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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

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.
  - flomo 1y ago
    HN had a story about Google removing the guy who cared about search quality a few years ago. Since then it's all about stuffing Google links on the top (like Yahoo did), and whatever SEO results has the most profitable google ads on it. Shame because it used to be good. Now the government is after them, and they might get lunch eaten.

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.
- flomo 1y ago
  HN had a story about Google removing the guy who cared about search quality a few years ago. Since then it's all about stuffing Google links on the top (like Yahoo did), and whatever SEO results has the most profitable google ads on it. Shame because it used to be good. Now the government is after them, and they might get lunch eaten.