe are completely different. The first can be statically linted, fact checked against the docs, code reviewed and tested in a few seconds. Mainly it saves you the typing and finding the right name in the docs.

The later: a trip to the store, an hour of rising, then 1h in the oven, then all your guests arrive, not worth the gamble.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#342

Post by mycologos »

beej71 wrote: post #308
mycologos wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kill advertising and the web will be fixed automatically and permanently Is the implicit logic here "kill advertising and the web will be like what it was before widespread advertising: mostly for and by nerds"?

Yes! Not just computer nerds, but nerds of all kinds. I want to read things by recipe nerds, not people trying to make money on ads. I want to read about cars from car nerds and home repair from home repair nerds and writing from writing nerds. I want to read things from people who share them for the pure joy of sharing them.

I want that too! But things need to be easy to use if we want to hear from the people who are just X nerds and not X nerds and computer nerds. I think that's something ads enabled, because it made it valuable to just have a lot of people show up, which paid for all the work that went into making showing up easy.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#343

Post by kjkjadksj »

clnq wrote: post #233
foooorsyth wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is awful for anything controversial, but it’s good for uncontroversial hobby communities. If I need recommendations on new hockey skates, Reddit is a good place. It basically replaced independent phpBB forums of old — which were even better and less subject to sweeping centralized policy changes like all their subreddit replacements are now.

I disagree, but probably because we have different definitions of "good". To me, "good" means quite high quality. Like an expert sharing their thoughts in their niche. If you wish to use these thoughts, they will be very reliable and correct. If you consider "good" to be anything that is not "bad" or "harmful", then I would be more inclined to agree with you. My niche of tech is full of hobbyists and enthusiasts who…

Also the reason why a given product is even endorsed or even put in the sidebar of a given subreddit, is often from a concerted advertising campaign users are simply blind to.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#344

Post by jjulius »

beej71 wrote: post #308
mycologos wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kill advertising and the web will be fixed automatically and permanently Is the implicit logic here "kill advertising and the web will be like what it was before widespread advertising: mostly for and by nerds"?

Yes! Not just computer nerds, but nerds of all kinds. I want to read things by recipe nerds, not people trying to make money on ads. I want to read about cars from car nerds and home repair from home repair nerds and writing from writing nerds. I want to read things from people who share them for the pure joy of sharing them.

Give me this internet, please.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#345

Post by themulticaster »

rendall wrote: post #172
Gareth321 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I know you’d like this recipe for potato salad, but first, let’s explore the history of the humble potato. Where did it come from? What is its cultural significance? Could this mighty spud someday change the world? Hi, I’m Leslie Snark, and I’ve travelled the world eating delicious food to bring you the best recipes.”

Looking for the ultimate potato salad experience? When it comes to potato salad our potato salad is a game-changer in the world of potato salad. Made with farm-fresh ingredients, this potato salad recipe will elevate your potato salad picnic to a gourmet potato salad feast. Whether you're a potato salad novice or a potato salad connoisseur, our potato salad recipe is guaranteed to impress. Don't settle for ordinary p…

When choosing a bowl for your potato salad, you need to keep some important properties of potato salad bowls in mind. Different bowls have different designs that make some better suited to storing potato salad than others. For example, a higher quality bowl might have been manufactured to a higher standard than a subpar bowl. You might also want to choose different bowls depending on the amount of potato salad you want to prepare. There are bigger bowls and smaller bowls, differing in size and thus in the amount of potato salad they can accommodate. A smaller bowl is great when you're aiming to cook for just a few people, while a larger bowl is ideal for bigger groups. Brand name bowls like the classic SALADBOWL(tm) are preferred by some potato salad fans, while others appreciate the great price offered by newer, less established brands. Keep in mind that while a cheaper bowl is more affordable, it can also break more easily, so it's not a bad idea to compare the warranty period offered by different manufacturers.

Disclaimer: Not a native speaker, I hope I got the annoying structure of those "what to look for when buying X" blog articles right...

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#347

Post by meiraleal »

lacrimacida wrote: post #305
meiraleal wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. But the pendulum swings back.

It’s hard to swing back over walled gardens, they employ behavioral tactics to hook people into certain behaviors. When internet was new it grew organically, these tactics weren’t needed. Now all large platforms do it. Imagine how much effort it would take to unhook people off doomscrolling for example.

Yeah but at the same time, 1% of the internet today is bigger than what I thought it was a huge market 20 years ago, when I started. And now with the new tech available I can reach even a bigger global audience.

Big tech became too big even for themselves. Infinite growth is impossible and the capital market will punish them heavily when they stop growing. And they will. This big tech recess might never end. The likes of Google and Meta will go into maintenance mode and operate with much smaller engineering teams. I'm betting on the end of an era.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#348

Post by wwweston »

V1ndaar wrote: post #142
jorvi wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“site:reddit.com” saves the day, but I feel very uneasy doing so ever since they did their nasty API + demodding ploy.

Honestly, the "golden days" of using reddit for that purpose are over, too. Both the fact that random other crap comes up due to how stuff is linked on reddit and generally most search engines being too lenient with your search terms and finally more and more conversation going to discord and other places that cannot be searched. It really is one of the most unfortunate things of the modern internet. :(

Not to mention that the incentive to seo/market/spam reddit grows in proportion to people relying on it.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#349

Post by paradox460 »

dageshi wrote: post #29

The web thrived for a decent number of years with ads before it began to really spiral down. For me the biggest cause of that spiral was the shift from most users using desktops to most users using mobile to interact with google. In the desktop search world, google used to respond with large comprehensive articles on subjects that not just answered peoples questions but also educated them on the subject around their…

I'd argue that its even lower than that. Barring short-form video content, phones (and tablets) are almost exclusively consumption devices. Writing anything long-form on a phone is a pain in the ass, and so there's an implicit discouragement. Forget programming. Artists have procreate, but they had Wacom tablets before, so that hasn't changed much.

Re: Google has sent internet into 'spiral of decline', claims DeepMind co-founder

#350

Post by paradox460 »

wffurr wrote: post #197
leobg wrote: post #31

Recipe blogs are the most horrible example. The amount of BS you have to scroll through to get to the actual recipe.

Serious Eats has become by go-to. They make it real easy to go straight to the recipe. There’s also a well written article about the actual recipe development process with insights into why the recipe is the way it is. I also enjoy Kenji Lopez-Alt’s writing. They found a way to write those SEO-friendly articles but also keep their site usable and even deliver actual value with the article. It’s really impressive.

Their book, The Food Lab, is worth every cent
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