Google dismisses Apple exec’s claim that search volume is falling
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I switched search engines because Google feeds me so much AI junk. So AI was the reason, but not the underlying motivation assumed here.
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Haha, no.
When I look at the top-of-page AI summaries, for general questions the results are a mix of decent answers and wrong or outdated info. For Windows development questions it's given me blatantly wrong answers along with answers that are 90% right but have missing or hallucinated API calls.
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I've hated using Google for search over the past few years. It seems to have gotten dumber. In regards to AI, I've gotten summaries that were incorrect, or referencing non-factual information due to posts made on Facebook because it was ranked higher in their algorithm. If people are seeing that and relying on it as fact, yes, Search is actively getting worse due to Google's all encompassing obsession with AI.
AI issues the lowest common denominator information and response, instead of issuing better responses in search.
The example I'm referencing is a post on Facebook that was saying the Oakland A's elevated the first female pitcher for the team from the Oakland B's. Searching "female pitcher oakland a's" gives incredibly incorrect information.
Not only does the team the Oakland B's not have any connection to the Oakland A's, the AI generated response just issues the same horrible data from the click bait post from Facebook.
AI issues the lowest common denominator information and response, instead of issuing better responses in search.
The example I'm referencing is a post on Facebook that was saying the Oakland A's elevated the first female pitcher for the team from the Oakland B's. Searching "female pitcher oakland a's" gives incredibly incorrect information.
Not only does the team the Oakland B's not have any connection to the Oakland A's, the AI generated response just issues the same horrible data from the click bait post from Facebook.
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trevor_darley
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Google's AI uses dumb tricks: adding "In [hometown], Indiana," before answering queries that have absolutely nothing to do with location; interpreting my queries as slang phrases and hallucinating "meanings" that aren't there; quoting sentences from completely unrelated websites and pretending to cite sources. Google has decided that their AI slop is better than highlighting a result from the most relevant page like they used to, and their results after the first are hardly better thanks to the role of GenAI on those spammy SEO-bait pages.
I often use browsers besides Google (mainly DuckDuckGo) when I'm looking for actual information, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear others do the same. The worst case scenario when I switch is that I get the same SEO-driven results, but with the added perk of not having to scroll past a 400-word explanation of why my typo "indianapolis restaur ants" is a commonly used Midwestern phrase about insects that know how to cook
I often use browsers besides Google (mainly DuckDuckGo) when I'm looking for actual information, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear others do the same. The worst case scenario when I switch is that I get the same SEO-driven results, but with the added perk of not having to scroll past a 400-word explanation of why my typo "indianapolis restaur ants" is a commonly used Midwestern phrase about insects that know how to cook
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Perfect corporate gaslighting, as if I can’t go to Google.com right now and see how shitty it is and has gotten.
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They are concerned about investor sell-off if search is weakening
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So to confirm, not only are they arguing that AI doesn’t replace the search product (which includes Gemini AI in search), they’re also arguing that their search engine
But at the same time their search engine is not so dominant that their ad business is not immediately getting a leg up vs those other ad companies in the market? Wait, how many of them are in the trillion $ market-cap club again?
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same here. It actually gives me results like Google used to, decade(s) ago.
I initially found it hard to accept paying for search, but the sanity it is saving me ended up being worth it...
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If search were a more important part of my life I'd probably switch to Kagi too, but for now I'm sticking with Duck Duck Go.
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josi_ok also said it above, but probably cause the stock price dropped almost 10% from the news.
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They put the finance guy in charge. Short-term stock price is all that matters.
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I'm pretty sure Google shoveling irrelevant rent-seeking garbage by the truckload into top results is actually what's hurting search.
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I would switch to Kagi too, but the value-add over DuckDuckGo is just a smidge higher than I'm willing to pay. If they could squeak down a few bucks a month and make the $5 tier unlimited I might do it.
