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this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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I still don’t think it’s talked about enough how useless Google search is becoming. It genuinely infuriates me on a daily basis.
That’s what I see AI actually replacing, along with those shit websites that write 1000 words for instructions that could be summarised in 4 bullet points.
I don’t know if Google would fully adopt AI into their search though, as they have such a strong incentive to keep things how they are.
That's on us. We switched to DuckDuckGo and forgot to leave a note.
I do find it really noticable when I accidentally use Google on a new browser install, and get worse results.
Edit: Which is a change. I used to feel like I was accepting slightly worse results on DuckDuckGo to get more privacy. But today, it just feels a bit better than Google, to me.
Ddg has really gone downhill lately too. They've started injecting ads for local businesses that are completely unrelated to the search terms. Like not even a single word in common. And they serve them as regular search results so you can't even block them.
Actually now that I'm thinking about it, I actually haven't seen those in a month or two ....
There’s also so much Microsoft crap now. Why do all news articles and videos send you to Microsoft Start or whatever it’s called?
So what is an actually useful search engine these days? I want to find stuff without being infuriated by the process
I just use ChatGPT+ or Perplexity. It's 2023, why should I do web searches, that's a robot's job.
Kagi. It costs money but there are no ads and the results are literally miles better than any other search engine in the past 5 years easy. I thought it was a bit ridiculous until I tried the free trial and I’m hooked. The results are just that much better and there’s way more features.
Heh. I VPN enough that had not noticed the local business ads, as of yet.
On the non-targeted ads, I always figure if the business is dumb enough to pay for such a poor quality match, to subsidize a tool I like using, then that's a win for everybody.
Google has different goals than a search user.
Whether google uses AI or not, their goal will be at odds with the user’s and the results will only be useful enough that most people won’t completely stop using search.
The only useless results I get in search engines these days is the AI garbage. It's not better than what you mentioned - it's the same, if not worse.
Have a look at Kagi search. I’m no longer infuriated by the search results.
Dude, for real, I don't know how you use google, but I do not have ANY trouble whatsoever using google. I hate the company, yes, but the search works great still. And with some tips, like using quotation marks and filetype and such, even pesky results are easy to find. Granted, I have to skip like 3 ad results, but that's it. And I jse google at work EVERYDAY.
I think y'all just suck at googling
Guess it depends what you’re searching for.
If I’m searching for niche information then it’s a nightmare to get the algorithm to stop showing me the generic top results.