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Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

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Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#231

Post by cmrdporcupine »

So what's crazy about this is that I remember, when I first joined Google in 2011, that they were particularly proud of how people would just stop using URLs and use Google to navigate. So people would type "amazon" to get to Amazon.com instead of actually typing out `amazon.com`, or using a bookmark or directory etc. And they wanted to keep search at a quality that would continue to get people to do that. And later the fear with mobile becoming ascendant was that people would stop using search in this way, etc.

But it looks like they just keep giving people more and more reason to... not do that.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#232

Post by pinkmuffinere »

jrootabega wrote: post #79
omnicognate wrote: post #41

There's no AI preview in that screenshot, so it's not everything that's wrong with Google Search.

search: "coffee is mostly water" "No, coffee is not mostly water. That appears to be a misconception based on a popular television show. Coffee is actually about 98% water."

My favorite one thus far has been:

> was there a US president named Bob, Robert, or who went by either?

> No U.S. president has ever gone by Bob or Robert as their common or official name. The closest case is James A. Garfield (20th president), whose full name was James Abram Garfield — no Robert in there

Why is James A. Garfield the closest???? What metric are we using for this comparison, lol

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#233

Post by kragen »

MarsIronPI wrote: post #169
amatecha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to dig up this link, 1999 review[0]: "Google (www.google.com) is a pure search engine - no weather, no news feed, no links to sponsors, no ads, no distractions, no portal litter. Nothing but a fast-loading search site. Reward them with a visit." [0] https://i.redd.it/uea6u7c4oje31.jpg

I thought Google always had ads, but at first they were clearly marked and always relevant? Edit: I stand corrected. Ads were added later, but when first introduced they were clearly marked. I got my history wrong.

No, they had no ads for several years. AdWords were introduced in 02000, at which point Google had existed (initially as google.stanford.edu) for four years, since 01996, which was 40% of the amount of time the Web had even existed. I started using Google in probably 01998, when people on Slashdot got excited about how much better their search quality was than AltaVista, but it probably wasn't until 01999 that I switched over completely—at first AltaVista still had better coverage.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#234

Post by tangotaylor »

tsigo wrote: post #206

Meanwhile, over on Kagi: https://cln.sh/LbZ8VBbKzjyzKchNC4hS

I’m still amazed that Kagi search results are basically on par with Google’s (and without the ads) in all my comparison tests that I’ve done. And Google has orders of magnitude more resources.

What has Google been doing all this time?

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#235

Post by smcin »

endgame wrote: post #64
beckthompson wrote: post #20

Its sad but I think at this point its kind of a safety issue not to use an ad blocker. Those results are not clearly ads and I've clicked on fake links in the past when they were.

The FBI agrees with you: https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-b...

No, the previous admin's FBI did [0]. But then that alert page (on ic3.gov, Internet Crime Complaint Center) was taken down almost immediately after the 11/2024 election, before even the director was replaced. I genuinely expected this sort of basic alert should remain non-partisan.

[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008235322/https://www.ic3.g...

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#236

Post by itopaloglu83 »

TheDong wrote: post #219
jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

> move them over to ChatGPT OpenAI has even more VC money to pay back than Google ever did. Practically all the large tech companies so far have turned to ads and monetizing users rather than charging enough to remain more neutral. I suspect one day, when you ask ChatGPT "Can you give me a link to mid journey", you'll instead probabilistically get a link to whichever competitor paid OpenAI for the best placement.

Or give you results that are completely unrelated and even try to convince you that what you’re trying to search doesn’t exist.

Studied with a guy from old Soviet Union, they were educated in a way that every modern invention had a Soviet inventor.

ChatGPT can create an individualized reality and truth for everyone depending on which advertiser’s target demographic they fit in.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#237

Post by notnmeyer »

TheDong wrote: post #219
jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

> move them over to ChatGPT OpenAI has even more VC money to pay back than Google ever did. Practically all the large tech companies so far have turned to ads and monetizing users rather than charging enough to remain more neutral. I suspect one day, when you ask ChatGPT "Can you give me a link to mid journey", you'll instead probabilistically get a link to whichever competitor paid OpenAI for the best placement.

maybe, but there was a time when google was the best alternative too.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#238

Post by rurp »

TheDong wrote: post #219
jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

> move them over to ChatGPT OpenAI has even more VC money to pay back than Google ever did. Practically all the large tech companies so far have turned to ads and monetizing users rather than charging enough to remain more neutral. I suspect one day, when you ask ChatGPT "Can you give me a link to mid journey", you'll instead probabilistically get a link to whichever competitor paid OpenAI for the best placement.

I'd say it's practically guaranteed. It would be wildly unprecedented to not follow up the amount of hype and fundraising in the LLM AI industry without a massive amount of enshittification following it.

Even if improvements continue for years we might already be near the peak of LLM usefulness because all of greedy and abusive dark patterns are sure to follow once the manic land grab settles down.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#239

Post by chuckadams »

hatthew wrote: post #110
chairmansteve wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"How will you fight the inevitable slide that happens if you ever got on top?". Don't get too greedy. There must be examples... 37Signals?

Valve is arguably a good example

Valve is also of course a privately held company.

Re: Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image

#240

Post by jgalt212 »

jpmattia wrote: post #210

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when po…

> I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock)

I guess they are all on Firefox.

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