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DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

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Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#101

Post by runjake »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #95

I dislike the AI summaries always popping up. I do now see an AI mode button. But so far I am not forced into AI mode. Is this happening for other people?

Append "udm=14" to your Google searches to make this stuff go away (for now, until Google removes it).

You can add a custom search engine to your browser with something like:

  https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14
Sometimes that will glitch out on Chromium browsers. If so, try this variant:

  {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#102

Post by ruszki »

xmprt wrote: post #57
Imnimo wrote: post #40

I direct a lot of questions to LLMs, but I want to ask a high-quality model, not the crappy one that Google uses to answer queries. If I'm typing something into Google, it's because I want a search result, not an LLM answer.

I've actually changed that. When I type something into Google it's because I want an LLM answer - their search results have been useless for a while now. But that's only because I rarely use Google these days. I'm mostly using DDG to search (I might try Kagi at some point). Google is relegated to my phone when I want a quick answer where accuracy isn't critical without needing to scroll through a bunch of search resu…

Kagi, unfortunately, is getting worse too. I think mainly because they don’t get access. But I’m not sure. I had to fallback more and more to Google, because Kagi couldn’t find exact matches, while Google could. Like texts which I copied from a webpage (for example from Android’s source), and it can’t find it.

Its search results ordering is quite good, but the accessible information for them seems to be shrinking. And quickly.

I’m at the point where I don’t search for complex things anymore. I use Kagi for things which can be found with any search engines. Not because I chose it, but because I was forced. This was not the case a few years back, when I started to use it.

Btw, there was one thing with which Google was superior all along: define . And they fucking killed it in the past months, for a far, far worse solution. Nothing comes even close.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#103

Post by strifey »

mrdependable wrote: post #75
qsort wrote: post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

They want to capture more of the value that was previously going to others. That's basically what this has all been leading to. Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? Now they are going to do the same to e-commerce. Either they are going to let customers buy their products through Google's interface, or they won't be discovered. No more o…

This has been their MO with their search for a decade+ now. "Native" results hiding actual search results below the fold killed many 2010s era websites that relied on search traffic.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#104

Post by SoftTalker »

ryandrake wrote: post #80
dualvariable wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked claude to dig up the current Ford Bulletin for the engine in my truck to tell me the recommended motor oil. And it found the updated recommendations properly. I wouldn't trust google AI because I know specifically that the recommendations changed, and I don't want whatever the published specs were when the engine was first manufactured, which is out of date (and found on lots of low quality blogs). I don't ev…

I wouldn't trust any 'confident stochastic next-word predictor' to tell me fact. There are official sources of information for these kinds of car maintenance questions.

Right, but standard Google search doesn't find them reliably either. Instead you get answers from enthusiast forums, "quick oil change" franchise sites, SEO slop, and maybe somehing from the actual manufacturer site if you scroll down.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#105

Post by khimaros »

gazebo2 wrote: post #60
Legend2440 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Google, users are adopting it. They say AI mode is the most popular feature they've ever introduced, and is driving an increase in total search queries. >Just one year after its debut, AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. As people have realized just how much more Search can do for them, they’re searching more than ever before — so m…

I mean, "AI Mode" is the default result when you Google something, so of course they're seeing high usage. Driving an increase in total queries is probably because instead of just Googling something and getting the right results like it was 10~ years ago, now you have to interrogate a chatbot or try multiple queries. I would think higher total queries is more an indicator that your search function isn't effective.

this has not been my experience on desktop or Android. did you opt into something? are you accessing via browser search or Google.com?

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#106

Post by jeltz »

mrdependable wrote: post #75
qsort wrote: post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

They want to capture more of the value that was previously going to others. That's basically what this has all been leading to. Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? Now they are going to do the same to e-commerce. Either they are going to let customers buy their products through Google's interface, or they won't be discovered. No more o…

It is the same thing as when they pushed for AMP. They wanted to prevent traffic from leaving google.com then too.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#108

Post by dandanua »

mrweasel wrote: post #82
Legend2440 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Google, users are adopting it. They say AI mode is the most popular feature they've ever introduced, and is driving an increase in total search queries. >Just one year after its debut, AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. As people have realized just how much more Search can do for them, they’re searching more than ever before — so m…

While I'm not opposed to the idea that Google AI mode is so good that people use it more, I also feel like the average person only have so many queries per day. Google statement would indicate that people had a number of queries that they just opted to ignore, because find the answers was to cumbersome. I'm not entirely sure I'm buying that, unless users keep prompting the AI to reduce the amount of reading they need…

The fact that users are using more search queries means they can't find what they want with a lesser number of queries. It seems that Google's PR team doesn't have an incentive to understand that, or thinks that everyone else is stupid.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#109

Post by osigurdson »

qsort wrote: post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

I don't see search and AI as fundamentally distinct things. Usually I just want an answer.
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