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Google is no longer asking — feed the AI or you’re not in search results (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 4 months ago by homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://awful.systems/post/2178630

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[+] parpol@programming.dev 247 points 4 months ago

[deleted]

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 106 points 4 months ago

Google results are actually already pretty terrible. They just have tremendous inertia.

[-] APassenger@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago

I stopped using them months ago. I only notice when I'm looking for places (e.g., restaurants, barbers).

I'm not unhappy but may still shop around.

[-] pixel@pawb.social 6 points 4 months ago

yeah, I appreciate the push towards more privacy-centric search engines but as a result searches that are relevant to me geographically on places like startpage are next to useless. I understand why but I wish that local results were a bit better on the alternatives.

[-] doctortran@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago

We all keep saying this but can anybody point me to which one is better?

I invariably end up having to go back to them because the other search engines all have their own problems.

The issue is the internet is polluted with SEO and all the useful things that used to be spread out are now condensed onto places like Reddit, or places that aren't even being indexed.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 9 points 4 months ago

Supposedly there's a paid one that is good. I haven't tried. The thing is Google is completely enshittified. They don't have to care about you or the sites you search. So my theory is Bing is better because they are hungrier and anything that takes away market share from Google is good—but I'm fully aware that Microsoft was just as shitty as Google and will be again if they get back on top.

Everything else I know of is either just an alternate front end for one of them or an aggregator of both. So you're right, there's precious little alternative to Google. But it's almost bad enough I'm ready for the return of web rings of good sites vouching for each other.

[-] Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 4 months ago

I assume you're talking about kagi. I pay for their $5/month subscription and it's great

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[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 41 points 4 months ago

Part 5 is where I don't see this actually going.

Look at twitter. Now look at mastodon. Tell me which one is more shitty. Now tell me which one has something like 85% of the market, and which one most people haven't heard of.

Just because something it better, doesn't mean people use it. You can fit all of Lemmy in the world in one of the larger NBA size arenas. You can't even fit twitters total user base into some smaller CITIES.

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[-] Zurgo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 4 months ago

I'm pretty pessimistic about this:

Say no
Google still scrapes your site to train their AI
People don't care that its wrong, still use Google instead of other search engines

[-] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 23 points 4 months ago

Say no
You don't show up in Google search results
You still show up in other search results
Google is no longer bringing the best results
People stop using your site
You lose

[-] UprisingVoltage@feddit.it 14 points 4 months ago

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not give a single fuck and they will use whatever is preinstalled on their device

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 97 points 4 months ago

Let's DuckDuckGOOOOOOO!

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 57 points 4 months ago

For now.

DDG gets search results from Bing, owned by Microsoft. And I wouldn't be surprised if the later did the same as Google did.

[-] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 37 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

That's technically true, but it's as misleading as saying they get their search results from Yandex. Their results are aggregated from several search engines, not just Bing. They also have their own web crawler, DuckDuckBot, which absolutely respects RobotRules.

Edit: I'm told my information is out of date. No more Yandex because of Uncle Sam. Yahoo is just Bing now, so that index doesn't count anymore. The bulk of the rest of their sources are largely inconsequential specialized search engines. Their sources page states that they "largely source from Bing".

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

Fair point.

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[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 4 months ago

DuckDuckGo is just Bing. Which is uh.. going from Google to Microsoft. Maybe not much better either

[-] Subverb@lemmy.world 58 points 4 months ago

We're at a point where not only should the Internet be classified as a utility, so should Search.

[-] Gsus4@mander.xyz 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, it's not just e.g. water that is the utility, pipes and pumping stations are part of it. Otherwise you have water...uh...somewhere, go get it yourself.

[-] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 51 points 4 months ago

Oh look, more anticompetitive shenanigans.

Break Google up. Bring the full force of antitrust down on them.

Anything else is an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen.

