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One reason I now often go to ChatGPT instead of many Google queries is that the experience is ads free, quick and responsive. That said, don't be lured, you kn

One reason I now often go to ChatGPT instead of many Google queries is that the experience is ads free, quick and responsive. That said, don't be lured, you know they're already working on ways to put ads and trackers and what not inside ChatGPT and Atlas, those 20$ sound won't pay enough to recoup all that investment and cost and maximize profits. So I think we should be careful what we wish for here.

runako 1y ago
> quick and responsive This is kind of surprising, because those are precisely the ways I would say that a Web search is better than ChatGPT. Google is generally sub second to get to results, and quite frequently either page 1 or 2 will have some relevant results. With ChatGPT, I get to watch as it processes for an unpredictable amount of time, then I get to watch it "type". > ads free Free of ads where ChatGPT was paid to deliver them. Because it was trained on the public Internet, it is full of advertising content. Update: Example query I just did for "apartment Seville". Google completed in under a second. All the results above the fold are organic, with sponsored way down. Notably the results include purchase, long-term and vacation rental sites. The first 3 are listing sites. There's an interactive map in case I know where I want to go; apartments on the map include links to their websites. To see more links, I click "Next." ChatGPT (MacOS native app) took ~9 seconds and recommended a single agency, to which it does not link. Below that, it has bullet points that link to some relevant sites, but the links do not include vacation rentals. There are 4 links to apartment sites, plus a link to a Guardian article about Seville cracking down on illegal vacation rentals. To see more links, I type a request to see more. For all the talk about Google burying the organic links under a flood of ads, ChatGPT shows me far fewer links. As a person who happily pays for and uses ChatGPT daily, I think it's smart to be honest about its strengths and shortcomings.
- ghm2180 1y ago
  Google is SEOed a lot. And while apartment sevile is a subset where Google is probably very good. For many things it gives me very bad results e.g. searching for affordable haircut always gives me a yelp link(there is a yelp link for ever adjective + physical storefront SMB). That being said I've never really come across on what are some good general ways to Google to give me good results. I know some tricks e.g. Filetype:PDF , use scholar for academic search, use "site:...". smth like "site:reddit.com/r/Washington quiet cafe" for most things people would want to do in a city, because people generally ask about those things on community forums. But I have a poor time with dev related queries because 1/2 the time it's seo'd content and when I don't know enough about a subject, LLMs generally gives me a lot of lines of inquiries(be careful of X and also consider Y) that I would not bother to ask cause I don't know what I don't know.
- Daneel_ 1y ago
  I use google and ChatGPT for totally different reasons - ChatGPT is generally far better for unknown topics, which google is better if I know exactly what I’m after. If I’m trying to learn about a topic (for example, how a cone brake works in a 4WD winch), then ChatGPT gives me a great overview with “ Can you explain what a cone brake is and how it works, in the context of 4WD winches?” while google, with the search “4wd winch cone brake function explained”, turns up a handful of videos covering winches (not specifically cone brakes) and some pages that mention them without detailing their function. ChatGPT wins here. If I were trying to book a flight I’d never dream of even trying to use ChatGPT. That sort of use case is a non-starter for me.
- didibus 1y ago
  That's a bad example, because here you're explicitly looking for links to websites that offer apartments in Seville. But if you were looking for any information about anything? Say, what's the average cost of an apartment in Seville? That's where on Google, yes the search result is fast, but then you have to click through the links and those websites are often very slow to load and full of ads, and you might need to look at a few of them to get the information you wanted. If you have a few added follow up piece of information you're interested in as well, what's the typical apartment size, have the prices been going up or down, what is the typical leasing process, etc. You can bottom out with the info much faster on ChatGPT.
fud101 1y ago
I found myself avoiding google lately because of their AI responses at the top. But you can block those and now google is much nicer.
- port3000 1y ago
  yeah I found a setting in Brave to block them the other day and life is much better since
johngossman 1y ago
As bad as AI experiences often are, I speculate that we are actually in a golden age before they are fully enshittified.
- boie0025 1y ago
  This sentiment has been rolling around in my head for a while. I assume one day I'll be using some hosted model to solve a problem, and suddenly I won't be able to get anything out beyond "it would actually work a lot better if you redeployed your application on Azure infra with a bunch of licensed Windows server instances. Here's 15 paragraphs about why.."
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
barnabee 1y ago
I’d probably agree with you if I didn’t have Kagi. As it is, I find there are some things LLMs are genuinely better for but many where a search is still far more useful.
- didibus 1y ago
  I have Kagi and love it. But it's once you click on any links and are taken to another website, that website too is ad infested, slow loading, unoptimized, stretches the information so you stay on the page and have to scroll more, etc.
Terr_ 1y ago
> on ways to put ads My mistake, you're completely correct, perhaps even more-correct than the wonderful flavor of Mococoa drink, with all-natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzKSQrhX7BM&t=0m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzKSQrhX7BM&t=0m13s)
palmotea 1y ago
> One reason I now often go to ChatGPT instead of many Google queries is that the experience is ads free, quick and responsive. Google used to be like that, and if ChatGPT is better right now, it won't remain that way for long. They're both subject to the same incentives and pressures, and OpenAI is, if anything, less ethical and idealistic than Google was.

