Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image • Hacker News Board

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

#311

Post by LtWorf » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:41 AM UTC

itopaloglu83 wrote: post #236

TheDong wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Like how americans are convinced they invented the telephone because the patent office said so?

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

#312

Post by thrtythreeforty » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:41 AM UTC

asadotzler wrote: post #88

There was a time when Google disallowed this. Google even asked us (Firefox team) to report ads squatting on our trademarks. Eventually they stopped caring and now it's in their ad sales pitchdeck just how effective trademark squatting can be.

Can you in principle sue people buying these ads for trademark infringement? (I realize in practice the answer is that it's not worth the game of whack-a-mole.)

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

#313

Post by Marsymars » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:42 AM UTC

asadotzler wrote: post #88

There was a time when Google disallowed this. Google even asked us (Firefox team) to report ads squatting on our trademarks. Eventually they stopped caring and now it's in their ad sales pitchdeck just how effective trademark squatting can be.

I feel like there’s at least some country in the world where the legal regime would be amenable to ruling against Google if they were taken to court over trademark squatting by the trademark holders.

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

#314

Post by inamberclad » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:43 AM UTC

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…

Network wide ad blockers like PiHole are also quite useful but they can cause some confusion from the client side because things just break for no apparent reason.

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

#315

Post by kajaktum » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:44 AM UTC

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…

In hindsight, we should have known this would happen eventually. At this point, we have to be actively be against free services. Every time its just a ticking time bomb. There's literally no incentive for them to be an actual good service, just good enough that you tolerate it and not consider other options, but shit enough that they can extract value out of you.

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

#316

Post by ChrisArchitect » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:44 AM UTC

Maybe Midjourney let its brand namespace become too diluted with copycats and also-rans and coasted on their initial work instead of putting in the effort to maintain the space. Maybe a lot of ppl searching for things that are like Midjourney are causing the competitors (who are obviously making efforts to invade the keyword) to be listed alongside. Maybe there's actually way more variables in the mix with OP's search/account/profile (however prolific or not it is). It's just not that clear cut and google is still has massive utility.

Another day another weak substack submitted by ....

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

#317

Post by rchaud » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:45 AM UTC

doug_durham wrote: post #109

There have been ads above the fold for about 20 years. I just did the search and the official Midjourney site is the first non-sponsored hit. You'll find this for most searches.

20 years ago the ads appeared in a clearly marked and differently marked sidebar, away from the main content.

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

#318

Post by gxs » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:48 AM UTC

kajaktum wrote: post #315

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…

In hindsight, we should have known this would happen eventually. At this point, we have to be actively be against free services. Every time its just a ticking time bomb. There's literally no incentive for them to be an actual good service, just good enough that you tolerate it and not consider other options, but shit enough that they can extract value out of you.

Yeah agree 100% - this is why I’m a happy kagi customer

It’s kind of cool being treated like a customer

New feature releases aren’t about ad placement or SEO or personalization / tracking

Instead, their product updates are targeted at me - cool nifty features that I can immediately try out

Like kagi or not, just the feeling of having devs care about my actual personal experience is a breath of fresh air

I know not everyone is an fortunate, but I’d happily spend on other software of this caliber

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

#319

Post by Marsymars » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:49 AM UTC

ares623 wrote: post #32

freediver wrote: post #7

They still get away with it as ‘only’ 1% complain and Google thinks they don’t matter. We built our entire company for that 1%.

How is Kagi for non-US folks? I've tried switching to DDG a while back but the experience for me, living outside the US, was not great. Sure, programming related searches were pretty good, but everything else was not. Does Kagi have a better localized experience?

Might depend a bit on your desired experience. I find Google to be too aggressively localized, where (from Canada) I’ll search for (made up example) e.g. “Eiffel Tower” and instead of the results that I’d want to be #1 and #2 (wikipedia and toureiffel.paris), I’ll get (after a pile of ads) “JimBob’s Eiffel Towel Of French Fries”, “kid builds scale model of Eiffel Tower for local science fair” and some tour company offering Eiffel Tower tours.

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

#320

Post by gxs » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:49 AM UTC

condiment wrote: post #287

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 pay for Kagi for search, my family uses Kagi. I pay for NextDNS to block ads, all of my family's devices use NextDNS. I pay for credits on OpenRouter and host an OpenWebUI instance, all of my family's AI is private. I pay for the news - The Economist, the WSJ, FT, NewScientist, etc. Lies are free, the truth is behind a paywall. The only thing money can't buy, yet, is a phone network free of robocalls.

Dude not to mention their ai assistant is top notch

Happy customer here as well