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AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

arstechnica.com

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Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#471

Post by dontlaugh »

graemep wrote: post #448
AlecSchueler wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But someone in a remote part of England will get the same advice as someone in central London, The current system might not have perfect geographic granularity but that doesn't mean it isn't preferable to one that gives advice from half the world away. > Human biology is the same, diseases are the same, and the difference in available treatments is not usually all that different Accepted medical definitions differ,…

England is not "half the world away" from Scotland.

They meant the US with Mayo.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#472

Post by layer8 »

maerch wrote: post #265
badc0ffee wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should "Taste pink", you say

It’s just the ChatGPT translation, and it’s a literal one. That said, I’ve never heard that phrase in German either.

The literal translation is wrong in that context, it should have been translated to “medium”.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#473

Post by viraptor »

csunbird wrote: post #406
viraptor wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will because that's how things are supposed to work. For example your preference about tracking will get stored for that site. The same as login details. Those are legitimate interests and you never get an option for them.

most of them try to argue serving ads and tracking is `legitimate interest`, which you have to disable manually

> most of them

I'm also grumpy about lots of this, but most? Can you point at any data that support this?

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#474

Post by [deleted] »

nightfly wrote: post #372
tyfon wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The banner is not the problem, the predatory tracking by webpages are. You can make a webpage without it no problem, my home page does not have it.

The banners themselves are ugly and can fill almost half the screen Even website makers who don't use predatory tracking end up including them as a CYA tactic

[deleted]

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#475

Post by garylkz »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #464

I think it's a google problem. The AI summary is often times wrong so I don't bother. But the pages are garbage as well, so normal users won't click on that looking for information. Dark forest and all that. Pages started to optimize for Google and not humans. Humans don't visit anymore. Duh

Yep, I can't remember when was the last time I've visited a SEO optimized site but I still had the bitter taste that I felt when I last visited it:

- searches for "How to do XYZ" and click one of the site

- "what is xyz"

- "why xyz matters"

- "preparations before xyz"

- "what you might encounter when xyz"

Sounds reasonable and in theory should be useful, but the actual useful info are only stuffed in 1-2 lines of multi paragraphs on tons of sections that I don't care about.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#476

Post by tonyedgecombe »

habinero wrote: post #252
what wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually put a thermometer in your burgers/steaks/meat when you’re cooking? That seems really weird. Why are people downvoting this? I’ve literally never seen anyone use a thermometer to cook a burger or steak or pork chop. A whole roasted turkey, sure.

I think your reference pool is just small. I absolutely use it for meat and especially for ground meat, which has a much higher chance of contamination.

I suspect your reference pool is the small one. Most people buy their burgers in a packet and hence follow the timing instructions on that packet.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#477

Post by quectophoton »

righthand wrote: post #445
gtsop wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the initial incentive for people to publish on the internet before ad revenue was a thing?

Information sharing with other humans, not corporations.

Likely with some expectation of receiving attribution for your effort, even if only sometimes.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#478

Post by generic92034 »

nicbou wrote: post #389
ileonichwiesz wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up the numbers. OpenAI actually loses money on every paid subscription, and they’re burning through billions of dollars every year. Even if you convince a fraction of the users to pay for it, it’s still not a sustainable model.

Even if they were profitable, the investors would feel that it's not profitable enough . They won't stop at breaking even.

And even if it was the highest profit branch of the company, they still would see a need to do anything possible to further increase profits. That is often where enshittification sets in.

This currently is the sweet phase where growing and thus gaining attention and customers as well as locking in new established processes is dominant. Unless the technical AI development stays as fast as in the beginning, this is bound to change.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#479

Post by einrealist »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #30

The overviews are also wrong and difficult to get fixed. Google AI has been listing incorrect internal extensions causing departments to field calls for people trying to reach unrelated divisions and services, listing times and dates of events that don't exist at our addresses that people are showing up to, and generally misdirecting and misguiding people who really need correct information from a truth source like o…

This raises the question of when it becomes harmful. At what point would your company issue a cease-and-desist letter to Google?

The liability question also extends to defamation. Google is no longer just an arbiter of information. They create information themselves. They cannot simply rely on a 'platform provider' defence anymore.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#480

Post by chasd00 »

pflenker wrote: post #461
Disposal8433 wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have noticed that a lot. For example: What is the price of the Switch 2? The Switch 2 can be purchased with money.

Recipe for Foo. Foo has always been my favorite dish. I fondly remember all the times my grandma made this for me. My grandma, who was born on August 2, 1946, as the daughter of… (10 more pages of text) To cook Foo the way my grandma did, you first need some Bar. Bar is originally native to the reclusive country of… (20 more pages of text)

Yeah recipes are the worst. I least the acknowledge themselves and give you a “jump to recipe” button most of the time. I sometimes hit the print button and just use the preview screen too.
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