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Google is dead. Where do we go now?

circusscientist.com

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Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#501

Post by Timwi »

socalgal2 wrote: post #283
rickcarlino wrote: post #123

The way people get information online is changing rapidly. I run a local makerspace. It is not quite the same thing as a local entertainment business, but there are certainly some similarities. We are local, and we are very event-based. For the last 10 years, the way we would get new members was to host Meetups. Meetups are slowly bringing in fewer members. When I ask tour guests how they found out about us, they rec…

Are you using "Meetups" to mean Meetup.com or just events in general? Meetup.com has completely gone to shit. Trying to find an event is super frustrating. They show the same events over and over. They don't enforce categorization. People mark online only events as in person and the platform doesn't care. They also started trying to charge users (people looking to attend events) instead of only planners (people hosti…

There is a meetup-like platform called Spontacts here in Germany. I suspect that for the moment it is only available for meetups in Germany, but who knows, maybe it'll expand internationally if it's successful.

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#502

Post by hyperadvanced »

mjevans wrote: post #468
Khaine wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats just what the internet of the mid to late 90s was like. People rarely used their real name, there were hundreds of forums, some private. You could have different nicks on them. Nobody knew you were a dog on the internet[1] until the rise of Facebook and linking your real identity with an online identity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_...

The idea that everyone has only one identity, one whole, is harmful. People change over time. People change even a little based on who's around them. Even memories change as people see things in new lights. The Internet of the late 90s and early 2000s was spectacular in that everyone could be as authentic and deep as they wanted to be, and as shallow and invisible as they wanted to be depending on context. Firefox? W…

You could argue (it certainly has been argued) that the ability for technology to dissolve the usually more coherent identities that we take on daily by granting unlimited role play, trolling, and exploration is simply too much for a lot of people, and makes it hard to maintain a coherent sense of self. This is especially true of people who are “internet addicts” - not that the designation means a whole lot as I’m here at the gym talking to you on the phone.

Don’t get me wrong, I mostly agree with your comment. I think even more dastardly is the tendency for the internet to market new personalities to you, based on what’s profitable

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#503

Post by grugagag »

paxys wrote: post #442
tyingq wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He had presumably used it for 10 years successfully. Surely he gained some expertise over that time period.

He probably just got a new competitor in the space. Easy to see good returns on online ad spend when all traffic just goes to you by default.

Or returns gradually went down until it stopped working altogether.

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#504

Post by esseph »

yunwal wrote: post #479
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is really where it is at these days. Discord servers with 50-100 people form the new social fabric of the internet where real community lies. In theory Reddit was supposed to be this but 1. Reddit communities tend to get too large 2. Subreddits overflow into each other too much through cross posting and brigading 3. Post history being public meant that you could get banned/brigaded for your comments on a tota…

The culture on discords tend to be way better than anywhere else on the internet, but discord really sucks to use. Somehow still doesn’t have a usable search, really underpowered notifications control, they have the worst pop ups imaginable that seem to just float on top of the whole interface and make it impossible to use. I really wish something better would come along.

It can do per channel and per server notifications for all messages, @mentions, or none.

What else would you want?

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#505

Post by Majromax »

mikestorrent wrote: post #481
cookiengineer wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend today, where I was talking to her about the /r/golang thread about Rob Pike's comments to OpenAI and how the thread was full of bots talking with other bots. No idea why the density of bots was so high in that thread, it was kind of absurd to see. Then she said: "I know nobody that comments on online forums. Nobody would ever comment to strangers on the internet. It's…

To be fair, back in those "good old phpbb days", people trolled just as hard as anyone does now, and maybe worse, since the consequences of it were not as visible, and getting in trouble for things you said online was virtually nonexistent. Everyone used a fake name, and while it might be possible to dox someone, it wasn't an operational concern for anyone who just wanted to be a jerk...

> people trolled just as hard as anyone does now,

Trolling had (has) a different character in smaller, more private forums: it tends towards more effort. A low-effort troll just gets banned and loses their platform, so the troll needs to at least ride the line of legitimacy. Drawing the line back to Usenet, the sheer effort that went into some trolling garnered respect if not necessarily acceptance.

Drive-by interactions reward volume since the 'game' isn't repeated. Curated social media feeds like Twitter are even worse; the troll has their own audience predisposed towards acceptance and the victim is just set-dressing.

I analogize this to in-person interactions: ostracization is mutually costly. A small group loses a member who was at least making a 'warm body' contribution, but the ostracized person loses a whole set of social benefits.

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#507

Post by discordance »

esseph wrote: post #422
frmersdog wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI is not and cannot be search. Search is dead and has been for a few years now. Search has seemingly been subsumed into the LLM monster, considering how "fuzzy" queries have become (probably because they're not hitting the search algorithm without being massaged by "something else"). Significant portions of the web have been purged from Google's index, which means that neither Gemini nor Search can present those pag…

When people say "search is dead", I feel like you and I live on different planets. If I have an idea of what I want, Google search works great. On the rare occasion I don't know the specific thing I'm looking for, Gemini points the way. It had never ever been easier for me to find what I'm looking for on the internet, since 1993-1994. I do wonder how much browser, location, and language plays into this.

Search -> click on website -> read website to find the information you wanted; is dead/dying.

I agree that paradigm is over and using Google search feels antiquated. It’s not a good outcome for website owners, but I want info retrieval.

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#508

Post by eertami »

delichon wrote: post #126

Push advertising sucks, but we can make pull much better by giving the user more control. Imagine a protocol to publish commercial offers for any given fragment of content addressable by URI. It would describe the details of some product or service and a set of proposed terms. We could surf the web looking for relevant content and publishing related offers. Various repositories would subscribe or not. A browser (exte…

Why would I, as a user, ever opt in to this instead of just using adblock and never seeing adverts at all.

Re: Google is dead. Where do we go now?

#509

Post by grugagag »

lovich wrote: post #217
senthil_rajasek wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "here" I think you mean SA. Reddit is big in the U.S.

Reddits been building up its user base in India the past few years.[1] I’m permabanned on Reddit so I only consume via the default not logged in feed and I run into some comments in what I assume is Hindi(might be marathi or one of the multiple other languages on the continent) or posts from subreddits explicitly about some aspect of india [1] https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/inside-reddits...

How are permabanned? Can you just change the handle or create a new account?
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