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/

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    4 days ago

    Ugh, damn post title. I went through the whole article looking for the alternatives before realizing the title of the article says nothing about alternatives.

  • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    4 days 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.

    • bedwyr@piefed.caEnglish
      2·
      4 days 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.

  • Hettyc_Tracyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    I use Vivaldi with Startpage instead of Chrome, etc; because I hate getting the AI results that are wrong half the time because they pull off of what some idiot on Reddit said (or just hallucinate)

  • melfie@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I wouldn’t know because I mainly use DuckDuckGo and haven’t had a reason to use Google in a long time.