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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

#481

Post by galangalalgol »

tripledry wrote: post #446
fhd2 wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One fascinating thing about LLMs is the degree of evangelism it inspires in some. You can explain some of that with paid micro influencers, people invested in the success of AI, consultants looking for workshop opportunities and all that, but I know enough people with no skin in the game at all, that turned into very vocal advocates. I think to some degree, that effect is also at play here. CEOs, product managers etc…

I'm sure there is an effect when people talk on socials (linkedin, company intra etc) that they are marketing themselves. This is why I won't take any claims on socials that seriously. I'll believe it when I see it.

I can't decide how much I like it myself. It can help me with really complicated projects. Software and otherwise. It has completely replaced my usage of non site local search engines. But I don't like how lazy it makes me. I don't vibe code, I understand what it is doing, and have it make adjustments typing it examples of what I want. But I can see myself getting lazier quckly. And when I find a task too hard for it I waste a lot of time trying to get my prompts correct before taking over.

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

#482

Post by giancarlostoro »

data-ottawa wrote: post #139
al_borland wrote: post #5

My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. One was just messaging me this morning about alternatives to Google search and maps. He ended up downloading DuckDuckGo. If Google isn’t carefully they’re going to push people away from their golden goose.

The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. All conventions and user centricity go out the window with AI feature launches lately. If you look at examples from the last week it’s stuff like posthogs opt-out training, Copilot training, or Google’s antigravity chat-app switch. I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life…

> posthogs opt-out training,

It should seriously be 100% illegal to force someone's content into AI training without their explicit consent, and no not opting out should not be an escape hatch.

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

#483

Post by hedora »

If you love AI mode, then won't you just use a chat app? That'll search Google for you, and it'll keep more context, use a better model, etc, etc.

When people open a search bar and type stuff, they're showing an incredibly strong intent to... search the web.

This reminds me of when MS tried to turn all Windows user interactions into bing, or (even worse) copilot. How did that work out for them?

Anyway, unlike windows, there's zero cost to switch away from Google's search product. I'm predicting a bigger backfire.

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

#484

Post by lukashoff »

data-ottawa wrote: post #139
al_borland wrote: post #5

My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. One was just messaging me this morning about alternatives to Google search and maps. He ended up downloading DuckDuckGo. If Google isn’t carefully they’re going to push people away from their golden goose.

The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. All conventions and user centricity go out the window with AI feature launches lately. If you look at examples from the last week it’s stuff like posthogs opt-out training, Copilot training, or Google’s antigravity chat-app switch. I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life…

One of the recent rollouts that really grind my gears was Spotify rolling out LLM explanations of songs. Which is the most useful wasteful piece of sh*t ever. Why would I want to get a theory of what is 174bpm and other random crap.

It is insane, and I hate modernity and every single modern product that just shoves random LLM crap at you and pretend they are not AI-enabled.

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

#485

Post by monkpit »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #391
monkpit wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not done by the search engine - eBay purposely bids to be the top ad for the search term “eBay”. It’s called cannibalization. They’re more willing to pay for the impression and potential click through than they are willing to give up the ad space to a competitor.

See my comment sidethread. It's nice when the facts you assert to support your position are, you know, true.

eBay was an example from the parent, insert whatever brand you want. It’s still called cannibalization and it’s something companies have stopped doing because they don’t see great results

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

#486

Post by [deleted] »

jackp96 wrote: post #287
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…

Also — it's objectively a better search product to give users what they're looking for right away. Though that's not to say they're acting altruisticly here. Google seems to be racing toward a new dark pattern where users learn to trust rely on the AI for neutral, smart objectively correct answers — which boosts trust in its sponsored product recommendations. Super gross.

[deleted]

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

#487

Post by kradeelav »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #383
ghastmaster wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. >I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life in the last few months. I attribute that to the massive amount of tax breaks and money that has been funneled to them by various governments. The government is the customer that they are appeasing right now. As soon as the spigot…

I'm not aware of any government handouts for tech companies adding AI to their products, can you give an example, please?

The AI Workforce Training Act is closer to what OP was mentioning; the last paragraph of this article suggests more. https://fedscoop.com/ai-workforce-tax-credit-house-bill/

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

#488

Post by trvz »

liampulles wrote: post #477

Google's Search and its AI result can alternatively help or hinder me, I find. If I'm looking for a relatively straightforward and simple piece of information quickly (e.g. "wooden arch mirror stores linden") then the AI summary can be useful, because I don't need more than surface level info. If I intend to analyze and understand something (e.g. "developer API issues Zoho Thrive"), then the AI summary and the genera…

I feel like the second scenario was never good with Google. You had to go through several search results describing other problems, and there was a high chance you still didn't find anything relating to yours; and then, it wasn't guaranteed that a years-old problem got fixed.

If I have an issue with my Mac, seeing an Apple Discussions result at the top readies me for disappointment.

Meanwhile, I've found a normal chat with current ChatGPT to be very helpful, as long as it isn't about itself or other OpenAI products.

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

#489

Post by kradeelav »

thewebguyd wrote: post #67
patates wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :(

> because they have fear of missing out on AI That's been my experience too, both with friends and coworkers. It would seem that the negative sentiment around AI is largely an internet phenomenon. I've yet to run into a hardcore "AI skeptic" irl. People seem either neutral, or enthusiastic about it.

Talk to career artists in real life (like animators); a majority of them have already lost their jobs due to AI layoffs.
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