runako 1y ago

> quick and responsive This is kind of surprising, because those are precisely the ways I would say that a Web search is better than ChatGPT. Google is generally sub second to get to results, and quite frequently either page 1 or 2 will have some relevant results. With ChatGPT, I get to watch as it processes for an unpredictable amount of time, then I get to watch it "type". > ads free Free of ads where ChatGPT was paid to deliver them. Because it was trained on the public Internet, it is full of advertising content. Update: Example query I just did for "apartment Seville". Google completed in under a second. All the results above the fold are organic, with sponsored way down. Notably the results include purchase, long-term and vacation rental sites. The first 3 are listing sites. There's an interactive map in case I know where I want to go; apartments on the map include links to their websites. To see more links, I click "Next." ChatGPT (MacOS native app) took ~9 seconds and recommended a single agency, to which it does not link. Below that, it has bullet points that link to some relevant sites, but the links do not include vacation rentals. There are 4 links to apartment sites, plus a link to a Guardian article about Seville cracking down on illegal vacation rentals. To see more links, I type a request to see more. For all the talk about Google burying the organic links under a flood of ads, ChatGPT shows me far fewer links. As a person who happily pays for and uses ChatGPT daily, I think it's smart to be honest about its strengths and shortcomings.

ghm2180 1y ago
Google is SEOed a lot. And while apartment sevile is a subset where Google is probably very good. For many things it gives me very bad results e.g. searching for affordable haircut always gives me a yelp link(there is a yelp link for ever adjective + physical storefront SMB). That being said I've never really come across on what are some good general ways to Google to give me good results. I know some tricks e.g. Filetype:PDF , use scholar for academic search, use "site:...". smth like "site:reddit.com/r/Washington quiet cafe" for most things people would want to do in a city, because people generally ask about those things on community forums. But I have a poor time with dev related queries because 1/2 the time it's seo'd content and when I don't know enough about a subject, LLMs generally gives me a lot of lines of inquiries(be careful of X and also consider Y) that I would not bother to ask cause I don't know what I don't know.
Daneel_ 1y ago
I use google and ChatGPT for totally different reasons - ChatGPT is generally far better for unknown topics, which google is better if I know exactly what I’m after. If I’m trying to learn about a topic (for example, how a cone brake works in a 4WD winch), then ChatGPT gives me a great overview with “ Can you explain what a cone brake is and how it works, in the context of 4WD winches?” while google, with the search “4wd winch cone brake function explained”, turns up a handful of videos covering winches (not specifically cone brakes) and some pages that mention them without detailing their function. ChatGPT wins here. If I were trying to book a flight I’d never dream of even trying to use ChatGPT. That sort of use case is a non-starter for me.
didibus 1y ago
That's a bad example, because here you're explicitly looking for links to websites that offer apartments in Seville. But if you were looking for any information about anything? Say, what's the average cost of an apartment in Seville? That's where on Google, yes the search result is fast, but then you have to click through the links and those websites are often very slow to load and full of ads, and you might need to look at a few of them to get the information you wanted. If you have a few added follow up piece of information you're interested in as well, what's the typical apartment size, have the prices been going up or down, what is the typical leasing process, etc. You can bottom out with the info much faster on ChatGPT.

fud101 1y ago

I found myself avoiding google lately because of their AI responses at the top. But you can block those and now google is much nicer.

port3000 1y ago
yeah I found a setting in Brave to block them the other day and life is much better since

johngossman 1y ago

As bad as AI experiences often are, I speculate that we are actually in a golden age before they are fully enshittified.

boie0025 1y ago
This sentiment has been rolling around in my head for a while. I assume one day I'll be using some hosted model to solve a problem, and suddenly I won't be able to get anything out beyond "it would actually work a lot better if you redeployed your application on Azure infra with a bunch of licensed Windows server instances. Here's 15 paragraphs about why.."

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

barnabee 1y ago

I’d probably agree with you if I didn’t have Kagi. As it is, I find there are some things LLMs are genuinely better for but many where a search is still far more useful.

didibus 1y ago
I have Kagi and love it. But it's once you click on any links and are taken to another website, that website too is ad infested, slow loading, unoptimized, stretches the information so you stay on the page and have to scroll more, etc.

Terr_ 1y ago

> on ways to put ads My mistake, you're completely correct, perhaps even more-correct than the wonderful flavor of Mococoa drink, with all-natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzKSQrhX7BM&t=0m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzKSQrhX7BM&t=0m13s)

palmotea 1y ago

> One reason I now often go to ChatGPT instead of many Google queries is that the experience is ads free, quick and responsive. Google used to be like that, and if ChatGPT is better right now, it won't remain that way for long. They're both subject to the same incentives and pressures, and OpenAI is, if anything, less ethical and idealistic than Google was.