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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

#191

Post by [deleted] »

jeltz wrote: post #106
mrdependable wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#192

Post by pluc »

dpkirchner wrote: post #126
jeltz wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In that case at least they could point out that end users got better results with AMP than they do with news sites w/o ad blockers. The AI results are just wrong so often I don't really get it.

The results are not wrong, they are AI. Google wants that to become a distinct thing that is neither. What's a better answer for Google than one that generates more usage? If we all push in the same direction we can make AI work, we just need to accept we will need to hold its hand for a while.

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

#193

Post by varenc »

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…

> that can also search the web?

Slight digression: Claude/ChatGPT/etc all can search the web, but Google's AI already has a local copy of the web. It's much faster because of Google's TPUs, but also because Google has a copy of almost the entire web available locally. I recall others testing this and they observe that Google doesn't actually make HTTP requests to sites it references. It just uses its local cache. That's an advantage that all others seem to lack.

Of course, I agree that when I want search, I want search. But personally I've found if I want an LLM to very quickly answer a simple question, the type of thing all of them would do an equally good job on, I prefer Google's for its sheer speed.

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

#194

Post by rolph »

eithed wrote: post #113
mrdependable wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? I think this is a step beyond that - why should people be creating cooking websites when you can ask LLM how to cook given thing, while indeed, serving their own ads. It's the continuation of "we own content other people produce" policy

recall the pizza sauce glue trick, to stop cheese from sliding off.

there are other such goodies like mashed potatoes with broken lightbulb gravy, or fiberglass omelette, enjoyed by beldar conehead.

i wouldnt trust an AI for any recipe that i dont have personal experience with.

the safety rails are not very strong yet.

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

#195

Post by ubermonkey »

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…

Bad results keep you on their site longer, increasing ad revenue.

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

#196

Post by basisword »

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 imagine most people aren't actually searching the web these days. They're searching for an answer to a question. They already now the 5-10 websites they use and go to those directly. They're mostly living in walled gardens, streaming services, or Amazon. When they use Google they want an answer and AI provides that.

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

#197

Post by rolph »

Legend2440 wrote: post #43
mrweasel wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I truly don't get Google's move. Users aren't adopting their AI at the rate shareholders expect, so they now force the adoption at the cost of search.

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…

how many of those queries contain keyword groups such as "how do i get rid of the AI search?"

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

#198

Post by xp84 »

866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #158
mrdependable wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe it's high time to burn it all down. Block Googlebot from your sites. Let's go back to webrings.

It's certainly long been clear that Google is phasing out even the idea that they serve end-users "links" to other websites. They're just refining the idea and making it more and more explicit. It absolutely places them in an obviously adversarial position to every single other website on the Internet, and anyone who continues to cooperate with Google today is probably handing Google the tools to put them out of business. Unfortunately, whole generations of people have grown up learning that the safest and easiest way to navigate to a website is to type some version of the brand into their browser (which Google likely owns outright) and click the first thing Google spits back, so Google enters this battle holding most of the cards :(

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

#199

Post by juancn »

Google has ~90% of search where DuckDuckGo has A ~30% jump of DuckDuckGo is about 0.3% of global search traffic, basically a rounding error for google.

Still, it's an interesting signal, but not nearly enough to worry Google. If the jump had been 300% that would merit some thought.

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

#200

Post by xp84 »

dpkirchner wrote: post #130
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…

These are the same folks that removed the very useful Google cache feature because people weren't using it any more. What they forgot to say is they hid the feature beforehand. Of course they have more AI queries every day. They have full control over what goes to LLMs and what doesn't.

Really smells like some high-ups' bonus was tied to these KPIs and they're guaranteeing that they can't lose.
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