There was an interview with Eric Schmidt of Google on PBS around 2006 where he describes having multiple results for a search query is a "Bug" and there should be only one answer. It was interesting how OpenAI was first to market with ChatGPT beating out Google in this space. Its also interesting how the current Google CEO was not asked to step down after the flawed initial launch of Gemini.
Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
151–160 of 609 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#152I switched my default search engine in my browser to perplexity.ai a few months ago and am super happy with it. The only time I use Google anymore is to specifically visit www.google.com and put site:example.com in the search field, when I know the results I am looking for are only found within that site. I've only had to do that five or six times in the last few months.
And yes, just plain old Google search is completely lackluster in comparison to the perplexity.ai search I get to do today.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#153Google 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.
Probably 70% of my searches are FastGPT searches, meaning I end my search query with a ‘?’ and Kagi summarises the results, so I don’t need to click.
And the ratio between using search engine and Kagi’s LLM agent with search is still 70% search. Sometimes, searching is faster, sometimes asking AI is faster.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#154Now and then, but I also quite often use perplexity.ai for search. Sometimes it's just too convenient to let a robot sift through the search results for the information I want.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#155I still use google. However, the most annoying thing i find is the AI generated response. I use google as a translator by adding „dict“ to the search. I also use the search function on old fashioned forums. It works. Yesterday i tried Chat GPT on math homework of one of my kids. Result was just crazy wrong. Complete garbage.
I've always wondered if other do that... I add "def" to the end of mine for definitions.
It almost feels like an old people kind of thing to do but i actually enjoy the stubbornness of age.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#156Search is primarily a portal - you know a particular resource exists, you just don't know its exact URL. You hear about this new programming language called "Frob", and you assume it must have a website. So you google "Frob language". You hear that there was a plane crash in DC, and assume (CNN/AP/your_favorite_news_site) has almost certainly written an article about it. You google "DC plane crash." LLMs aren't ever…
If you wanted to know more about a new programming language named “Frob” or a plane crash that happened today, couldn’t you use an LLM like grok?
Or any other LLM that’s continuously trained on trending news?
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#157No, I find it unwilling to produce factual information. For example Jeep consistently lands at the bottom of the reliability ratings. Try asking GPT if Jeeps are reliable. The response reads like Jeep advertising.
Yes, often unreliable. And, they will give different answers at different times. https://chatgpt.com/share/67f57459-2744-8009-a94e-3b67dce8fd... “[Jeeps] often score below average in reliability rankings from sources like Consumer Reports and J.D. Power.”
I tried the trick of asking Gemini to search the web. It respond by telling me Jeep was "average". When I checked the Consumer reports website it gave me, It scores Jeep 19th out of 22. I don't call that average.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#158Open ended stuff -> LLMs
Rest? Still search engines
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#159This is my favorite thing about Kagi; you can do both. If you just append a question mark, it'll run the search through a simple LLM and give you those results (with citations) right before standard search. From there, you can proceed into a more sophisticated frontier model if that's more effective.
"Search" can mean a lot of things. Sometimes I just want a website but can't remember the URL (traditional); other times I want an answer (LLMs); and other times, I want a bunch of resources to learn more (search+LLMs).
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use search engines?
#160The only time I use search engines now is when I’m screen sharing and feel obligated not to show my five different ChatGPT tabs. I glance over the links and feign interest, "Oh, that’s great..."