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Different teams. This AI team at Google cares not for the health of the web. They barely remember that Google has a search engine, except of course for the grou

Different teams. This AI team at Google cares not for the health of the web. They barely remember that Google has a search engine, except of course for the groudbreaking AI search results which are responsible for many large numbers for use in annual reviews. This team's goal is to sell their AI solution, and if that means demonstrating its ability to generate tools that create crap content that harms the search engine results, well, I'm sure another AI solution can probably combat that later.

troupo 10mo ago
> This AI team at Google cares not for the health of the web. They barely remember that Google has a search engine Neithet do any teams at Google, including the search teams. Google is an ad company with 80% of its revenue coming from ads. They couldn't give two shits about the health of the web. The man who killed Google search was a minor hit when it was published: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
- oneeyedpigeon 10mo ago
  That contradicts the long-standing claim that Google does care about as many people using as good a WWW as possible. A ghost town has plenty of ad space, but not much ad revenue.
  - troupo 10mo ago
    Don't look at what a company claims. Look at what the company does.
- faust201 10mo ago
  By that logic no company cares about anything but profits.
  - binary132 10mo ago
    You say that like it’s this big contradiction of some obvious truth, so go on, tell us about this company you know of that Really Cares.
  - troupo 10mo ago
    How is this surprising? The absolute vast majority of companies care about nothing but profits. As for Google, what I wrote was literally spelled out in their own emails uncovered in court proceedings.
  - wildrhythms 10mo ago
    The goal of every startup is to be acquired.
input_sh 10mo ago
Google Search has like 10 years of history of doing its best not to get you to click on a search result, but to answer your question directly or at the very least keep you on their platform while screwing over website owners. The first two iteration of this were AMP and Instant Answers, the third one is AI Overview. AI Overview should not be seen in isolation, but as a part of the pattern. If it weren't for it, Google would double down on some other method of reaching the same goal. This one will end up the same way the other two did: there's gonna be a vocal minority that's gonna consider it unfair and a web killer, the vast majority of users won't have an opinion, Google will not care, "the web" will play along, those early adopters are temporarily gonna have an advantage in this "new age" and some will die in the process, but the vast majority is gonna continue on as if nothing happened. It's also not gonna be the final iteration of this process because shiny new things sound better to investors than marginal improvements, so X years from now AI Overview is gonna be seen as something "old-fashioned", Google Search will pivot once again, and the rest of the web will follow to keep Google happy.
- memoriuaysj 10mo ago
  you know, there is a third group - a large number of users which find the AI overview useful
  - touwer 10mo ago
    Very large even. Especially considering the explosion of ai-crap in the search results
  - irl_zebra 10mo ago
    Yeah hate to say it, because I am an AI hater, but I love the AI results in Google and Kagi. I barely click results anymore for basic questions unless it's something important enough for me to need verification to ensure the AI-gen answer wasn't a hallucination. It's been so nice not having to pick through the cesspool that is StackOverflow to find answers to quick cli questions, or wade through SEO-generated, Amazon-affiliate link garbage for more general questions.

troupo 10mo ago

> This AI team at Google cares not for the health of the web. They barely remember that Google has a search engine Neithet do any teams at Google, including the search teams. Google is an ad company with 80% of its revenue coming from ads. They couldn't give two shits about the health of the web. The man who killed Google search was a minor hit when it was published: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

oneeyedpigeon 10mo ago
That contradicts the long-standing claim that Google does care about as many people using as good a WWW as possible. A ghost town has plenty of ad space, but not much ad revenue.
- troupo 10mo ago
  Don't look at what a company claims. Look at what the company does.
faust201 10mo ago
By that logic no company cares about anything but profits.
- binary132 10mo ago
  You say that like it’s this big contradiction of some obvious truth, so go on, tell us about this company you know of that Really Cares.
- troupo 10mo ago
  How is this surprising? The absolute vast majority of companies care about nothing but profits. As for Google, what I wrote was literally spelled out in their own emails uncovered in court proceedings.
- wildrhythms 10mo ago
  The goal of every startup is to be acquired.

input_sh 10mo ago

Google Search has like 10 years of history of doing its best not to get you to click on a search result, but to answer your question directly or at the very least keep you on their platform while screwing over website owners. The first two iteration of this were AMP and Instant Answers, the third one is AI Overview. AI Overview should not be seen in isolation, but as a part of the pattern. If it weren't for it, Google would double down on some other method of reaching the same goal. This one will end up the same way the other two did: there's gonna be a vocal minority that's gonna consider it unfair and a web killer, the vast majority of users won't have an opinion, Google will not care, "the web" will play along, those early adopters are temporarily gonna have an advantage in this "new age" and some will die in the process, but the vast majority is gonna continue on as if nothing happened. It's also not gonna be the final iteration of this process because shiny new things sound better to investors than marginal improvements, so X years from now AI Overview is gonna be seen as something "old-fashioned", Google Search will pivot once again, and the rest of the web will follow to keep Google happy.

memoriuaysj 10mo ago
you know, there is a third group - a large number of users which find the AI overview useful
- touwer 10mo ago
  Very large even. Especially considering the explosion of ai-crap in the search results
- irl_zebra 10mo ago
  Yeah hate to say it, because I am an AI hater, but I love the AI results in Google and Kagi. I barely click results anymore for basic questions unless it's something important enough for me to need verification to ensure the AI-gen answer wasn't a hallucination. It's been so nice not having to pick through the cesspool that is StackOverflow to find answers to quick cli questions, or wade through SEO-generated, Amazon-affiliate link garbage for more general questions.