technology

Now I use chatgpt instead

I feel trapped I should try to get out

In May of 2023, Google introduced “AI overviews” into their search engine.1 This followed years of decisions leading to worse search quality and the consummation of their mission to answer every query on Google instead of sending you to outside sites.

Something I never understood is how is AI overview different from the Knowledge Graph? They were both instant summaries of data found on the web, only the Knowledge Graph didn't boil a gallon of water per query or turn us all into Palestinians.

Of course there's an alternative to YouTube. Bilibili is right there. You just have to learn Chinese to use it.

By getting off Google and using a mix of search engines and independent sites, you are forced to make an initial conscious decision when you want to find something. You need to think not only “how do I find out this knowledge?” But “where can I find it?”

That’s a fun and fulfilling decision to make. You might still end up searching (on Brave or DuckDuckGo or Kagi or wherever, not Google), but you also may find yourself going directly to IMDB or Wikipedia or Reddit or your local news org or who knows where.

Taking Google out of things has brought me back to the yesteryears of “surfing the web” instead of just “Googling.”

It’s better.

I haven't made much of a concerted effort to degoogle, but I have been defaulting to a Google search less and less and instead going directly to where the information is. The easy stuff is setting up custom search engines: Wikipedia (and other independent wikis), dictionary sites, databases like Discogs and MusicBrainz, and so on. Not only does it cut Google out, it's actually faster and more reliable—Google's just an annoying middleman much of the time. In Firefox, at least, you can even set up search completion if the search engine supports it, so it'll probably be an even better experience than Google because it won't be shoving irrelevant stuff in as suggestions.

But in addition to that, I'm trying to lean on my bookmarks more. So if I'm looking for information about Pokémon mechanics like EVs or catch rate, I know The Cave of Dragonflies has me covered. If I want media criticism, I go straight to FAIR. The longer you take this approach, the more sites you'll build up, and on the personal web side of things you can often discover them via webrings/affiliate badges.

I also recommend pairing this with setting up an RSS reader so you can create curated/ non-algorithmic feeds of news and blog posts and the like. I use a pretty basic FOSS Android app called Read You, but there are fancier self-hosted setups which allow for syncing with other devices and such. One nice thing about RSS feeds is that they allow you to keep up with sites or people that put put high quality stuff infrequently without any real effort.

And hey, if you check out your bookmarks, you'll sometimes find pleasant surprises like the delightfully 90s web homepage that Bulbapedia has set up for Pokémon's 30th anniversary.

i have Firefox setup to default to the web search tab of google search. Go to your settings, add a search engine by url and use this url: https://www.google.com/search?q=%25s&udm=14

it seems like it stops the google suggestions but whatever, i dont need those really