AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

Post by 1718627440 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 8:13 AM UTC

seszett wrote: post #302

OtherShrezzing wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we've got amazing National Health Service informational websites[1], and regional variations of those [2]. For some issues, you might get different advice in the Scottish one than the UK-wide one. So, if you've gone into labour somewhere in the remote Highlands and Islands, you'll get different advice than if you lived in Central London, where there's a delivery room within a 30 minute drive. Google's AI ov…

> ignores the high-quality NHS care delivery websites, and presents you with stuff from US sites Weird because although I dislike what Google Search has become as much as any other HNer, one thing that mostly does work well is localised content. Since I live in a small country next to a big country that speaks the same language, it's quite noticeable to me that Google goes to great lengths to find the actually releva…

Post by 1718627440 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 8:28 AM UTC

HSO wrote: post #234

throwaway81523 wrote: post #133

Of course slow, shitty web sites also cause a massive drop in clicks, as soon as an alternative to clicking emerges. It's just like on HN, if I see an interesting title and want to know what the article is about, I can wince and click the article link, but it's much faster and easier to click the HN comments link and infer the info I want from the comments. That difference is almost entirely from the crappy overdesig…

> faster and easier to click the HN comments link and infer the info I want from the comments Or, youre confusing primordial desire to be aligned with perceived peers -- checking what others say, then effortlessly nodding along -- with forming your own judgment.

Post by 1718627440 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 8:37 AM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #818

jdiff wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox for Android can handle uBlock Origin, probably NoScript as well. It's the one thing keeping me on Android at this point.

I run desktop Firefox on my GNU/Linux phone, so I could leave Android behind.

Post by aspenmayer » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 9:26 PM UTC

lazide wrote: post #694

carlosjobim wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is at fault for lying, but only a base person would go out in the real world and try to make other people responsible for the lies they were told by a robot. A base and egocentric person.

And ChatGPT pointed said person right at an innocent third party.

Post by fsflover » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:45 PM UTC

Expurple wrote: post #822

fsflover wrote: post #819

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> independent from Google Not really: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38253384

Unlike Firefox, Safari has another huge corporate backer (Apple). Apple is drowning in cash. They don't need Google's money to keep developing Safari. It's "just" a good, low-effort deal for them. Apple doesn't have a competing search engine, or an intention to develop one, or an intention to promote a free web and "save" their users from a search engine monopoly.