6 ms·
Ask HN: Is Google Dead?
Why do I need Google if it only shows results from Reddit? If you can just go to reddit and do search there?
- nicbou 2y agoThey completely lost the plot. Google search went from great to terrible to Ryanair check-in experience within a few years. Now they just killed traffic to a lot of independent websites in favour of a hundred or so generic superwebsites‘ slop. The internet is turning into just a dozen websites at an alarming speed.
- soentypen 2y agoI think in the future we will have to spend more time on forums again to find what we need.
- barrenko 2y agoI mean, when you look at the forums... Even forums for say, Pytorch are that Discuss hideosity.
- fermigier 2y ago"Discuss" or "Discourse" ?
- DonHopkins 2y ago"Disgust"
- barrenko 2y agoBleh.
- liotier 2y agoI have taken an electronic music hobby recently and the small forum where users of my instrument congregate has been a refreshing throwback to the early 2000's, making me realize how much I had missed a sense of community on the megasites.
- nicbou 2y ago"just google it"
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- vincent_s 2y agoGoogle isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Many people think Google is the internet, and Android and Chrome users have Google as their default search engine. Google even pays Apple billions to be the default on their devices. So from a business perspective, Google is thriving and will continue to do so for years. However, the quality of Google's search results has declined, which is widely acknowledged by tech-savvy users and even the general public. As an SEO expert, I've observed that while Google has always battled spam, they've recently shifted their focus away from website content and towards other factors like brand recognition and user engagement metrics. This change likely stems from their anticipation of AI-generated content. Consequently, a poorly written article on a well-known site like Forbes can outrank a well-researched piece on a lesser-known blog. Google has also started using AI for ranking, despite previously stating they wouldn't. As a result, alternative search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo have become viable options. However, Bing hasn't significantly improved; Google has simply gotten worse. People are likely to leave Google as soon as a clearly superior alternative emerges. An ideal Google alternative would be like ChatGPT but with less abstraction and more factual accuracy. While ChatGPT provides direct answers, it's a 50/50 chance whether the information is true or made up. A real competitor would offer ChatGPT-like functionality with a stronger emphasis on facts and sources, providing up-to-date knowledge on any topic.
- rpastuszak 2y ago> Google even pays Apple billions to be the default on their devices. ca 20 billions per year, just to keep their search engine as a default. https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+Consent https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+C...
- kolinko 2y ago> Google isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Do you remember when iPhone was introduced and Nokia/Symbian was still the king? This is exactly the reasoning line that Symbian/Nokia devs kept repeating when iPhone was released. I remember arguing with them endlessly. It took around 4 years for the company to collapse completely.
- soentypen 2y agoI dont like the Reddit Search Engine, I use Google as a substitute.
- mirjalolW 2y agono
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mirjalolW 2y agono ofc
- reify 2y agohttps://google.com https://google.com -site:reddit.com -site:amazon.com -site:ebay.com -site:etsy.com -site:facebook.com -site:*google.com
- rpastuszak 2y agoYou missed Pinterest :)
- nolist_policy 2y agoOr just use uBlacklist to block certain sites in search results: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmialoiaghdehhbnbhkkgmjanfhe https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmia...
- INTPenis 2y agoI don't get it. People around me have been saying Google is shit for years now but I can't see it. I still reach for google for any minor query, and it's super responsive and it's super helpful. Yes of course I am aware that for certain queries you get a lot of results that have manipulated their way to the top. I just think I have a very good natural bullshit-filter.
- barnabee 2y agoI don’t like the company and stopped using Google search over 5 years ago. I don’t miss it or even notice its absence. I have to remind myself Google is a massive part of many people’s experience of the internet.
- INTPenis 2y agoWhich company is better? When it comes to that level of data and maturity I think there is no valid competition. I've consciously made the decision that I don't care what Google does with my data. They're going to attempt to track me regardless of if I use their services or not. I have friends who live off grid to get away from internet tracking but I don't envy their lifestyle. So I think like most conscious people we just make the decision to willingly hand over whatever data we might be leaking to these companies, just for the convenience. Life is short, and filled with enough suffering, I don't need to inflict it upon myself in my daily routines.
- slau 2y agoWhy does a single company have to be better? Fastmail or Migadu for mail, Kagi for search. I still use YT on a semi regular basis. Just because you’re used to using their products and it’s convenient to use them doesn’t mean there aren’t valid alternatives, or that using those equals “suffering”. That has to be the most first world rant I’ve seen in a while.
- INTPenis 2y agoI was looking for a new e-mail provider recently and migadu was a top candidate but I can't get over the fact that they price based on number of e-mails received. Isn't that easily exploited? Someone could potentially DoS your account. We're not that different on a daily basis. I use proton but I'm looking for a new less complicated provider so I can handle all e2ee myself. Posteo.de, migadu or fastmail. I still have my gmail, 20 years now, but it's mostly a spam trap for sign ups on popular services. I've tried some different search providers like DDG, not Kagi, but nothing compares to Google so far. And of course I use YT, Premium even because I don't have the energy to participate in the adblocking arms race. I think the biggest reason I'm still using mostly Google services is eID. Sweden depends a lot on eID and as far as I know it requires a stock Android phone to work. I've heard people getting it working without device integrity, but I just don't have the mental energy to deal with when it might stop working. My focus is on life, enjoying life, not fixing device issues. So therefore eID drives me to use stock google Android, and then it's just easier to use the rest of the Google ecosystem for calendar, notes, search and so forth.
