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I had a question about my car, so I googled '[year] [make] [model] [feature]'. This seems like the sort of thing that Google had always absolutely nailed. But n

by flomo 1y ago

I had a question about my car, so I googled '[year] [make] [model] [feature]'. This seems like the sort of thing that Google had always absolutely nailed. But now, 90% of the page was ai slop about wrong model, wrong year, even the wrong make. (There was one youtube which was sorta informative, so some credit.) But way way down on at the very the bottom of the page, there was the classic google search answer on a totally unrelated car forum. Thanks CamaroZ28.com!

camillomiller 1y ago
This is a very very good point. If this was happening with different queries that we never used, or a new type of questions/queries than I would have some patience. But it happens exactly with the formulations that were giving you the best results in the SERP before!
TeMPOraL 1y ago
That was true before AI too (I know, I did such searches myself). Google results has been drowning in slop for over a decade now - it was just human-generated slop, aka. content marketing and SEO stuff. I'm not defending the AI feature here, just trying to frame the problem: the lies and hallucinations were already there, but nobody cared because apparently people don't mind being constantly lied to by other people.
- flomo 1y ago
  No, I'm not complaining about SEO shit... The thing is the primordial google had the answer, but Google themselves buried it under 100+ links of Google-generated slopdiarrhea, most of which didn't even factually fit the question, and was not at all relevant to my automobile.
  - ben_w 1y ago
    Indeed, this is part of the current monopoly abuse case they're facing — did Google deliberately choose to make search worse, because that causes people to return to the search results page and spend more time looking at ads, and they knew they could get away with it? e.g. bottom of first page, penultimate paragraph https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf
    - flomo 1y ago
      Yeah they definitely did that. But this AI diarrhea is so awful, I honestly can't see any angle in giving me tons of bad results about a minor feature of my car. (I should sell it and use waymo??) Maybe the really sharp monopolists ran for the hills when the DOJ sheriffs showed up, and now Google Search is being run by former Yahoo execs.
      - TeMPOraL 1y ago
        FWIW, two days later, I kinda changed my mind about AI in search - or at least, "AI answers". They're going to (and probably already are) cause a lot of issues for a lot of people. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44157837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44157837 TL;DR: it's not the correctness that's the problem, but that AI is too good at making bad queries work. A regular person making underspecified query due to their ignorance, will get a sensible (and possibly correct) answer to a wrong question, and might try to act on it - where pre-AI, they'd get a mix of confusing result that would hopefully made them realize their query (and understanding) is wrong.
        flomo 1y ago
        Late reply, but '[year] [make] [model] [feature]' has never been a bad query for as long as I've been using google. They used to be really good at that kind of thing, but now they are really bad. I can ignore the "AI results" at the top, the rest of the page is maybe more just Yahootardation than AI. But now they have some real competition.
        ben_w 1y ago
        Perhaps for cars. For other topics, say apps? Well… A while back I was looking for interesting apps for my Apple Watch to see if I could find some real benefit to keeping it. Even before GenAI I was finding listicles like these that always have date stamps as if they are recent news: https://techidroid.com/10-best-apps-for-apple-watch/#5_ViewRanger https://techidroid.com/10-best-apps-for-apple-watch/#5_ViewR... (as I read it, it says "March 6, 2025" and lists ViewRanger app as number 5 on their list; I have no idea what it will say to anyone else). Now here's the important thing: I used to work at Augmentra, who made the ViewRanger app. They merged with OutdoorActive years ago and shut down the ViewRanger app in 2022. So, I've not trusted Google for a while now.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
gambiting 1y ago
I'm a member of a few car groups on Facebook and the misinformation coming from Google is infuriating, because people treat it as gospel and then you have to explain to them that the AI slop they were shown as the top result in Google is not - in fact - correct. As a simple example - someone googled "how to reset sensus system in Volvo xc60" and Google told them to hold the button under the infotainment screen for 20 seconds and they came to the group confused why it doesn't work. And it doesn't work because that's not the way to do it, but Google told them so, so of course it must be true.
- flomo 1y ago
  Exactly, the "AI" opiateturd results are often for the completely wrong year/model or just obviously false. I'm certain Google used to be really good at this kind of thing.
- nyarlathotep_ 1y ago
  I wonder this too--if there will actually be more work created from LLM generations from a whole new genre of customer support that now not only has to know the "material" but has to know provide secondary support in resolving issues customers have from incorrect nonsense.
dingnuts 1y ago
Ad supported search has been awful for a few years now, just buy a Kagi subscription and you'll be like me: horrified but mildly amused with a dash of "oh that explains a lot" when people complain about Google

by flomo 1y ago

camillomiller 1y ago

This is a very very good point. If this was happening with different queries that we never used, or a new type of questions/queries than I would have some patience. But it happens exactly with the formulations that were giving you the best results in the SERP before!