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago

Been on ddg for a few months now. Doesnt look like i need to go back either

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[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Can someone explain why the fuck Google is pushing this so hard? Generative AI is not a general intelligence, and useless for concrete facts. Google has already demonstrated how shitty it is for information, and the people with the knowledge to work on the project have to know this.

So why the fuck are they all full steam ahead on something that will always be useless for them?

[-] rogue_scholar@eviltoast.org 35 points 4 months ago

Because the engineers aren't in charge anymore

[-] towerful@programming.dev 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

AI is hype.
They've recently signed a deal with Reddit for AI parsable data. Reddit reciprocated by allowing Google to be the only indexable search engine.
Google now thinks it can do the same to literally everyone else.
Googling is pretty damn mainstream.
Don't give Google your data, then don't be included in googles search results. It's like a flip of their previous trade with reddit, except it's not a trade. It's extortion.

Reddit never gave Google traffic. They gave them content and data.
And Google thinks it can withdraw traffic from other sites unless they get data in return.
Google is a monopoly.
Literally extortion

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[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 22 points 4 months ago

Lol... Peasants will accept it...

Sundar the creep knows it.

[-] einlander@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

[-] TrumpetX@programming.dev 21 points 4 months ago

I've been really happy with Kagi since switching.

[-] WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Same! I swore I wouldn’t pay for a search engine, but I feel like it’s absolutely worth it, considering the current state of things.

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[-] Snowcano@startrek.website 21 points 4 months ago

So how do I actually opt out? My website is just some personal hobby stuff on wordpress that only friends and family look at, I don’t need seo.

[-] ColinHayhurst@lemmy.world 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You should put these entries into your robots.txt file.

To block the Google search crawler use for all of your site:

User-agent: Googlebot

Disallow: /

To block the Google AI crawler use:

User-agent: Google-Advanced

Disallow: /

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[-] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 4 months ago

We do really need to figure how to make some kind of decentralized search engine.

[-] ColinHayhurst@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Some discussion on that here: https://lemmy.world/comment/11859761

[-] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I hope it happens one day, but that's an almost insurmountable task given the scale.

Take the entirety of the fediverse, and it's entire history, and you're probably talking a days worth of search engine indexing compute & storage.

The scale is large and the fediverse is incredibly small. Keeping my fingers crossed, but definitely not holding my breath.

In the meantime, I'll use Kagi.

[-] einlander@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

If I say no and revoke my consent, and they do it anyway ...

[-] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

Can you afford enough lawyers to prove it?

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Justice is the original pay to win game. Seems its out of our budget though.

[-] endofline@lemmy.ca 13 points 4 months ago

That's actually a good news. Maybe we're able to revert the internet to the times before the Eternal September happened

[-] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

This will never happen. We might get some of the issues more regulated, and people may move away from others, but you can't put the Furies back into the box. Things will change, but we will never have the early internet again.

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[-] bluewing@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago

I've switched from DuckDuckGo to Ghostery Private search. I've been happier with the results than DDG.

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[-] msage@programming.dev 9 points 4 months ago

Please understand that this is the next 'SEO' shit.

It was going to be this from the very start.

[-] Kethal@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Google is genuinely bad now. I switched to Ecosia which is just Bing with a simpler front end and they use their profits to plant trees. I don't think Ecosia is particularly special though. Duck Duck Go, Bing whatever, they're all better than Google.

Whenever I set up a new computer then search for something, I'm always surprised at first seeing the awful layout and quality of the search results before I realize that I haven't changed the default search from Google. It's awful now. Seriously, how are people using it?

My new favorite way to search is perplexity.ai. It's an AI search tool that summarizes the loads of crap out there so you don't need to read through the junk that people write. It provides sources, unlike using ChatGPT, which is incredibly valuable. All AIs make shit up, so having links to double check it is a must. Unlike Bing Chat, or whatever Microsoft calls it this week, you can ask follow up questions to home in on what you want.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Google: "Making AI helpful for everyone..." (..mostly us!)

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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024

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