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This is next generation blogspam. When you search for something technical hoping for a link to a reference manual, and you get page after page of low-effort blo

This is next generation blogspam. When you search for something technical hoping for a link to a reference manual, and you get page after page of low-effort blogpost tutorials? Now some of those are so low effort that they aren't even written by people. Bookmark your favorite reference sites and use their search. We're coming back around to the pre-Google era of search engine result quality. Who knows, maybe human-curated web directories[0] will come back into fashion. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMOZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMOZ

mannycalavera42 2y ago
that's why you can downrank a specific site in the search results so that next time that site won't be shown up in the results
- VyseofArcadia 2y ago
  That just means you're playing slop whack-a-mole every time you search. You are underestimating how quickly these things pop up. They're like weeds.
eloisius 2y ago
I know the Kagi drumbeat is nonstop around here, but the AI slop problem is really not as pervasive as I feared it would be. Granted, since the advent of mass enslopification, most of my daily searching is in a fairly restricted space: computer vision, 3D geometry and a smattering of python tools. I've pinned all the official documentation, raised the high-signal sites, lowered the medium.coms, and blocked all those sites the mirror GitHub issues. The vast majority of my searches get me the thing I want on the first try as the first result. I know slop is going to ruin everything else, but I've been able to carve out my little space well enough for my on-the-job need internet needs. Off the job, it's probably better to be IRL anyway.
- VyseofArcadia 2y ago
  Also a Kagi user, and I've done the same. It is frustrating and ironic that generative AI is forcing me to do extra work like this.
AlienRobot 2y ago
Honestly, I don't even get why I need an online search engine to look up things because most of the time I just want examples of how to do X in programming language Y or the documentation of library Z. It's not an infinite number of webpages. Someone could just put all those links into a .json and make an applet that let you instantly look up any of them.

mannycalavera42 2y ago

that's why you can downrank a specific site in the search results so that next time that site won't be shown up in the results

VyseofArcadia 2y ago
That just means you're playing slop whack-a-mole every time you search. You are underestimating how quickly these things pop up. They're like weeds.

eloisius 2y ago

I know the Kagi drumbeat is nonstop around here, but the AI slop problem is really not as pervasive as I feared it would be. Granted, since the advent of mass enslopification, most of my daily searching is in a fairly restricted space: computer vision, 3D geometry and a smattering of python tools. I've pinned all the official documentation, raised the high-signal sites, lowered the medium.coms, and blocked all those sites the mirror GitHub issues. The vast majority of my searches get me the thing I want on the first try as the first result. I know slop is going to ruin everything else, but I've been able to carve out my little space well enough for my on-the-job need internet needs. Off the job, it's probably better to be IRL anyway.

VyseofArcadia 2y ago
Also a Kagi user, and I've done the same. It is frustrating and ironic that generative AI is forcing me to do extra work like this.

AlienRobot 2y ago

Honestly, I don't even get why I need an online search engine to look up things because most of the time I just want examples of how to do X in programming language Y or the documentation of library Z. It's not an infinite number of webpages. Someone could just put all those links into a .json and make an applet that let you instantly look up any of them.