It's not that I can't afford $10 a month on its own, it's that I'm being Hamiltoned to death and paying for my Internet access many times over, for all these damned subscription services, as well as the extortionate monopolistic ISP fees. Search is just a wee part of my life, for that.
It's not that I can't afford $10 a month on its own, it's that I'm being Hamiltoned to death and paying for my Internet access many times over, for all these damned subscription services, as well as the extortionate monopolistic ISP fees. Search is just a wee part of my life, for that.
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That is not arguing against itself, it is two separate arguments in two separate venues. The "Google search remains dominant an increasingly so" argument is in a press release to the (stock) market. The "Google is not a monopoly and faces increasingly effective competition" argument is in a court where the press release will probably not be admissible or effective as evidence.
You can have your cake and eat it too if you're dining in two different restaurants at the same time.
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Same experience here. Now, I’m at the stage where my first reflex is to just use the mouse’s scroll wheel after the results are generated. I’m pretty sure that AI summary takes loads more power to generate just for us to ignore though.
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Looking at their pricing, it seems they're bundling in some sort of AI system, which seems like it's missing the point of what's makes alternatives to Google valuable (for me) in the first place. I want to use a search engine that's just a search engine, and maybe even pay for that, but I do not want to give money to a company that's throwing half of it away on AI.
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Google search has deteriorated to a point where it is often outright useless even for simple tasks and even Bing is superior to it (for now, I am faraid there will be a "hold my beer" moment for Microsoft, they are also into this AI BS).
Just an example from today: I wanted to know some specs of a not very arcane device (a magnetic stirrer). Search terms: the manufacturer and the type of the device.
Google: most relevant is some webshop that sells the device (around the middle of the first page), but no technical data there. All the other results are completely irrelevant, some of them are bewilderingly unrelated, like I cannot even imagine the "thought" process that created them from those search terms.
Bing: first result is the datasheet of the device from the manufacturer's website. Jackpot.
Just an example from today: I wanted to know some specs of a not very arcane device (a magnetic stirrer). Search terms: the manufacturer and the type of the device.
Google: most relevant is some webshop that sells the device (around the middle of the first page), but no technical data there. All the other results are completely irrelevant, some of them are bewilderingly unrelated, like I cannot even imagine the "thought" process that created them from those search terms.
Bing: first result is the datasheet of the device from the manufacturer's website. Jackpot.
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Sorry Google, I know how to read between the lines a bit.
Your statement looks like a bunch of lies to me.
Your statement looks like a bunch of lies to me.
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I switched away from Google to DuckDuckGo years ago, but this year I finally switched away from that to Kagi. Bing, which is DDG's primary search back-end, has been just as bad at dealing with affiliate farms and AI slop as Google. (We blame Google, but Amazon's referral program has been just as corrosive to web search results by creating perverse incentives.)
Kagi has been like a breath of fresh air. Not only do I get useful results to my searches, they often come from non-content-farm sources I've never seen before, with identifiable human authors and track records of covering their topic. It's just been… amazing does not overstate it.
I haven't had such a shock since Altavista came on the scene in the late 90s!
Seriously, give it a try: www.kagi.com
FWIW, you can turn it off. I have not bothered to, since it rarely pops up:
The effort to filter out AI generated images is pretty nice too.
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Remember, to Google, a search being "more useful" means it generates more ad serving opportunities for Google. That's it. That is their metric, and that is what they pursue.
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Also on the Kagi bus, albeit just their basic tier. I’ve only run out of searches once in the past year, at which point I can walk back over to DDG.
DDG keeps linking me to very low quality auto generated junk, it’s been worth paying Kagi for the higher quality returns and the ability to blocklist domains.
DDG keeps linking me to very low quality auto generated junk, it’s been worth paying Kagi for the higher quality returns and the ability to blocklist domains.
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I'd spin that differently:
People are getting fewer and fewer of the results they're looking for when using Google Search, requiring them to alter and further refine their search queries, driving overall query growth. This also extends the time that people spend looking at Google results pages, increasing ad impressions. Google is excited to extend this technique to new areas of their product interfaces, increasing their revenues while diluting the quality of the information they provide.
