cross-posted from: awful.systems/post/2178630
Let’s DuckDuckGOOOOOOO!
Google is no longer asking — feed the AI or you’re not in search results
Submitted 2 months ago by homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 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 2 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.
Subverb@lemmy.world 2 months ago
We’re at a point where not only should the Internet be classified as a utility, so should Search.
Gsus4@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Yeah, it’s not just e.g. water that is the utility, pipes and pumping stations are part of it.
SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 2 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.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 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 2 months ago
Because the engineers aren’t in charge anymore
towerful@programming.dev 2 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.31337@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Their line goes up when they show they’re investing in AI, and it goes down when it looks like they’re falling behind or not investing enough in it.
TBH, a lot of times I find myself interacting with ChatGPT instead of searching. It’s overhyped, but it’s useful.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Magic beans.
TrumpetX@programming.dev 2 months ago
I’ve been really happy with Kagi since switching.
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world 2 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.
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t Kagi still uses google/bing results?
ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s definitely better…but. Thanks to Google SEO the internet it’s bringing you results from is still filled with shit
Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Same. It’s amazing. I really like the feature where you can prioritise or deprioritise search results from certain websites.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Been on ddg for a few months now. Doesnt look like i need to go back either
Squizzy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Ddg are shit too, search a name and they will relate it you locally even if you turn off regional results.
Click a link and go back to results and they have changed.
Ddg is enshittifying.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Well it gets me here and to .ml so i cant complain
einlander@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If I say no and revoke my consent, and they do it anyway …
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Can you afford enough lawyers to prove it?
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Justice us the original pay to win game.
endofline@lemmy.ca 2 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 2 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.
endofline@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
We can, closed communities with some effort to enter the group. I pretty much ditched most main stream social media and use what it used to be mailing lists and discord servers. It’s not about technology. Internet and access used to be simply exclusive and we have to create exclusive channels to communicate about f.e. arts, history, technology or even occult where there is no “free riders” with no knowledge. That’s what I mean and this may happen imo. Quality over quantity
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I read that as “you can’t put the Furries back in the box” and it still worked
Snowcano@startrek.website 2 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 2 months ago
Put 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: /
Snowcano@startrek.website 2 months ago
You rock, thank you!
jamyang@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What if I made a static site using Github pages hosting? Will having a robots.txt in my root folder ward off Google bhoots (devils)?
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
We do really need to figure how to make some kind of decentralized search engine.
ColinHayhurst@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Some discussion on that here: lemmy.world/comment/11859761
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 2 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.
msage@programming.dev 2 months ago
Please understand that this is the next ‘SEO’ shit.
It was going to be this from the very start.
Kethal@lemmy.world 2 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 dint 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. Its 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.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
As I understand it, this is only about using search results for summaries. If it’s just that and links to the source, I think it’s OK. What would be absolutely unacceptable is to use the web in general as training data for text and image generation (=write me a story about topic XY).
elrik@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If it’s just that and links to the source, I think it’s OK.
No one will click on the source, which means the only visitor to your site is Googlebot.
What would be absolutely unacceptable is to use the web in general as training data for text and image generation.
This has already happened and continues to happen.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No one will click on the source, which means the only visitor to your site is Googlebot.
That was the argument with the text snippets from news sources. Publishers successfully lobbied for laws to be passed in many countries that required search engine operators to pay fees. It backfired when Google removed the snippets from news sources that demanded fees from Google. Their visitors dropped by a massive amount, 90% or so, because those results were less attractive to Google users to click on than the nicer results with a snippet and a thumbnail. So “No one will click on the source” has already been disproven 10 or so years ago when the snippet issue was current. All those publishers have entered a free of charge licensing agreement with Google and the laws are still in place. So Google is fine, upstart search engines are not because those cannot pressure the publishers into free deals.
This has already happened and continues to happen.
With Gemini?
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Google: “Making AI helpful for everyone…” (…mostly us!)
Damage@feddit.it 2 months ago
Bing to finally overtake Google? Inconceivable!
dsilverz@thelemmy.club 2 months ago
Don’t forget Bing’s Copilot. IIRC, Bing also brings an AI-generated “summary” whenever you use Bing search.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
This makes me mad…
charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I’m not sure of the advantages of showing up in Google search results. It seems like something that I wouldn’t want to happen anyway.
parpol@programming.dev 2 months ago
MagicShel@programming.dev 2 months ago
Google results are actually already pretty terrible. They just have tremendous inertia.
APassenger@lemmy.world 2 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.
doctortran@lemm.ee 2 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.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 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.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Twitter will be dead within 1-2 years, Elon will make sure of that
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I think the amount of people who are familiar with search engine options besides Google is quite a bit larger than the population of Lemmy. (It fuckin better be, anyway)
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Zurgo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I’m pretty pessimistic about this:
UprisingVoltage@feddit.it 2 months ago
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not give a single fuck and they will use whatever is preinstalled on their device