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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

#731

Post by spopejoy »

coldpie wrote: post #584
zeroq wrote: post #373

One of my "sales pitches" is "I can find answers online, I know kung-fu". I've been using internet since '98, and I somehow developed this elusive skill of knowing how to navigate all these ads, seo farms, paid content, murky websites, and getting straight to the answer, no matter what the question was. For a long time I didn't thought of that as a special power. I thought it was natural, like driving a car, or speak…

Is Perplexity, as a business, sustainable? I'm skeptical of these "AI search is better than web search" claims. Not because it's not true, but because of how wildly subsidized these AI things are. Web search doesn't suck because it's an impossible problem, web search sucks because it has to be profitable, and the profitability comes from making it suck. That's not true today for AI tools, but it will be in a few year…

Perplexity's CEO openly admits that their Comet browser offering is intended to track users for ads. So it seems they will head down the encrapify path soon enough.

Pro tip: get a free account and don't go pro. Their free account is bananas good atm "while supplies last"

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

#732

Post by eru »

int_19h wrote: post #719
eru wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Can you imagine a more effective way to incentivise more people to start even more disrupting platforms? Can you image a more effective way to get investors to give money to these upstarts? It's much easier to get your rabble-rousing startup to threaten disruption (and then be bought up as a precaution), than if you had to actually battle it out in the marketplace to the bitter end…

It's a bad thing for the rest of us, because it means that all those platforms don't actually disrupt anything at the end of the day, and we have to keep eating the same turds.

You get way more of these new platforms popping up. And some of the might not get bought up in time. (And the wealth of the incumbent ain't infinite, so there's a limit to how many they can buy up.)

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

#733

Post by Lumoscore »

I was searching for a specific library for Python the other day, and Google kept pushing me to 'Top 10 Python Courses!' articles or giant comparison boxes for products I didn't need. It has decided that whenever I type a technical query, what I really want is to buy something or sign up for a newsletter.

The moment the algorithm switched from trying to understand 'what information does this user need?' to 'how can we make money off this user right now?' is the moment search broke for anyone doing actual development work. We're now filtering through commercial noise just to find the docs.

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

#734

Post by pitched »

gerdesj wrote: post #730
pitched wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of stressing, you could move on to supporting the next cool kids.

Grand daughter is rocking a customer cast off laptop. I was asked for help when the first lock down for covid was announced in the UK. I slapped on Kubuntu and an OpenVPN connection back to my home pfSense router on it, so I could manage it. All a bit slapdash but best I could do at the time. That was 2020. Six months ago, I find out she is still using it and its a "bit slow". I update it from 18.04 to 24.04 via ssh…

lol, I meant a different search engine. This is awesome though, you’re definitely helping those kids out a lot. You should think about giving them sudo and making them manage the upgrade themselves too though, to push them into learning more. A 7yo might be able to handle that but 10+ definitely.

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

#735

Post by anticrymactic »

stack_framer wrote: post #306
vunderba wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. For reference, on Android your best bet is to install Firefox + uBlock Origin. On iOS, I believe Kagi's Orion has built-in content blockers but you can also install uBlock Origin [1]. [1] https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ublock-origin...

Brave is excellent on Android. I watch YouTube all the time with literally zero ads ever.

You can use ReVanced on Android to block the ads in the YouTube app

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

#737

Post by vogu66 »

vogu66 wrote: post #606
arcbyte wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually do open the app store specifically to find a cool new app to install. I do this maybe a couple times a year. It never works. The apps it suggests are all ad farming garbage. I have found maybe one fun game doing this over the years, but mostly its been repeated frustration. I keep doing it occasionally in hopes that I find another diamond in the rough but I think Google has just trashed this whole thing up…

You can do that with F-droid, it's a lot of fun seeing what open source app people developed

well, for now at least

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45409794

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

#738

Post by diedyesterday »

Google is still far far better than the competition which is crawling with manipulated results and fake sites and phishing scams. The other are so much easier to take advantage of and manipulate (e.g. search ranking). No security based filtering ,etc.

I have been personally bitten by results on the likes of Bing or DDG (fake browser addons on top, crypto phishing sites on top, etc.)

Also user experience varies somewhat and for me with the same search prompt ("midjourney"), the intended site is the first result.

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

#739

Post by user205738 »

gtowey wrote: post #635
xg15 wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user, I'm still baffled that the interface to view and manage the apps I have installed on the system - which is 90 out of 100 times why I'm opening the play store - is tucked away in some obscure corner of the app. The other 10 times, it's because I want to install some specific app that I already know and I just want to get to the page of that exact app - either through a direct link or through the store's sea…

Of course they know the UI doesn't really do what you want. But they also know they make more money when it's filled with manipulative anti-patterns. Companies love algorithmic content because because it's the ultimate shield from criticism. "Don't blame us for bad content! It's just the algorithm and we can't control it! Maybe if you interact with it more it will give you better results." Or course in practice it me…

You can disable short videos on YouTube or turn them into regular videos using plug-ins.
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