Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch
techcrunch.com
Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47107360

Google is making its Search more centred around AI, turning it into a conversation.

Besides being a worse experience, the websites from which it sources its information are losing all traffic and recognition.

Recommend a list of alternatives:

  • Kagi - Paid but better experience than Google
  • Ecosia - Similar experience while supporting a good cause
  • Qwant - Increasingly unique results and building a EU-first index
  • DuckDuckGo - Privacy-focused search, but quality of results may vary

More options: https://purchasewithpurpose.io/category/search-engine/

  • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.worldEnglish
    772·
    1 day ago

    Google Search has long since diminished from it’s peak. 15 years ago we used to play a “game” by describing something as vaguely or strangely as possible and would be entertained to find it still on the first page of search results.

    SEO and paid ranking caused a steady decline in Google search performance, and LLMs are the kill shot.

    Indexing and ranking were already a solved problem, and conventional algorithms accomplished it much better than LLMs do. Unfortunately, LLMs need to find uses to justify investment, so now they must be used for any task that they can be used for, even if its worse than the solutions that we already had.

    • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      351·
      1 day ago

      even if its worse than the solutions that we already had.

      Like Gemini replacing Assistant. Holy shit, what a dumpster fire.

    • bedwyr@piefed.caEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      The other factor is companies, interests, paying the Google and their ilk to not include things in search results. And only include what they choose as an alternative.

      Then you might have different interests gaming the search results to bury something they don’t like.

        • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
          2·
          18 hours ago

          At the moment, I do find that the LLMs bring me more of what I want to see than the basic search engine used to a few years back… 15-20 years ago the basic search engine seemed to be much better then slowly deteriorated from there.

          I have confidence, they’ll sell this version to the highest bidder faster than they did the last one, then it will be just as bad as listening to radio advertisements as a way to find a good local restaurant to eat at…