TeMPOraL 1y ago

That was true before AI too (I know, I did such searches myself). Google results has been drowning in slop for over a decade now - it was just human-generated slop, aka. content marketing and SEO stuff. I'm not defending the AI feature here, just trying to frame the problem: the lies and hallucinations were already there, but nobody cared because apparently people don't mind being constantly lied to by other people.

flomo 1y ago
No, I'm not complaining about SEO shit... The thing is the primordial google had the answer, but Google themselves buried it under 100+ links of Google-generated slopdiarrhea, most of which didn't even factually fit the question, and was not at all relevant to my automobile.
- ben_w 1y ago
  Indeed, this is part of the current monopoly abuse case they're facing — did Google deliberately choose to make search worse, because that causes people to return to the search results page and spend more time looking at ads, and they knew they could get away with it? e.g. bottom of first page, penultimate paragraph https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf
  - flomo 1y ago
    Yeah they definitely did that. But this AI diarrhea is so awful, I honestly can't see any angle in giving me tons of bad results about a minor feature of my car. (I should sell it and use waymo??) Maybe the really sharp monopolists ran for the hills when the DOJ sheriffs showed up, and now Google Search is being run by former Yahoo execs.
    - TeMPOraL 1y ago
      FWIW, two days later, I kinda changed my mind about AI in search - or at least, "AI answers". They're going to (and probably already are) cause a lot of issues for a lot of people. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44157837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44157837 TL;DR: it's not the correctness that's the problem, but that AI is too good at making bad queries work. A regular person making underspecified query due to their ignorance, will get a sensible (and possibly correct) answer to a wrong question, and might try to act on it - where pre-AI, they'd get a mix of confusing result that would hopefully made them realize their query (and understanding) is wrong.
      - flomo 1y ago
        Late reply, but '[year] [make] [model] [feature]' has never been a bad query for as long as I've been using google. They used to be really good at that kind of thing, but now they are really bad. I can ignore the "AI results" at the top, the rest of the page is maybe more just Yahootardation than AI. But now they have some real competition.
        ben_w 1y ago
        Perhaps for cars. For other topics, say apps? Well… A while back I was looking for interesting apps for my Apple Watch to see if I could find some real benefit to keeping it. Even before GenAI I was finding listicles like these that always have date stamps as if they are recent news: https://techidroid.com/10-best-apps-for-apple-watch/#5_ViewRanger https://techidroid.com/10-best-apps-for-apple-watch/#5_ViewR... (as I read it, it says "March 6, 2025" and lists ViewRanger app as number 5 on their list; I have no idea what it will say to anyone else). Now here's the important thing: I used to work at Augmentra, who made the ViewRanger app. They merged with OutdoorActive years ago and shut down the ViewRanger app in 2022. So, I've not trusted Google for a while now.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

gambiting 1y ago

I'm a member of a few car groups on Facebook and the misinformation coming from Google is infuriating, because people treat it as gospel and then you have to explain to them that the AI slop they were shown as the top result in Google is not - in fact - correct. As a simple example - someone googled "how to reset sensus system in Volvo xc60" and Google told them to hold the button under the infotainment screen for 20 seconds and they came to the group confused why it doesn't work. And it doesn't work because that's not the way to do it, but Google told them so, so of course it must be true.

flomo 1y ago
Exactly, the "AI" opiateturd results are often for the completely wrong year/model or just obviously false. I'm certain Google used to be really good at this kind of thing.
nyarlathotep_ 1y ago
I wonder this too--if there will actually be more work created from LLM generations from a whole new genre of customer support that now not only has to know the "material" but has to know provide secondary support in resolving issues customers have from incorrect nonsense.

dingnuts 1y ago

Ad supported search has been awful for a few years now, just buy a Kagi subscription and you'll be like me: horrified but mildly amused with a dash of "oh that explains a lot" when people complain about Google