Comment on Google Search referrals to the web have plummeted, AI links are 'less than 1%' of traffic

• Addv4@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Given the state of a lot of the summaries I’ve seen lately, that is scary.

  source
• DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is that what this is saying? I wasn’t sure. The article should state that explicitly, and not assume that the reader concludes that.

  source

  • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think the issue there is the data doesn’t tell anyone “why”, it only tells “what”.

    source
  • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hard to imagine usage of Google suddenly falling by 22%, much less 60%.

    source
• org@lemmy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Which is probably enough to find the info 90% of the time

  source

  • foodandart@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I have classic apple computers.

    I also maintain a small list of sites I visit to get abandonware programs for them. Of the times I’ve used the AI results, I found what I was looking for fewer than 15%. At one point, I had the AI telling me there was no such thing as Winamp for Mac, while I was running it in MacOS 8.6 under the virtualization program, Sheepshaver.

    Seriously?

    AI’s got so little ability to sort through archived knowledge and pull up old links and sources, it’s as if anything before 2006 never existed.

    Nuts to that.

    I hit up ten blue links and have never looked back.

    source

    • org@lemmy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      But did a regular search provide the correct info? I find niche searches aren’t always good using either method. Old software info can be hard to find.

      source

      • foodandart@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yes! I wasn’t looking for whether it existed, I knew it did, but it was in a .sit file with an abbreviated name. Also apparently was an aplha build, so maybe that’s why the AI insisted it did not exist. Was looking for the last version available for the classic OS as I had one of the earliest.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
• TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Holdup, are people not skipping the AI summaries entirely because the info is fucking shit?

  source
• mr_anny@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This is actually a good thing. Google get paid for referrals and niw their “AI” shit turns against it.

  source

  • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Google get paid for referrals

    What are you talking about?

    source

    • winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Companies pay Google to be at the top of the list and get clicks

      source

      • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Could you please point me as to where I pay Google for my site to be higher in the search results? Unless, of course, you mean the ads.

        source
    • mr_anny@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Companies pay for google to show up high in search results. Some of them pay from clicks.

      Now people stop at the slop which is the first thing thry see in the results.

      This makes traffic to company sites go down which also affects google revenue.

      source

      • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Companies pay for google to show up high in search results.

        Do you mean the ads? Or, if you mean the search results themselves, where do I pay Google to get my site higher in the results?

        source

        • -> View More Comments
  • WindyRebel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This just forces people to turn to Google Ads. They will actually make more money from people because it kills off little businesses that can’t pay and jacks up competition/pricing for ad bids.

    source
• SinningStromgald@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The only use I have found for the AI summary is quickly getting NAIC numbers for insurance companies at work. Otherwise I use an extension that removes the AI summary.

  source

  • frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Are those results correct, though?

    source

    • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They actually are surprisingly.

      source