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Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

bbc.com

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Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#41

Post by threeseed »

Varloom wrote: post #33
coldcode wrote: post #18

I searched for how to use a massage ball (my back hurts) last week and got a giant page full of ads and ad-like sections for buying one with barely any articles at all. That is not a search engine; it's an ads engine.

I reduced my google search engine usage by 90% Just Option+Space and get the answer with ChatGPT for MacOS. No ads, no nonsense, just the answer.

> No ads, no nonsense, just the answer.

5 - 10% of the time that answer will be complete rubbish.

We need something better than Google and LLMs e.g. Golden before it was acquired: https://golden.com

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#42

Post by kriops »

coldcode wrote: post #18

I searched for how to use a massage ball (my back hurts) last week and got a giant page full of ads and ad-like sections for buying one with barely any articles at all. That is not a search engine; it's an ads engine.

Kagi costs Spotify money, has zero ads, and lets you customise the results.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#43

Post by Exuma »

ADeerAppeared wrote: post #36
michelb wrote: post #8

This is good. Because it now will make way more sense to compete with Google on searching the internet, since they screwed it up. They’re are panicking and defending their bottom-line instead of innovating and leading. I think internet search is now ripe for disruption. Still need deep pockets but it’s now increasingly easier to be much better at search than Google.

> Still need deep pockets but it’s now increasingly easier to be much better at search than Google. That's the big problem here. All the new search engines rely on the infrastructure of the old ones. It would take very little collusion between Google and Microsoft to crush something like Kagi. And the moment any new competitor gets big, they'll do it. What's needed is an anti-trust breakup. There's simply too big a c…

How would they crush kagi

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#44

Post by _heimdall »

skilled wrote: post #3

Honestly, bravo at BBC for whoever green-lighted this story. It puts the finger right on where it hurts for small publishers and illustrates Googles new way of thinking. I am sad but also frightened for small creators and those who simply share interesting information once in a while. Google is bulldozing these people away from anywhere near the AI answers or the ten blue links below it. The article didn’t mention it…

It seems pretty clear that Google's era of search technology has aged out. SEO has been a game of cat and mouse since the web became an ad platform, it was only a matter of time before Google ran out of moves.

I'd much prefer a shift back to the earlier, smaller internet approach but it was driven by the enjoyment of exploration and discovery. Today most people prefer instant gratification online and just want answers and content thrown at them faster, with little regard for quality.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#45

Post by rutierut »

david-gpu wrote: post #4

Over the past several months I find Google search has become completely useless to find anything other than online retailers. I thought it may have been just something about my profile, but this article suggests it may have been an update on their end. Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

DDG was such an absolutely subpar experience for me (used it for 6-8 months) that it wouldn't surprise me if nobody would _actually_ say it's better in a blind test. They just don't like Google.

Kagi on the other hand really blew me away, I have no idea how they're doing it, but I'm only using Google for one thing these days (besides G Shopping & G Maps) which is when I want to use ad spend as proxy for quality/reliability of the company (for example when I'm looking for a local moving company in my city).

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#46

Post by jayski »

throwaway211 wrote: post #28

Two big reasons people add Reddit to search phrases is because Reddit's search isn't functional and to deprioritise Ad Junk from search. It's to fix broken search, which gets more broken - more unwanted Ad Junk. But Google's an advertising company with it's ad search device in everyone's pocket. At least it's reached sufficient post-don't-be-evil to be honestly shameless, even if it does employ people in PR with brok…

Reddit is the only social network I use.

They're really dropping the ball by not having a fantastic search tool. I know search is a difficult problem, but with the kind of budget and engineering power they have it has to be solvable.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#47

Post by machiaweliczny »

rsolva wrote: post #40

We need to make bookmarks a common way to access the web again! So many people use Google or other search engines to access even the most basic sites, instead of storing a bookmark or typing out the whole URL. I have used a simple bookmarking strategy in Firefox for some years now, simply storing everything and anything I suspect I might want to retrieve later. I give each bookmark a few quick keywords and store it a…

How about social features like sharing bookmarks or having curated list for specific subjects

When I want to share bookmark folder for other collegues I have to go trough hoops (at least on chrome)

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#48

Post by Nevolihs »

rutierut wrote: post #45
david-gpu wrote: post #4

Over the past several months I find Google search has become completely useless to find anything other than online retailers. I thought it may have been just something about my profile, but this article suggests it may have been an update on their end. Meanwhile, Duckduckgo still provides decent results in my experience.

DDG was such an absolutely subpar experience for me (used it for 6-8 months) that it wouldn't surprise me if nobody would _actually_ say it's better in a blind test. They just don't like Google. Kagi on the other hand really blew me away, I have no idea how they're doing it, but I'm only using Google for one thing these days (besides G Shopping & G Maps) which is when I want to use ad spend as proxy for quality/relia…

I only use Google for local search results (news or businesses) as well. Otherwise I'm also very happy with the quality of results I get from Kagi.

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#49

Post by ADeerAppeared »

Exuma wrote: post #43
ADeerAppeared wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still need deep pockets but it’s now increasingly easier to be much better at search than Google. That's the big problem here. All the new search engines rely on the infrastructure of the old ones. It would take very little collusion between Google and Microsoft to crush something like Kagi. And the moment any new competitor gets big, they'll do it. What's needed is an anti-trust breakup. There's simply too big a c…

How would they crush kagi

Kagi relies on data from the search engine giants. Without that data, it's dead in the water.

That's the dumbest part of it all; Kagi's not an entirely new search engine. It's Google's index but without the ad-tech juicing, and some clever use of a few other search indices to specialize results.

(I.e. Google could unshit itself at any moment, it just doesn't want to.)

Re: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same

#50

Post by booleandilemma »

coldcode wrote: post #18

I searched for how to use a massage ball (my back hurts) last week and got a giant page full of ads and ad-like sections for buying one with barely any articles at all. That is not a search engine; it's an ads engine.

I just did the same search and the first result was how to use a massage ball. I scrolled down a bit and saw a reddit thread titled "using a massage ball for back pain".

The declining quality of Google's search results is greatly over exaggerated.

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