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Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#91

Post by rav »

nitwit005 wrote: post #85

If Google provided an option to disable AI search results, I'd happily turn it off. I'd also happily turn off several other search features, more directly tied to revenue, which is probably why they don't like adding options. I'm sure their AI will be selling products soon enough. Got to make those billions spent back somehow.

At the moment it seems like you can avoid AI search results by either including swear words, or by using 'minus' to exclude terms (e.g. append -elephant to your search query).

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#92

Post by bloopernova »

runarberg wrote: post #58

How do you know the information it generates is correct? Just now for example I wanted to know how Emma Goldman was deported despite being a US citizen. Or whether she was a citizen to begin with. If an LLM gave me an answer I for sure would not trust it to be factual. My search was simple: Emma Goldman citizenship. I got a wikipedia article, claiming it was argued that her citizenship was considered void after her e…

I was curious whether Kagi would get it right:

https://kagi.com/search?q=how+Emma+Goldman+was+deported+desp...

But you're right, I'd have to check the sources cited before I'd trust the answer.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#94

Post by nvllsvm »

dowager_dan99 wrote: post #76
mepian wrote: post #59

Yes, I'm still using Google as I haven't found LLMs useful as a search engine replacement.

but the AI responses from google that dominate the screen real estate are terrible. When you repeat the exact same query and get changing (but all wrong) answers, something is broken. I've resorted to including profanity in all my searches to prevent the AI responses, which is suboptimal at work...

Change your browsers/search URL templates to include the udm=14 query parameter. It eliminates a whole bunch of the modern noise like AI.

Ex. https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=your%20query

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#95

Post by 65 »

I don't use any AI at all. I would prefer to keep my critical thinking abilities in tact.

I use Kagi as my search engine and GitHub code search for searching for code examples.

I haven't found a reason to use AI yet.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#96

Post by Koshcheiushko »

thefz wrote: post #73

Yes, LLMs are no match for my decades of search skills.

> decades of search skills.

By decades, I assume atleast 2. So minm 20 years. I'm very interested to know about your experience.

Would you please elaborate how do you filter or specifically what techniques you use to get your desired result?

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?

#99

Post by EliasWatson »

Google results have gotten so terrible over the years. I switched to Kagi long ago and haven't looked back. Whenever I use Google on another computer, I'm shocked by how awful the results are compared to Kagi.

As for AI search, I do find it extremely useful when I don't know the right words to search for. The LLM will instantly figure out what I'm trying to say.

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