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Google changes its search box

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Re: Google changes its search box

#541

Post by snowwrestler »

simonw wrote: 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...

Over the past year to 1.5 years, in the sites I run, I have seen a drop in traffic from Google, which leveled off, and is now slightly rising.

I think if you look through this thread you’ll see a lot of skepticism of the AI results, and I think that is a fairly broadly held opinion. The obvious way to check the AI answer is to click through to some sources.

I think for Google to stop sending me traffic, it would have to be essentially perfect at AI answers. It will never get there, especially as so many searches are opinion-based like “what is the best mobile phone right now.”

Re: Google changes its search box

#542

Post by BurningFrog »

thelastgallon wrote: post #294
pflenker wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of years back I worked with a company which maintained specific data which was the main traffic driver on that page. Google approached them and wanted to pay for the rights to get the data and display it on top of the search results, a feature which was fairly new back then. This was an interesting dilemma because it was very clear that the money was way less than the loss in ad revenue due to traffic drop,…

This reminds me of Walmarts squeezing strategy with all the manufacturers. Business with us at the price we say or out of business.

This is tough for the manufacturer, but great for the consumer.

I think it's a good tradeoff.

Re: Google changes its search box

#543

Post by bryanhogan »

nkingsy wrote: post #503

I had an interesting one yesterday. Someone responded to me on Reddit with very official sounding words to make their argument. I was still dubious and googled a few of the concepts they threw out there. The AI confidently told me they were right. Then I checked the sources, and found the only source that agreed with them was their own Reddit comment!!!

Reddit is heavily filled with bots at this point, feels like every question is made to then promote their product or service using multiple bot accounts.

Re: Google changes its search box

#544

Post by WarmWash »

arionhardison wrote: post #218

I'm old enough to remember when "Google" was something that ended conversations. People — myself included — would literally say "Google it," the facts would be located, and that was that. Now that Google wants to be the conversation, I'm worried there will no longer be a bias-free source of information for the masses. This is all new, so I may be a bit hyperbolic, but the reason OpenAI introducing ads bothers me is t…

My takeaway is that the internet would be a dramatically cooler place today if people were just willing to pay for stuff.

The ad version of the web, where ~60% of people carry the ad burden for everyone, and defacto aligns the service providers with advertisers, is just a guaranteed bad outcome. The only real upside, which frankly people take for granted, is that the ad-web is classless web. Broke or rich you get the same (crappy) services.

I remember those mock web service package flyers from the net neutrality days. Where people made fake marketing material showing website packages you could access with different paid tiers, something reminiscent of the cable TV days.

Back then it was horrifying, but 20 years later, I think I would entertain a subscription to a wide array of web services if it meant they worked for me and not advertisers.

Re: Google changes its search box

#545

Post by WarmWash »

terribleperson wrote: post #206
sonofhans wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kagi is better. Kagi is damn good, as much a revelation as the Google of old. Not free, though.

As a user and fan of kagi, the problem with kagi is that it reveals how badly degraded the web is. The vast majority of original content is now in one or another social network or on discord. News articles are an exception, though the news has its own problems. Some wikis still exist and are actively maintained, of course, but not a ton. If it's a topic that's academically studied you might find information in papers…

When you run a website where 80% of users are ad-blocking, and less than 0.5% donate, you quickly realize why these centralized websites (which turned apps to force ads) are the only survivors.

Re: Google changes its search box

#546

Post by tick_tock_tick »

qurren wrote: post #351
youre-wrong3 wrote: post #347

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…

Honestly Google's AI answer is about as right if not more right then your answer.

You can easily make money buying a call without the stock price moving a single cent (IV increases). Funny enough the stock can even go down and with a large enough IV increase you still make money.

Re: Google changes its search box

#547

Post by Gigachad »

fscaramuzza wrote: post #290

What scares me about this new AI mode thingy is that every answer sounds like a systematic literature review, but only for the results. For example, if I look for users feedback about a specific product, it says "People think that..., but also that...; It's important to notice that some people ..." where with 'people' it means just a random comment on a random website just because it thought it was a good contributio…

I’ve noticed this too. A single result can determine the answer it gives. And removing the content from its context makes it harder to assess. Suddenly it’s “Gemini said …” rather than “some guy in the YouTube comments said”.

Re: Google changes its search box

#548

Post by DANmode »

OGWhales wrote: post #389
DANmode wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I simply wanted to find forum discussions on people's thought Why didn’t you tell the robot that , as your query?

I searched something like “top pro vs tea pro se reddit” so I kind of did.

“Kind of”, indeed.

> Please provide 1-5 forum discussions or social media comment threads discussing or comparing x and y.

Re: Google changes its search box

#549

Post by Gigachad »

650REDHAIR wrote: post #517
fscaramuzza wrote: post #290

What scares me about this new AI mode thingy is that every answer sounds like a systematic literature review, but only for the results. For example, if I look for users feedback about a specific product, it says "People think that..., but also that...; It's important to notice that some people ..." where with 'people' it means just a random comment on a random website just because it thought it was a good contributio…

I ran into one that kept referencing "people", but then I found that it was a single Reddit thread from a couple of years ago about a relatively small and obscure foreign city with 2 replies.

AI is the new “many people are saying”.

Re: Google changes its search box

#550

Post by glandium »

stefan_ wrote: post #349
fscaramuzza wrote: post #290

What scares me about this new AI mode thingy is that every answer sounds like a systematic literature review, but only for the results. For example, if I look for users feedback about a specific product, it says "People think that..., but also that...; It's important to notice that some people ..." where with 'people' it means just a random comment on a random website just because it thought it was a good contributio…

What scares me are the basic usability fails it still has. Search for a few foreign language words and it will come back with paragraphs upon paragraphs of AI output in that foreign language despite me telling Google in 15 different ways that I don't speak it, nor anything else on the Google page being in that language. How are all their products always made by and for the most narrow minded people on this planet.

Funnily enough, I have the exact opposite problem, where Google likes to give me results in the configured main language even when I do queries in another and actually want results in the other language.
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