4 ms·

And ~90% of google searches now gives you 10 videos as answers to any query rather than just the web pages that have been turned into videos because youtube mak

by jacquesm 11mo ago

And ~90% of google searches now gives you 10 videos as answers to any query rather than just the web pages that have been turned into videos because youtube makes them more money than regular ads. Assholes.

Kiro 11mo ago
Example?
- jacquesm 11mo ago
  Any google search I do. "how to configure arducopter gps" 9 crappy videos before they figure maybe they should link to the documentation after all. To give them some credit, at least that search did not also come with a crappy AI summary that is broken, not applicable and wastes valuable space and bandwidth. edit: corrected count, I missed one. And a very prominent 'see all' link before the actual one.
  - sen 11mo ago
    I searched for that exact phrase out of curiosity because I haven’t used Google in years… and it’s even worse than you say. I got an AI summary that takes up half the screen, which doesn’t even give the right answer, then 5 YouTube videos with thumbnails and extra crud (most not even related to the question but just mention “ArduPilot” somewhere on the title), then half a page of “Other people searched for..” Then about 3 “screens” down the page I get the ArduPilot homepage and then a bunch of embedded Reddit/Facebook discussions about ArduPilot in general, none about setting up GPS. Google has *completely* lost the plot.
    - kubb 11mo ago
      There’s a Web tab which you can click to show only the web results, none of the AI, videos, other people, etc. I presume you want that to be the default, but I’m sure you understand that Google can’t grant your wish, because it’s subject to market forces.
    - cricalix 11mo ago
      For me, in Ireland, tacking "-ai" on the end of Google searches disables the hallucination engine. For now at least.
  - robin_reala 11mo ago
    Can I ask why you’re still using Google to search at this point?
    - wafflemaker 11mo ago
      There are ppl that depend on me for tech support. What search engine should I install on their phones?
      - exitnode 11mo ago
        The best free and mainstream option would be duckduckgo at the moment in my opinion.
      - svl 11mo ago
        duckduckgo: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+g... Optionally with a custom CSS rule to block the starting video block: [data-layout="videos"]
        Kiro 11mo ago
        Regular DDG doesn't seem much better than Google: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps AI summary and videos dominating it.
        toyg 11mo ago
        AI summaries are actually rather good, in the general case. I know they take away traffic from source sites, but they work well for search users. Videos, on the other hand, are a cancer.
        IsTom 11mo ago
        > AI summaries are actually rather good, in the general case. The google ones for me seem to be talking about something unrelated to what I'm looking for a significant percent of the time because it interprets it as a much more popular concept that looks like my query if you squint very hard. Other times it pulls up seo-spam tier answers that are plainly wrong.
  - PlanksVariable 11mo ago
    My search results were the opposite: 1. an AI summary 2. a link to the documentation 3. 4 videos that seem legit 4. a bunch more web links
  - Kiro 11mo ago
    So you're not talking about AI generated videos but just regular videos by hobbyists that you think are crap?
    - jacquesm 11mo ago
      I knew you'd come back with a comment like this one. You never argue in good faith. No, I wasn't talking about AI generated videos because then I would have written a different comment. Bye now.
  - svara 11mo ago
    It seems to differ extremely by account or region? I have to say AI summaries work pretty well for me on Google and my overall subjective sense is the results have been getting better the past 1-2 years. Here's what I get for your exact search and it looks pretty reasonable? https://postimg.cc/6y8p3XH7 https://postimg.cc/6y8p3XH7
  - esseph 11mo ago
    I searched for this phrase in chrome, first with quotes, and next without. The very first response I got with quotes was this HN post. The very first response I got without quotes took me to the docs here: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-positioning-landing-page.html https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-positioning-landing... I sometimes wonder how much other browsers, countries, or languages play into the search results for a particular user. Every time I read someone complaining about Google search results, I try to use another search engine for awhile, just to see if I'm missing something. Every time I do this, the alternatives are awful and I shake my head and go back to Google search.
    - jacquesm 11mo ago
      That's interesting. NL, Firefox.
      - esseph 11mo ago
        EN/US, Chrome, Linux Flatpak
hamasho 11mo ago
I feel like the search result of YouTube videos on Google search is much worse than the result on YouTube itself. It's strange because Google develop both Google and YouTube search. It's like reverse Reddit, where the website's search is so unusable you have to search on Google like "xxx reddit".
walthamstow 11mo ago
Gemini seems heavily tuned to return YouTube sources too
- alex1138 11mo ago
  Yeah honestly it really makes me want to use Claude Gemini can be a powerful model but it's just infested with the stink of Google
bot403 11mo ago
Kagi search. I've never looked back. It's what Google used to be and should have stayed.
- eastbound 11mo ago
  Kagi systematically doesn’t return any good answer whatsoever. It’s such an awful quality that I can’t imagine anyone seriously promoting it, therefore I bet these comments about Kagi are advertising posted by bots. It’s not possible otherwise.
  - xigoi 11mo ago
    Definitely not a bot (you can check my comment history) and I can recommend Kagi.
  - yablak 11mo ago
    Happy user of kagi for several years. This is the opposite of my experience. Your comment strikes me as dishonest.
    - exitnode 11mo ago
      I am also very happy with Kagi's search result and suspect that someone is just trolling.
  - alwa 11mo ago
    I find it to be more reliably useful than the other non-Google alternatives I’ve tried. I find its “PDFs Only” filter to be awfully handy too. Proudly not a bot, but I freely admit that, because I pay for it and our incentives seem aligned, I’m biased toward giving it the benefit of the doubt. Always open to new horizons, though—are there non-Google search products that you find to consistently work better?
  - matthewmacleod 11mo ago
    Holding an opinion like “everyone apart from me is a shill or an idiot” is not an attractive quality in a human.
nicbou 11mo ago
These changes are wrecking the independent web. It's crazy that people don't see LLMs as the monopolistic land grab that they are.
- imiric 11mo ago
  The most insidious aspect is that tech CEOs and influencers keep parroting how "AI" will bring global prosperity and empower the masses. When it's clear to anyone with an ounce of reason that the exact opposite is happening. The amount of hypocrisy and manipulation is sickening.
thisisit 11mo ago
True that. It’s annoying especially when you really need answer quickly. I often then use temporary chat to ask ChatGPT.
swed420 11mo ago
> And ~90% of google searches now gives you 10 videos as answers to any query rather than just the web pages that have been turned into videos because youtube makes them more money than regular ads. Assholes. Which also reinforces already declining literacy rates.

