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AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

arstechnica.com

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Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#311

Post by agent327 »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

Oh, don't worry, they'll be monetizing this as soon as you're hooked. Google will show you the AI content... after you've seen this ad.

Those data centers don't pay for themselves, you know.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#312

Post by timpera »

bokkies wrote: post #272
jonplackett wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made this game inspired by all the dark patterns from darkpatterns.org - every pop up is based on a real dark pattern https://www.termsandconditions.game/

Application error An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. If you are the application owner, check your logs for details. You can do this from the Heroku CLI with the command heroku logs --tail

Same for me! I'm also in the EU.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#313

Post by [deleted] »

HSO wrote: post #234
throwaway81523 wrote: post #133

Of course slow, shitty web sites also cause a massive drop in clicks, as soon as an alternative to clicking emerges. It's just like on HN, if I see an interesting title and want to know what the article is about, I can wince and click the article link, but it's much faster and easier to click the HN comments link and infer the info I want from the comments. That difference is almost entirely from the crappy overdesig…

> faster and easier to click the HN comments link and infer the info I want from the comments Or, youre confusing primordial desire to be aligned with perceived peers -- checking what others say, then effortlessly nodding along -- with forming your own judgment.

[deleted]

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#314

Post by libertine »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

Also people are just lazy and will choose the path of least resistance. I'll bet that Wikipedia and other websites are affected and don't fit in that list of legitimate grievances.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#315

Post by jdietrich »

tmountain wrote: post #279
littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

AI is following the drug dealer model. “The first dose is free!” Given the cost incurred, lots of dark patterns will be coming for sure.

It's a market where nobody has a particularly deep moat and most players are charging money for a service. Open weight models aren't too far behind proprietary models, particularly for mundane queries. The cost of inference is plummeting and it's already possible to run very good models at pennies per megatoken. I think it's unreasonably pessimistic to assume that dark patterns are an inevitability.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#316

Post by dspillett »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

>* If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only".*

I never use those. I suspect that in many cases if there are "legitimate interest" options¹ those will remain opted-in.

----

[1] which I read as "we see your preference not to be stalked online, but fuck you and your silly little preferences we want to anyway"

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#317

Post by nightfly »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

> Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent

It was with the best of intentions but cookie banners have done more to hurt web browsing than anything else in the last decade

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#319

Post by lll-o-lll »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #227
wiseowise wrote: post #196

And thank God! It does. I’m done dealing with bazillion shitty websites with bad, slow, performance, bad ui and dark patterns. All I need is an information in a convenient format and that is what AI tools provide to me.

What's interesting is that: 0. Internet is initially pretty good. 1. Google introduces search algorithm that is pretty good. 2. SEO becomes a thing because of Google, and makes the web bad. 3. AI (including Google's AI) bypasses that. 4. The web is eradicated, and Google/other AI companies are the only place where you can get information... Seems like the web would have been better off without Google.

You are forgetting:

0.5 User 1,563,018 puts their credit card details in to make the world’s first online transaction!

0.50001 The web is filled with spam and unsearchable for real information

0.9 Some smart nerds figure out an algorithm to find the signal in the noise

1.9 Google throws out “don’t be evil” because search is cost, ad’s are money

4.1 Google and the rest of the AI/s subvert human decision making in ways that marketers could only ever dream

∞.∞ Humans toil in slavery to the whims of our corporate overlords

I wanted a different dystopia.

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