Headline fix: Google kills the one good thing it has going for it with AI
Search sucks for some time now. I’d say the best thing google offers today is Gmail - but there are plenty of arguments against that too.
Google Maps, their traffic data has no rivals, unlike gmail which has plenty of good competition. It’s the one thing I couldn’t easily replace yet.
True. I wanted to replace it with OSM or similar, but my main use of Maps after navigation is exploring places, reading reviews, and browsing pictures. They have a database that is tough to replace.
I switched away from google maps to Apple Maps a few years ago and I honestly can’t tell any difference. If google maps traffic data is better, it’s not in any noticeable kind of way for regular day to day usage.
Honestly Apple Maps is better in my area by a decent margin. It’s up to date sooner and that matters in a rapidly growing city. Google still beats it in search but even then AM finds things it doesn’t at times. i just wish they’d move on from shitty Yelp. I vastly prefer AMs navigation over GM as well.
That would require me to buy an iPhone which I won’t do for many many reasons… but ok, maybe Apple Maps is a decent competitor nowadays, good to know.
their traffic data has no rivals
do you mean the waze traffic data, or does google actually have some of its own?
or does google actually have some of its own
every phone running Google’s version of Android with location enabled.
Google search is still a very shitty product right now. In a blind test I would never conclude they are the market leader. It used to work a few years ago though.
Indeed. They started pushing things that make them profit before the things that you’re searching for. They love the revenue stream but are realizing now that it’s also killing their main product: googling.
But if they’re moving to AI it will probably be the same, trying to guide you into selling something instead of giving what you want. Microsoft too is trying to paper over their os with ads so you know what direction they’re going.
It’s so exhausting. Google “how to do thing” and it’s just dozens of links to webshops that sell barely related products to your search.
Nah. It’s not going to be “AI.” It’s going to be YouTube results, followed by Reddit results, followed by “Sponsored” results, followed by AI-written Bot results, then a couple pages of Amazon results and finally, on page 10 or so, a ten-year-old result that’s probably no longer relevant.
I dislike this AI-first approach because it provides only a small selection of results that are influenced by the phrasing of the query. You can’t just replace paginated results.
There has never been a better time for someone to swoop in and remake web search. Hell, there are probably dozens of software engineers from Google that have direct experience with search AND were laid off.
I’m surprised that no one is trying to compete with Google at the weakest point it’s been since going public.
Google already lost me around 2016. All other search engines lost me to AI. Google is too late
Aaaaaaand I’m entirely out. No thanks.
It’s going to be even shittier now. Lol
You guys still use Google? 🥹
I don’t, but its good to know what’s happening over there
Nah. It’s shyte.
And it can go fuck it self all the way down. I can only think of one good thing to do with Google and that is to de-googlelize yourself.
Well it’s a step forward for efficiency at least. Now I can see the LLM generated crap straight it in the search page, rather than having to click through to an automated blogspam page.
If they are really going all-in on this, it almost feels like Google admitting defeat on search, having now been drown by the (partially self inflicted) deluges of SEO and now “AI”.
Fooook google
I was wondering who could defeat google, looks like Google is up to the task
Is this really new? Haven’t they been using soft computing methods since, basically forever?
We’ve leant nothing from the Terminator movies…this AI bollocks is everywhere…🤦🏻♂️
Hey Arnie(AI) became the good guy in some of the movies!
I’m just gonna plug “Kagi” here.
Kagi is a paid search engine. Yeah, sucks that we have to pay for good or decent search results, but… as the economic models of the internet change, we need to change with them. I’ve personally lost faith in freemium ad-supported websites in general.
Kagi started as an AI company. and they do a bunch of weird things otherwise, which made me stop giving them money.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with AI search. I’ve found Kagi’s AI to be unobtrusive and helpful. That article is a bit of a nothingburger.
I don’t want any AI search.
Then don’t use it. The regular search is still good