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Interestingly, Google search doesn't give any AI summaries when you search "why is the AI in Google search so awful"
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Another Kagi user here (for over a year now). Came from DuckDuckGo and I'm really happy. You can turn off all the AI stuff in Kagi if you want, but I find it useful. That's one of the great things about Kagi - you can make it do what I want how you want. Huge fan. Their staff are very active with the user base on discord - couldn't be happier. One of the few products I'm happy to pay - and value keeps being added while price stays the same.
I de-googled in 2017 and haven't looked back. Never thought I'd see Google being threatened.
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I switched my searches away from Google to something that doesn't provide mostly incorrect AI summaries. Had been annoyed by Google's enshi*tification of search the past few years already, but the AI crap was too far.
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I don't search very often these days. Google AI is part of the reason why. Why use Google when I can read the Wikipedia page myself? Yes, most of their AI results are simply copied from Wikipedia. For that they are burning down more watts and GPU power
Sadly the various comments about only caring about ad placement opportunities is much too accurate
Sadly the various comments about only caring about ad placement opportunities is much too accurate
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I use the udm14 tag to stop AI searches in Google, so I never see anything like that. It's an add-on (at least in Firefox, though I doubt Chrome would let it work) since I typically use the search bar in the browser. Toss in NoScript and uBlock, and I have a virtually ad-free online experience.
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If Google actually allowed disabling “AI enhancements” it might not be so bad, but the fact we have it thrown down our throats is maddening.
Products with “AI enhanced” are often devalued in every other way. It’s almost like needing the power of a nuclear reactor to do what 42 lines of carefully crafted code could do sometimes.
Products with “AI enhanced” are often devalued in every other way. It’s almost like needing the power of a nuclear reactor to do what 42 lines of carefully crafted code could do sometimes.
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I use the Google Rewards app to earn some free Google Play credit, since I'm disabled and rather broke. A couple of times it's given me a survey asking me if AI overview was useful for a recent search I did. Every single time the answer was "No, it was completely useless." But they continue to try and shove it down our throats anyway, ignoring feedback they solicit themselves.
Also, his mentioning Google Lens pisses me off. Lens has made Google's reverse image search completely useless. There's no way to bypass it, unlike with AI overview. I mainly use Yandex for reverse image search now, since Bing has started copying Lens. It is an absolute abomination that completely destroyed a great product.
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Yes, I hate the fact that every search now wastes who knows how much resources to tack on a useless feature that I don't want.
Imagine if every time you make a cup of coffee or tea you also are forced to throw a piece of fruit into the trash to rot.
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Another vote for Kagi. The increasing use of AI results in Google is going to have a chilling effect on the web – driving less and less traffic to websites. As well as the potential for poor quality information that GenAI brings wherever it pops up.
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Lotsa complaints about the crappiness of Google search.
That may well be true, but is (free) crappy search illegal? IANAL but I thought the purpose of anti-trust law was to protect consumers, not competition.
So what is it about Google's crappy search that is actuually illegal from a user standpoint?
That may well be true, but is (free) crappy search illegal? IANAL but I thought the purpose of anti-trust law was to protect consumers, not competition.
So what is it about Google's crappy search that is actuually illegal from a user standpoint?
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I gave Kagi a try. Then I discovered that its run by a pack of amateurs who are just as obsessed with AI as Google is: https://d-shoot.net/kagi.html
I do appreciate that Kagi lets to disable their AI features, but I will not be supporting them thank you very much.
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Oh how far Google has fallen. Anyone remember how Google refused to release their driverless cars to the general public due to public safety concerns? Yeah, the second they started having Google employees who did not work on the cars, test the cars on closed tracks, the drivers would fail to pay attention to the road the entire time.
And now they seem proud of telling us to eat rocks.
And now they seem proud of telling us to eat rocks.
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