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Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

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Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#161

Post by linsomniac »

thsksbd wrote: post #143
linsomniac wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you experience the Internet before google? The idea of a world where Alta Vista won is truly chilling.

You mean a world where people still knew how to use a library catalog, still relied on more than one source of information and curious crazy tid bits are still out there? The internet is boring. And the trash is still there. Its just become reputable instead.

There's a lot to unpack here...

Can you expand on how a card catalog improved the world? As a kid I used the card catalog a lot, both the physical version and the later electronic versions. Full text search definitely leads to pulling in information from a wider selection of sources.

I remember a lot of stratification of news sources pre-Google (which news channel you watched, which papers/magazines you read). Did Google cause reliance on one source of information, or does Google simply exist in a world where people tend towards echo chambers? How would Alta Vista have improved that?

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#162

Post by Nevolihs »

eitland wrote: post #136
vouaobrasil wrote: post #127

Sometimes I wonder how much better the internet would be hits on Google weren't directly tied to revenue from Google itself through its ad program. I am certain Google has made the internet and the world a worse place to live.

As a user of Kagi and search.marginalia.nu I can tell you: Quite a bit. So much that now that I have what "everyone" asked Google for for years - that is blacklists - I hardly use them. Why? Because with Kagi I get much better results out of the box. I am fairly sure Googlers will tell me there are multiple safeguards to prevent the inclusion of Google ads from affecting ranking, to which I just have to say that the…

I actually use pinning, blocking and raising/lowering the value of individual sites every day. I wish this is the direction search engines went in the first place and it's the direction I hope Kagi continues. I want a personalized search engine that's personalized by me, not by a company trying to profile me and make money off of my clicks.

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#163

Post by linsomniac »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #158
linsomniac wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you experience the Internet before google? The idea of a world where Alta Vista won is truly chilling.

Yes, I did! I used to use Yahoo search where the results were more hand-curated and people did not create websties for intensive commercial purposes with useless SEO fluff like it is today.

I have been thinking a lot about Yahoo (pre yahoo-search, largely) lately. I don't fully understand how we lost the curated catalog, especially considering the success of Wikipedia. The latter demonstrates users willingness to curate knowledge bases... We have "awesome" lists, but I rarely seem to use them.

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#164

Post by nolist_policy »

eitland wrote: post #151
abhijat wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to Kagi in June last year. I just realized I tried it initially because I wanted to try out blocking sites in search results, and I have only ever needed to block three domains.

Thats exactly what I am talking about. Kagi is kind of like Google in 2009, seriously good coverage, good ranking ... but also: - more modern - more features (summarizer, bangs like in DDG, FastGPT and probably a few I forgot) - blocklists for websites (and also options to pin, raise and lower) - with actual support: report a bug and you get an answer from a real engineer, a follow up when it is fixed and a shout out…

Is it only me or do these constant Kagi ads on HN sound fishy?

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#165

Post by linsomniac »

linsomniac wrote: post #149
msk-lywenn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some way, didn't Google become Alta Vista?

How so? My memory of Alta Vista was so-so search results with a top page littered with garbage.

Reminder: Alta Vista looked like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltaVista#/media/File:Altavist...

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#166

Post by heresie-dabord »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #127

Sometimes I wonder how much better the internet would be hits on Google weren't directly tied to revenue from Google itself through its ad program. I am certain Google has made the internet and the world a worse place to live.

Instead of a semantic Web of knowledge, we got "grep the HTML... with ads".

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#167

Post by beeboobaa3 »

eitland wrote: post #136
vouaobrasil wrote: post #127

Sometimes I wonder how much better the internet would be hits on Google weren't directly tied to revenue from Google itself through its ad program. I am certain Google has made the internet and the world a worse place to live.

As a user of Kagi and search.marginalia.nu I can tell you: Quite a bit. So much that now that I have what "everyone" asked Google for for years - that is blacklists - I hardly use them. Why? Because with Kagi I get much better results out of the box. I am fairly sure Googlers will tell me there are multiple safeguards to prevent the inclusion of Google ads from affecting ranking, to which I just have to say that the…

Is kagi good for finding things like old forum posts (not reddit)? I know some of those sites are still up but google seems to ignore them.

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#168

Post by ysavir »

nolist_policy wrote: post #164
eitland wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats exactly what I am talking about. Kagi is kind of like Google in 2009, seriously good coverage, good ranking ... but also: - more modern - more features (summarizer, bangs like in DDG, FastGPT and probably a few I forgot) - blocklists for websites (and also options to pin, raise and lower) - with actual support: report a bug and you get an answer from a real engineer, a follow up when it is fixed and a shout out…

Is it only me or do these constant Kagi ads on HN sound fishy?

I wouldn't necessarily call them fishy, but I am very tired of them. They have a very evangelizing tone. But I think they're ultimately just people excited about the tool they're using and wanting to share it with others.

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#169

Post by drpossum »

nolist_policy wrote: post #164
eitland wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats exactly what I am talking about. Kagi is kind of like Google in 2009, seriously good coverage, good ranking ... but also: - more modern - more features (summarizer, bangs like in DDG, FastGPT and probably a few I forgot) - blocklists for websites (and also options to pin, raise and lower) - with actual support: report a bug and you get an answer from a real engineer, a follow up when it is fixed and a shout out…

Is it only me or do these constant Kagi ads on HN sound fishy?

Maybe they're not ads but people who genuinely like the service?

Re: Anonymous Source Shared Leaked Google Search API Documents

#170

Post by jacob019 »

eitland wrote: post #154
Workaccount2 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fundamental problem with the Internet is that people don't want to pay for things on it. No matter what, whatever we ended up with was going to be shitty and exploitive.

Now you have a chance. Kagi is there. I made my decision two years ago and I would probably do it even if it was just on par with Google, to support competition and to avoid supporting Google. But in hindsight it is just exeptionally much better. There is no going back unless Kagi does something monumentally stupid.

I'm a Kagi user too. I like your enthusiasm, but I can't say it's been all that life changing for me. DuckDuckGo is ok too, I still use it on some machines when I don't feel like logging in. GPT has been more life changing.
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