Kiro 11mo ago

Example?

jacquesm 11mo ago
Any google search I do. "how to configure arducopter gps" 9 crappy videos before they figure maybe they should link to the documentation after all. To give them some credit, at least that search did not also come with a crappy AI summary that is broken, not applicable and wastes valuable space and bandwidth. edit: corrected count, I missed one. And a very prominent 'see all' link before the actual one.
- sen 11mo ago
  I searched for that exact phrase out of curiosity because I haven’t used Google in years… and it’s even worse than you say. I got an AI summary that takes up half the screen, which doesn’t even give the right answer, then 5 YouTube videos with thumbnails and extra crud (most not even related to the question but just mention “ArduPilot” somewhere on the title), then half a page of “Other people searched for..” Then about 3 “screens” down the page I get the ArduPilot homepage and then a bunch of embedded Reddit/Facebook discussions about ArduPilot in general, none about setting up GPS. Google has *completely* lost the plot.
  - kubb 11mo ago
    There’s a Web tab which you can click to show only the web results, none of the AI, videos, other people, etc. I presume you want that to be the default, but I’m sure you understand that Google can’t grant your wish, because it’s subject to market forces.
  - cricalix 11mo ago
    For me, in Ireland, tacking "-ai" on the end of Google searches disables the hallucination engine. For now at least.
- robin_reala 11mo ago
  Can I ask why you’re still using Google to search at this point?
  - wafflemaker 11mo ago
    There are ppl that depend on me for tech support. What search engine should I install on their phones?
    - exitnode 11mo ago
      The best free and mainstream option would be duckduckgo at the moment in my opinion.
    - svl 11mo ago
      duckduckgo: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+g... Optionally with a custom CSS rule to block the starting video block: [data-layout="videos"]
      - Kiro 11mo ago
        Regular DDG doesn't seem much better than Google: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+configure+arducopter+gps AI summary and videos dominating it.
        toyg 11mo ago
        AI summaries are actually rather good, in the general case. I know they take away traffic from source sites, but they work well for search users. Videos, on the other hand, are a cancer.
        IsTom 11mo ago
        > AI summaries are actually rather good, in the general case. The google ones for me seem to be talking about something unrelated to what I'm looking for a significant percent of the time because it interprets it as a much more popular concept that looks like my query if you squint very hard. Other times it pulls up seo-spam tier answers that are plainly wrong.
- PlanksVariable 11mo ago
  My search results were the opposite: 1. an AI summary 2. a link to the documentation 3. 4 videos that seem legit 4. a bunch more web links
- Kiro 11mo ago
  So you're not talking about AI generated videos but just regular videos by hobbyists that you think are crap?
  - jacquesm 11mo ago
    I knew you'd come back with a comment like this one. You never argue in good faith. No, I wasn't talking about AI generated videos because then I would have written a different comment. Bye now.
- svara 11mo ago
  It seems to differ extremely by account or region? I have to say AI summaries work pretty well for me on Google and my overall subjective sense is the results have been getting better the past 1-2 years. Here's what I get for your exact search and it looks pretty reasonable? https://postimg.cc/6y8p3XH7 https://postimg.cc/6y8p3XH7
- esseph 11mo ago
  I searched for this phrase in chrome, first with quotes, and next without. The very first response I got with quotes was this HN post. The very first response I got without quotes took me to the docs here: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-positioning-landing-page.html https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-positioning-landing... I sometimes wonder how much other browsers, countries, or languages play into the search results for a particular user. Every time I read someone complaining about Google search results, I try to use another search engine for awhile, just to see if I'm missing something. Every time I do this, the alternatives are awful and I shake my head and go back to Google search.
  - jacquesm 11mo ago
    That's interesting. NL, Firefox.
    - esseph 11mo ago
      EN/US, Chrome, Linux Flatpak