- returnInfinity 2y agoI think good content is now in video, tiktoks, shorts & reels. Google is unable to show this in the rankings.
- blitzar 2y ago> good content is now in tiktoks, shorts & reels lol
- modeless 2y agoHas anyone else noticed that Google doesn't index source code from GitHub anymore? I could have sworn that you used to be able to search for source code that is on GitHub (e.g. error message strings), but today the index doesn't seem to include the source code at all. The pages with the source code are in the index but you can only find them by file name. Big loss for Google if so. I also mourn the Google cache. I bet site owners were lobbying to get rid of it, but it's really lame that Google caved after all these years...
- niek_pas 2y agoNot an answer to your question, but Github code search is great: https://github.com/features/code-search https://github.com/features/code-search
- modeless 2y agoYeah I'm really glad GitHub finally has functioning code search (how many years did it take?), but I don't like being forced to use it for simple stuff. It's slow and doesn't include source code or documentation that's not on GitHub. I don't always know in advance whether the answer to my query lives in GitHub or not...
- rnhmjoj 2y agoIt also requires to log in, AFAIK.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago"I also mourn the Google cache." Google cache still works. Too early to mourn. For example, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://example.com https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:... I do all searches from command line. This allows me to control the SERP, e.g., make own basic HTML metasearch SERP with no JS or CSS. I can put cache links in if I want. I can mix results from different search engines. I can do temporally separated continuation searches to avoid rate limits. And so on. I can also rewrite URLs with the local forward proxy to use any cache I want. I can also rewrite response bodies. If Google disables public access to their cache, there are many other options. I have never relied on it.
- sam_goody 2y ago> Ask HN: Is Google Dead? > Betteridge's law of headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." Google will remain dominant because of the ease of returning to something familiar. It is the same reason that MS is pushing OpenAI - once they become the familiar brand, people will stay there even if Anthropic blows them out of the water in terms of quality. All the more so here where Bing results (aka DDG etc) are comparable or worse for a large number of queries.
- nolist_policy 2y agoA Google query returns in <<500ms (for me anyways). Try that with your shiny LLM's.
- barnabee 2y agoAnywhere near 500ms should be embarrassing
- squiggy22 2y agoI know. Right. Its not like they are searching any sort of volume.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kolinko 2y agoBut it then takes you 10-20 min to find the information on the returned pages - unless you are looking for something very specific.
- alok-g 2y agoTry Claude Haiku if not already. It is very fast and good enough in most cases. Exact comparison number does not matter as it takes me longer to read anyways.
- candiodari 2y ago[dead]
- keiferski 2y agoReddit’s search is notoriously bad, so at least for now, there is still some value in searching Reddit via Google. It lends some credence to the idea that no matter how bad a service decays, it doesn’t matter if there is no better alternative. It can get worse and worse forever if competition doesn’t exist.
- timbit42 2y agoYou can also search Reddit via DuckDuckGo.
- cies 2y agoIf you are browsing with an ad-blocker you are not their target audience. Then Google may seem dead to you, but more accurately you are dead to Google.
- sk11001 2y agoIt's the top search engine by a large margin and generates tens of billions of revenue. You can't declare something dead just because you notice a decline in it.
- mrjin 2y agoImagine that you killed the engine of a full load cargo train at full speed, is the train going to stop immediately?
- crizzlenizzle 2y agoStill using Google Workspace in our company to collaborate and send/receive emails, still using Google Maps for recommendations and routes, still using a Google phone. I guess the answer is no.
- kolinko 2y agoAre you usually an early or a late adopter of tech?
- lhousa 2y agoReddit has the worst search functionality. Drives me mad. I use google to search for reddit content. If reddit search improves google will lose it's value even more.
- tennisflyi 2y agoDefinitely at the end of maturity, IMO
- kolinko 2y agoI give them 2-5 years. One thing is crappy search, but another is bad company culture. On the other hand, their AlphaFold effirts seem to have no real competition, so it would be funny if the whole company pivoted into biotech one day :D
- xnx 2y agoGoogle's search of Reddit is better than Reddit's search of Reddit. Google AI search can also give you the information you're looking for directly without having to manually filter through a bunch of on page junk (ads, distracting UI, irrelevant content)
- hnarn 2y ago> Google AI search can also give you the information you're looking for directly without having to manually filter It’s especially good when you need to find out the recommended amount of rocks to eat per day
- matthewfelgate 2y agoThe reports of the death of google are greatly exaggerated.
- personalityson 2y agoThere are still no better alternatives, but the market is very ripe for some kind of new search paradigm. When it comes Google will lose it's share overnight.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]