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Go back to what I learned in school in the early days - Use multiple search engines when researching information. I admit, it's a bit harder than back then, when you could use Ask Jeeves and AltaVista...

The remarkable achievement is that this hasn't killed Google stone dead.

Makes me wonder when they're going to realize they bet on a donkey and stop. This shit is stupid and unsustainable.

Really the first page.

… or use this which removes the first few inches of rubbish from a Google search result. udm14.com

Someone on here showed me you can add -ai to the search to remove all that gubbins.

I answer the "info" emails for a state agency, and we have started getting emails that should go to state police or other agencies. When I tell them, they all say Google directed them to us. Minor inconvenience usually but sometimes it's urgent and we don't monitor 24/7. Not good, even just once...

Perhaps they’re now so big they have the mindset that the result is correct and the world must simply adjust until it matches.

The result is often unhelpful and needs thinking over. Useful to know the first bit is more so.

Pro tip- if you put -ai at the end of your search, you get an ai free response, i.e "thing I'm searching for, -ai"

A lot of people don't have that instinct unfortunately they also happen to be the same kind of people who believe Apple needs them to buy $500 in gift cards that will be refunded to reactivate their accounts

Looking for the company's website isn't easy either. When looking up HVAC or plumbing equipment by the manufacturer name, it can be 3 pages in before I find their website. Not all the garbage sites are sellers of similar, either.

google and twitter trajectories of crapness are similar, just one has managed it under-remarked, as they don't have a cryptofacist conspiracist cheerleading them. I keep looking for the upgrade button that would let me buy 'real' search results without the advertising/boosted stuff.

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I always scroll down past the sponsored results.

Just stop using Google. Duck duck go for better data privacy and no AI summary.

I find it mind-blowing that Google puts such experimental/ poorly functioning 'features' front and centre on their biggest product.

AI falls into the same bucket as self driving cars, the theory is fine, but actually making it work isn’t as easy as some seem to believe. Currently both will screw you over.

It definitely does.

the kids are alright

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Using an ad-blocker extension and installing pi hole on your network does away with the first two inches.

I'm very disappointed in the black comedy genre for failing to predict a dystopian sci-fi future where AI runs everything, but is dumb as rocks.

I started paying for kagi and it's spoiled me

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024...

To go so quickly from where seeing people use a search engine other than google made them seem a bit obsessive to switching devices over to DuckDuckGo to avoid AI and "wouldn't you prefer to use our app?" spam, a truly spectacular piece of corporate slamming-your-bollocks-in-a-car-door for clout.

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It's vandalism, is what it is

Always loved Google as a search engine, but go sick of the AI Overview I stopped using it.

20 years ago in the heyday of banner ads we put the search box at the top of Technorati. People literally didn't see it in ux testing. They skipped that inch of the desktop page where banners went. We put a Technorati logo in the banner hole, moved the search box down and suddenly it was seen & used

Correlation/causation and whatnot. The enshittification was ongoing, AI is the memetic Lightning rod. I had been away from Google Search for perfectly legitimate reasons years before the whole AI results thing.

We started using kagi.com . Screw google.

@zitron.bsky.social this one’s for you mate

Yesterday I googled when trick or treat was in my community. Said it was “Tuesday, Oct 31.” Umm, that’s a Thursday.

i only use google when ai fails so why on earth would i want an ai result

Add "-AI" to the end of every search query and the result will omit the AI bullshit

Or type in udm=14 before whatever you're searching to screen out ai.

Concern that they would be left behind by an AI competitor so both promoting it in a suboptimal way, and diverting resources from what has to be a continuous effort to protect against scammers (the detecting of whom might have been a more productive use of AI)

I'm largely in agreement with @zitron.bsky.social on this; short-sighted panic due to declining year-over-year growth rates and an ongoing failure to identify genuine new products or areas of innovation.

This article isn't trying to be neutral, but presents a lot of info from internal Google emails. Suggests it was about not enough growth in search and pressure from the ads department. www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-...

I'd tell you to google it, but...

What’s even more remarkable is that most people don’t even consciously do it. Ad blindness extends to all the clutter at the top of search results, people instinctively don’t trust it and regardless of what Google put up there, CTR for the first organic result is always higher.

Google play is similar. Search for an app and its never first in the result.

on the bright side the garbage first 2 inches of the Google result has multiplied the energy consumption of a Google search 10x over

I’m relying more on Reddit for recommendations. Google, Bing and amazon’s algorithms are just too twisted

This is possibly related. Https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272786/google-search-prabhakar-raghavan-nick-fox

That happened to me, trying to reach Amazon customer service. You can’t be too careful!

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I started using this a couple weeks ago. It is a big relief not to get those AI summaries.

Same with Reddit. A mixed bag of information but I tend to append Reddit to most of my search queries as it’s the only way to get half reliable results. Google maps seems even worse than their general search for providing misinformation.

StartPage is pretty good. It offers anonymised search links if (like me) you get very frustrated by Google silently adding tracker codes to its links. www.startpage.com

bsky.app/profile/flad...

Oh. I've just read how to get around that. Let me find it.

I don't use Google anymore - I use DuckDuckGo. It's just easier

Or use Duck Duck Go search (and browser).

It's crazy that their AI can be hoodwinked so easily...this after their initial Gemini fiasco generating DEI images of washington crossing the potomac etc.