hamasho 11mo ago

I feel like the search result of YouTube videos on Google search is much worse than the result on YouTube itself. It's strange because Google develop both Google and YouTube search. It's like reverse Reddit, where the website's search is so unusable you have to search on Google like "xxx reddit".

walthamstow 11mo ago

Gemini seems heavily tuned to return YouTube sources too

alex1138 11mo ago
Yeah honestly it really makes me want to use Claude Gemini can be a powerful model but it's just infested with the stink of Google

bot403 11mo ago

Kagi search. I've never looked back. It's what Google used to be and should have stayed.

eastbound 11mo ago
Kagi systematically doesn’t return any good answer whatsoever. It’s such an awful quality that I can’t imagine anyone seriously promoting it, therefore I bet these comments about Kagi are advertising posted by bots. It’s not possible otherwise.
- xigoi 11mo ago
  Definitely not a bot (you can check my comment history) and I can recommend Kagi.
- yablak 11mo ago
  Happy user of kagi for several years. This is the opposite of my experience. Your comment strikes me as dishonest.
  - exitnode 11mo ago
    I am also very happy with Kagi's search result and suspect that someone is just trolling.
- alwa 11mo ago
  I find it to be more reliably useful than the other non-Google alternatives I’ve tried. I find its “PDFs Only” filter to be awfully handy too. Proudly not a bot, but I freely admit that, because I pay for it and our incentives seem aligned, I’m biased toward giving it the benefit of the doubt. Always open to new horizons, though—are there non-Google search products that you find to consistently work better?
- matthewmacleod 11mo ago
  Holding an opinion like “everyone apart from me is a shill or an idiot” is not an attractive quality in a human.

nicbou 11mo ago

These changes are wrecking the independent web. It's crazy that people don't see LLMs as the monopolistic land grab that they are.

imiric 11mo ago
The most insidious aspect is that tech CEOs and influencers keep parroting how "AI" will bring global prosperity and empower the masses. When it's clear to anyone with an ounce of reason that the exact opposite is happening. The amount of hypocrisy and manipulation is sickening.

thisisit 11mo ago

True that. It’s annoying especially when you really need answer quickly. I often then use temporary chat to ask ChatGPT.

swed420 11mo ago

> And ~90% of google searches now gives you 10 videos as answers to any query rather than just the web pages that have been turned into videos because youtube makes them more money than regular ads. Assholes. Which also reinforces already declining literacy rates.