Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google changes its search box

blog.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 961 posts

Re: Google changes its search box

#761

Post by Gareth321 »

yard2010 wrote: post #685
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,…

That's the problem with the current monopolistic system, the money won't go down the stream, it's like a dam. One big dam owned by a few people is worse than many small dams

I agree. For what it's worth, I think Google's business model is in trouble. They're putting in heroic effort to stay relevant during this shift to AI search, but how does their advertising model work when people expect summarised and accurate information instead of scrolling pages of ads?

The search space is actually not that unhealthy. There are competitors. They just lack the reach of Google. These competitor will become increasingly useful when our personal AIs plug into them to search for the right info.

That said, I think the old internet business model is dying. Why will people write articles and pay for hosting if they can't receive any advertising revenue? I think I'm okay with this. Before advertising decimated the free internet, people ran sites for fun. Maybe we return to that.

Re: Google changes its search box

#762

Post by tveita »

Robotbeat wrote: post #570
sanitycheck wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. For years we've been telling people to 'just fucking google it', and now when they do they're getting bullshit AI answers. Worst thing is, some of these bullshit answers will be medical, some of them financial, it seems pretty certain people are being harmed.

I think we’re getting what we deserve by snarkily telling people to Google stuff instead of answering accurately. Google results have never ever been pure accuracy

The point of LMGTFY is to land people on either the official documentation or a curated site like Stack Overflow. Google used to be able to do that reliably.

With the power of LLMs you can Google a standard library function and get an inaccurate summarisation of a Reddit discussion where neither side knows what they're talking about

Re: Google changes its search box

#763

Post by akazantsev »

AlienRobot wrote: post #364
jerf wrote: post #62

Does the math math on this to be "free" for a long period of time? Ads can only pay for so much and AI can really suck down the money. Ads have been close enough to covering costs for conventional internet search that even though I'm clearly the product and not the customer the relationship has still generally worked. If AI makes the "searching" 50 times more expensive, though, that could shift the relationship prett…

To be completely honest, search is already so terrible it's difficult to imagine how could it get worse. Sometimes I get SO questions from 13 years ago with a version of a library nobody uses anymore. If I search in my native language almost every result is a Reddit thread that was originally in English but was machine translated to Portuguese and Google is fine with that for some reason. Searching for images just ge…

> every result is a Reddit thread that was originally in English but was machine translated to Portuguese and Google

Hell yes, set your Google language to English and get auto-translated results. It appears that none in Google's leadership speaks more than one language. It's frustrating how wrong they get this with YouTube as well.

Re: Google changes its search box

#765

Post by notsydonia »

yakbarber wrote: post #441

the thing that bothers me is I don't usually want this mode. When I search, I am not looking for what google thinks, I am looking for what other sources think.

Yes! And for actual research, I like to see a variety of sources and opinions, as well as some links to granular or primary data if apt. I don't even like A.I. summary of product reviews because they're SO bland and not needed. Even aside from the traffic-choking, content stealing insult to legit creator sites, it's like a giant, insidious flattener of human color and interest.

Re: Google changes its search box

#766

Post by [deleted] »

mghackerlady wrote: post #135
pclowes wrote: 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…

I think LLMs are good answer engines, but terrible search engines. For example, if I just want the answer to "How do I foo this bar with a thingamajig", or "what kind of foo exists for bar", LLMs are 100% better because they'll give me an answer without trying to sell me their thing or pump me with ads. It also lets me go more in depth than the very surface level seo spam sites that appear when you do a search like t…

[deleted]

Re: Google changes its search box

#767

Post by sandworm101 »

Gareth321 wrote: post #761
yard2010 wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem with the current monopolistic system, the money won't go down the stream, it's like a dam. One big dam owned by a few people is worse than many small dams

I agree. For what it's worth, I think Google's business model is in trouble. They're putting in heroic effort to stay relevant during this shift to AI search, but how does their advertising model work when people expect summarised and accurate information instead of scrolling pages of ads? The search space is actually not that unhealthy. There are competitors. They just lack the reach of Google. These competitor will…

>> but how does their advertising model work when people expect summarised and accurate information instead of scrolling pages of ads?

1) because that fancy summarised results page will effectively be the ad. The results will push you towards google's partner sites or promote behavior benificial to them.

2) because partners may soon be able to pay to change the results of searches. Who won an election 20 years ago? That "fact" from the AI could depend on which answer has been sponsored by which political interest. What happened in china in 1989 ... how much money do you have?

3) the user becomes the product. No ads in search results, but our searches and online behavior tracked by them will be sold to whoever is most interested in what we do online.

Re: Google changes its search box

#768

Post by Mordisquitos »

stck wrote: post #733
jcattle wrote: post #705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So when will you stop visiting HN?

Probably after the Algorithm adds its own custom tailored preference weighing to the HN submissions and meaningfully summarizes the discussion.

That's an insightful prediction! Agentic LLMs won't only replace the browser, they will also optimize and enhance the content that you should consume. Would you like us to go deeper into how human comments and conversations on HN submissions will also become obsolete thanks to AI?

Re: Google changes its search box

#769

Post by febusravenga »

> always been simple: to help you ask anything on your mind

No, it was to search. Search within resources that are external to Google. Like index in library.

(stating the obvious). Starting article like this - that is with attempt to rewrite history - is very sad.

Re: Google changes its search box

#770

Post by notsydonia »

I only use Google for opening hours of stores these days and sometimes product research/cost comparison BUT yesterday I inadvertently clicked on A.I. mode and it was clearly infiltrated by undisclosed advertising. I was asking why a particular kind of tap faucet wrench wasn't available that widely - was I perhaps using the wrong term for it: suddenly Google posed the question "are you in an aisle of X (hardware store) looking for Y (tools brand) right now?" I was so annoyed I intuitively closed the tab but I probably should have continued to see how far it went. At no point was there any disclosure that it was an ad.
Post reply on HN