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Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

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Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#191

Post by _flux »

lostmsu wrote: post #133
w-ll wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think we wont start seeing ads or paid for refs/links in those AI responses? Not defending Google here, when they turned that feature on I posted to some friends "another nail in the coffin for the web as we know it" or something to that effect.

Eventually open models will be able to do the same, so why would anyone use ad-ridden service? The first LLM provider who turns on ads on their responses will disappear in a brink.

It will take a long time until an average person has the resources to run models of similar quality (and speed) as Google and OpenAI can provide today.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#192

Post by benob »

MyPasswordSucks wrote: post #113

In the old days - back before smartphones, back before widescreen monitors, back before broadband - the "Links" section was always a key part of any site. After spending time on a site, a visitor could find links to other pages - some of them on the same topic, some of them simply enjoyed by the creator of the site they were on. If one were to visualize the concept, they might well say that this formed a "web" of sor…

The gemini web (smolweb) has no effective search engine, and therefore links also play a crutial role in content discovery...

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#194

Post by arunabha »

Eisenstein wrote: post #150
MyPasswordSucks wrote: post #113

In the old days - back before smartphones, back before widescreen monitors, back before broadband - the "Links" section was always a key part of any site. After spending time on a site, a visitor could find links to other pages - some of them on the same topic, some of them simply enjoyed by the creator of the site they were on. If one were to visualize the concept, they might well say that this formed a "web" of sor…

I think the conclusion is that changing your business model in a reactive way to internet developments is a bad idea if you want to have a stable business. If you want to run your business that way, you better be on top of everything and you better be lucky. They rode the social media wave and lost, and now they are going to try to ride the AI wave because they don't have anything to fall back on. They are going to l…

> People will pay for it.

I would love it if it were true, but sadly, the data doesn't support this. A lot of local newspapers did real journalism relevant to their communities. However, the local newspapers were the hardest hit by the social media wave and few remain today. Fast forward to now, you cannot get any real local news easily.

The avg person never really valued real journalism to begin with and the hyper targeting/polarization of social media and closed echo chambers has made it worse.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#195

Post by malnourish »

chneu wrote: post #174
marcus_holmes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly their AI search - I don't know, I switched to Kagi to get a search engine that actually did what I asked instead of just trying to put as many ads in front of me as it could.

I tried to like Kagi but the UI is awful and the results were often way off from what was relevant. Then the limitations were pretty lame.

What's wrong with the UI, what limitations have you experienced? I've found my searches relevant and haven't noticed any limitations.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#196

Post by dyauspitr »

juujian wrote: post #82
spankalee wrote: post #21

Google's damned if they do and damned if the don't here: - If they don't make search AI centric, they're going to get lapped by AI-first competitors like Perplexity, OpenAI, etc. We saw many people here predict Google's pending demise from this. - If they do make search centric, they're unfairly consuming they world's content and hoarding the user traffic to themselves. Since no reasonable company is just going to st…

The one way forward for them would have been to maintain their quality, but they decided to cash in on their monopoly instead. Peak short-termis.

That’s a cheap argument. Even with high quality results (which I still think Google is the best at), LLMs are infinitely easier to use.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#197

Post by dyauspitr »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #101
ajross wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to my untrained eyes like Google's AI search is actually the best on the market, no? Seems like a lot of HN users have trained themselves not to type queries into the search prompt anymore and then complain about the quality of a product they don't use.

Possibly their AI search - I don't know, I switched to Kagi to get a search engine that actually did what I asked instead of just trying to put as many ads in front of me as it could.

Kagi is okay. Decided to try it after all the hearsay on HN and it was severely underwhelming.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#198

Post by rebuilder »

MyPasswordSucks wrote: post #113

In the old days - back before smartphones, back before widescreen monitors, back before broadband - the "Links" section was always a key part of any site. After spending time on a site, a visitor could find links to other pages - some of them on the same topic, some of them simply enjoyed by the creator of the site they were on. If one were to visualize the concept, they might well say that this formed a "web" of sor…

The ”not perfect” part really kind of ruins it for me. I can’t trust the LLM search’s answers and have to go find the source anyway, so what’s the point?

I’m seeing people in chats post stuff like “hey I didn’t know this word also means this!” when it really doesn’t, and invariably they have just asked an LLM and believed it.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#199

Post by rightbyte »

arunabha wrote: post #194
Eisenstein wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the conclusion is that changing your business model in a reactive way to internet developments is a bad idea if you want to have a stable business. If you want to run your business that way, you better be on top of everything and you better be lucky. They rode the social media wave and lost, and now they are going to try to ride the AI wave because they don't have anything to fall back on. They are going to l…

> People will pay for it. I would love it if it were true, but sadly, the data doesn't support this. A lot of local newspapers did real journalism relevant to their communities. However, the local newspapers were the hardest hit by the social media wave and few remain today. Fast forward to now, you cannot get any real local news easily. The avg person never really valued real journalism to begin with and the hyper t…

I don't think it is social media though. It started to go downhill for newspapers when they put their news on the internet for free subsidized by their papers.

Re: Chatbots are replacing Google's search, devastating traffic for some publishers

#200

Post by isaacremuant »

felipeerias wrote: post #172

The emergence of AI tools and closed platforms will reduce the importance of advertising on the open Web, and eventually of the open Web itself. One possible way this plays out is that attention and investment move towards proprietary ecosystems, with large AI companies being able to secure exclusive access to closed information sources while everyone else is reduced to getting what they can from a dwindling open Web…

Ads will come inside the LLM response and all around it. I'm quite positive. You don't know how much these businesses thrive in being the "drivers of customers to other businesses by showing their ads".

It's going to be there.

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