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Google changes its search box

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401–410 of 961 posts

Re: Google changes its search box

#401

Basically people who want to search, will now not be able to, they'll be forced into a UI they might have consciously avoided, otherwise they'd be using their chatbot in the first place. Seems like a strange UX decision, rather than recommending "Hey maybe you want to try our chatbot", they just force the user into a chat straight up.

Are we looking at different screenshots? How is adding an AI button next to the regular old search button "being forced into a UI"?

Re: Google changes its search box

#402
post #107
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which as some running a website raises a fascinating question. If Google is just going to crawl my sites and present information as an AI summary on their site, then what exactly do I gain by allowing Googlebot to crawl my sites?

Free speculation: I could see a future where Google populates a footer on results with the website logos of the sources. Presumably, the new web will require users to memorize websites/brands and go directly to those sites if they see a lot of their results are being provided by one source. Websites may go back to being simply labors of love.

I rely far more on bookmarks and memorised URLs now.

Re: Google changes its search box

#403
post #22

I understand why they are doing this. My Google search usage is easily down 50%+. I doubt I am unique here. While there are times where I want pure search (Kagi, Old Google) I mostly use LLMs to search now and have them provide me links for source data. When I do use LLMs as a search engine I always want it integrated into my AI workflows with access to tools and scripts etc. I never want to have a conversation with…

> My Google search usage is easily down 50%+. I doubt I am unique here.

The question though: Why is that?

Is your Google search usage down because LLMs are "so much better"? Or because Google actively chose to destroy the quality of their search results to juice advertising revenue, and appears to continue to do so to juice AI adoption?

> and have them provide me links for source data.

And therein lies the answer: You don't care about the LLM, you're just using the LLM as a means to get the good links.

Re: Google changes its search box

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but we are talking about the UI here, not the index being used

But if Kagi manages to become a serious competitor in the search engine space, Google will cut them off from their index. Why will not they?

It’s possible but they would need to be so massive to even just start making a dent in google market share. And Google hasn’t blocked larger search engines from using their index

Re: Google changes its search box

#406
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Depends on what you ask. It's pretty easy to get wrong information. e.g. search for "how do you make money with options" Google's AI says "When you buy a Call, you are betting the stock price will go up. When you buy a Put, you are betting it will go down." Wrong right off the bat, because it ingested a whole bunch of get-rich-quick bull on the internet. The correct version is that if you buy a call you are betting t…

I tried this search. It gave a write up about buying and selling options, noting that the price of the stock had to move significantly, not just go up or down. It also talked about vertical spreads and iron condors. It touches on delta, theta, and volatility and their impacts, as well as leverage risk and potential uncapped risk.

While I agree that AI gets things wrong a lot, and someone should read significantly more before getting into actually trading options, this does give a decent overview to give a layperson an idea of what they are, and some key terms on what to look for if they want to dive deeper. That said, with this info alone, there are some sharp edges that would leave the person open to unnecessary risk if they went on this information alone.

Re: Google changes its search box

#407
post #10

Nilay Patel has been talking about "Google Zero" - the moment when Google effectively stops sending any traffic to other sites - for a few years now: https://www.theverge.com/24167865/google-zero-search-crash-h...

It has reduced traffic to my website by around 65%. I live from that website. My income is a function of the traffic it gets.

I spent 9 years of my life putting hard-earned information on the internet, and now big tech uses it to enrich themselves while putting me out of work. Even my backup plan - software development - is being devalued to hell. It's so damn depressing. We'll get the internet that we deserve.

Re: Google changes its search box

#408
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Depends on what you ask. It's pretty easy to get wrong information. e.g. search for "how do you make money with options" Google's AI says "When you buy a Call, you are betting the stock price will go up. When you buy a Put, you are betting it will go down." Wrong right off the bat, because it ingested a whole bunch of get-rich-quick bull on the internet. The correct version is that if you buy a call you are betting t…

Is that really categorically wrong, or is it a correct-enough explanation for laypeople looking for a one-sentence answer?

Re: Google changes its search box

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like they should have a model similar to YouTube. If I watch a video on YouTube made by someone, they get a little cash, and it ads up. Similarly, if I use Gemini uses a website for an answer, it should pay something to those sites for the information it gathered. Sites would need to sign up to earn via Google, and I'd imagine there would be a certain threshold to cross to make it worth cutting checks... but…

Actually it cannot work this way, content creators make far more money from ads in the video itself compared to the one yt gives them. If it were for yt money alone basically we will still be in the 2010 yt: folks that doing it just for fun. The problem with all this AI/llm stuff is that end users doesn't even know your tiny site with a lot of useful information exists at all.

> The problem with all this AI/llm stuff is that end users doesn't even know your tiny site with a lot of useful information exists at all.

This depends on implementation. I primarily use Kagi for any LLM stuff. I cites pretty much everything and links out to the source. I regularly use this for search. The normal search results may not have what I need, but a line in the AI results sounds better and I click through to the source to get more context.

I find clicking through to the source is important, as I've often seen the AI get it wrong. The page has what I need on it, but the AI grabbed the wrong thing and got it backward. I'm probably in the minority, I'm guessing most people don't use LLMs like this.

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