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gspr | on: As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing
They're so horrible that I've started defaulting to their AI summaries. And I hate those summaries. It's just that the regular results are so terrible now, and seemingly getting worse at a noticeable pace.

I used to not worry. I was sure that a competitor would come along and fix search. But the longer that's not happening, the more nervous I'm getting that we'll actually lose search. If a few more years pass in the current state, I'm afraid the majority of people will forget what search was like and default to AI summaries.

I've tried alternatives, including Kagi (not actually relevant because there's no way I'm – directly or indirectly – buying Russian products) and Uruky, but they're not good enough.

(Edit: Added "directly or indirectly" about Kagi to point out that I'm not claiming that Kagi itself is Russian.)

ehnto | parent | next
Unsurprisingly all search engines seem to be struggling with AI content sites as well. It's rare to get human articles, sometimes rare to even get authorative websites. It's frequently a bot site with a plausible enough name like, potterspainterly.com or medhealthdirect or something with oddly specific articles written in the last year.
Gigachad | root | parent
This is the root problem. The idea that Google is deliberately sabotaging search seems far less likely than the idea that the internet is mostly garbage and SEO slop.
mittensc | root | parent
perhaps this would not be a problem if google did not directly monetize AI Slop... for that matter why even include AI crap in search.
Gigachad | root | parent
The Google conspiracy has been getting shared for long before AI slop came in to the picture.

The fact is that SEO people got too good at their jobs and filled the search results with junk.

loading story #49256048
mittensc | root | parent
Google can properly classify email spam.

They should be able to fight this as well.

Problem is they are the ones funding the poor quality spam and they're in turn profiting by taking money from advertisers.

germandiago | parent | next
Probably what is happening here is that in the race for AI, which, whether we like it or not, means power and control, Google crafted things in a way that it does not do "self-competition" by their old search engine. Idk, just throwing ideas aloud here.
gostsamo | parent | next
Kagi is not russian. The founder is from Serbia and the company is american.

PS: I hope not many people are the type to see a slavic name and conclude Russia.

gspr | root | parent
Kagi pays Yandex for data. Yandex is definitely Russian.
gostsamo | root | parent | next
Yandex also moved outside of Russia and there only one vendor.
onli | parent | next
Brave search works really well, I haven't switched to Google search for months.
spiderfarmer | root | parent | next
If I recall correctly Brave scrapes the web via their users, cannot be individually disallowed in robots.txt and Brandon Eich is conversing in a pretty hostile manner in every thread about him or his company.
onli | root | parent | next
I'm not in the brave ecosystem otherwise nor a big fan. But the search engine was competitive with google when it was still cliqz, before it was shut down there and the leftovers bought by brave. And it still works really well.

Even if brave were problematic it would be the lesser evil to me.

gspr | root | parent
Thank you for your suggestion. I think I've discounted Brave automatically because my brain is numb to the dime-a-dozen chromium browsers out there. I'll definitely give the search a try!
apothegm | parent | next
How is Kagi indirectly Russian?
matkoniecz | root | parent
They are repackaging bunch of search engine results, including Yandex (and paying for it).

Yandex is Russian.

I would not describe it as Kagi being indirectly Russian.

casey2 | parent | next
That's certainly the goal, to drive more users to AI by making the other option worse. The real question is when do you put a stop to it. When brain implants are 2x as productive are you going to say nah? It's times like these were you are supposed to take a step back and consider what you are actually producing and why.
drysine | parent | next
> there's no way I'm – directly or indirectly – buying Russian products

Why not?

matkoniecz | root | parent
In my case: Russian state is my direct enemy and most likely to invade my country. And would do it if they would consider success likely.

Previous wars with Russia were obnoxious with very bad consequences, so I dislike idea of even very indirectly funding them.

And I support actions that are harmful to Russian economy, also when they are harmful to me - as long as it is not too badly balanced. As this is much cheaper than directly participating in war.

(I am from Poland)

PS

Yes, I understand that at some point there are some indirect effects that you cannot avoid.

I also understand if for some people paying Kagi that pays tiny fraction of that to Yandex that is paying taxes in Russia which funds their wars is too tenuous connection to care.