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> Google search is on the way out. I don't know any of my peers who use it anymore. What do they use? Of all my tech friends, colleagues, I'm the only one who
by BeetleB 3mo ago
> Google search is on the way out. I don't know any of my peers who use it anymore.
What do they use?
Of all my tech friends, colleagues, I'm the only one who uses Kagi. Another person uses searx. Everyone else uses Google.
Of my non-tech friends and colleagues, everyone uses Google.
- worik 3mo ago> Of my non-tech friends and colleagues, everyone uses Google. Me, almost, too. I have some friends using duckduckgo - not many and only until Google is the default again...
- SoftTalker 3mo agoI've been using DDG for at least 3 years. Very rarely use Google anymore, and when I do it is when DDG doesn't find much and in those cases Google usually isn't any better.
- aqfamnzc 3mo agoLet me tell you about this new little-known technology that's been gaining traction in the last few years...
- BeetleB 3mo agoReally bad idea for a lot of search use cases.
- janalsncm 3mo agoSure, go ahead and ask the LLM who won the 2026 World Cup. Or nearby BBQ places open now. Even assuming no hallucinations, an LLM can replace some use cases for search but not all.
- ffsm8 3mo agoFwiw, I've done those kinds of requests before and it did so successfully. It did use Google to provide me with the answers though, sooo...
- edoceo 3mo agoThe LLMs I've tried don't do well with very new stuff. Like Zig for example, they tell me answers that were good for Zig 0.12 but we on 0.16 now. So I've got to feed them the latest docs, then do the AI dance.
- Waterluvian 3mo agoI tried both and it’s not even close which interface is better when it comes to answering a question. Google gives you stuff to sift through and interpret. AI just gives the answer. Imagine you’re in the car or hands free or disabled and you just want the question answered. https://ibb.co/whYmZWxs https://ibb.co/whYmZWxs https://ibb.co/JFkQbmJf https://ibb.co/JFkQbmJf
- devin 3mo ago"just gives you the answer" is a problem when it is offered without context, sourcing, etc. Such is the case for people trying to poison--ahem "influence" LLM results for "what is the best restaurant in $my_locale". You're playing a dangerous game.
- Waterluvian 3mo ago> is a problem when it is offered without context, sourcing, etc. Sure. But that's not what's happening here, yeah? Both examples are providing sources. Actually I'd say that the LLM is doing a better job at that. You click a button and see 9 URLs to 9 news sites. I think for the "influence LLM results" fears, it would be ridiculous to argue about which multi-billion dollar American company can be trusted more not to manipulate you.
- BeetleB 3mo ago> Actually I'd say that the LLM is doing a better job at that. You click a button and see 9 URLs to 9 news sites. Does it show relevant snippets for each of the 9 URLs? If not, then it's as bad as Google's AI summary. It's not that rare that the reference disagrees with the LLM. The value of the non-LLM search engine is that in the search results, you see the relevant snippet, and if you want more information, you know quickly which links to click. Not saying there's no place for the LLM for many search engine use cases, but a proper search engine replacement it is not.
- pessimizer 3mo ago
- Forgeties79 3mo agoWhether it's a good choice or not sadly doesn't change the current reality. People now use ChatGPT as a replacement for google.
- FabCH 3mo agoClaude Sonnet 5 Medium more or less on the timestamp of the comment: Prompt: Who won the 2026 World Cup? Answer: Spain won the 2026 World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final at MetLife Stadium on July 19. Ferran Torres scored the only goal in the 106th minute, coming on as a substitute in the 62nd minute. It’s Spain’s second World Cup title, having also won in 2010. Prompt: Nearby BBQ places open now? Answer: (a geolocation permission request prompt for the browser followed by) Right in [redacted] both [redacted] (4.6 stars, open until [redacted]) and [redacted] ([redacted]) are close and currently open. A bit further out but highly rated: [redacted] Seems like LLM does a good job on those questions…
- krupan 3mo agoDid it do a Google search to learn all that up to date information?
- ssl-3 3mo agoAlmost certainly. That's OK, isn't it? Folks have been Googling things poorly for as long as there has been a Google to Google with, and now they have bots that do it on their behalf. The only issue is that the eyeballs stayed with the LLM, which allows it to hold a position that is potentially very powerful. This is particularly problematic with people who believe that computers are infallible.
- janalsncm 3mo agoThe point of this thread is that you cannot replace search engines with an LLM. If your example is an LLM using a search engine as a tool call, you have not replaced the search engine. It’s still there.
- 8note 3mo agoyou have changed the monetization model for the search engine though and maybe you really need the index and not the engine?
- 3mo ago
- ashu1461 3mo agoOn a personal level if I used to do 100 google searches on a daily basis, now I would be doing only 10. And it is the case with everyone in the tech ecosystem at least. So it would be fair to assume that there share has reduced. On the LLM side as well, I have not seen much people using Gemini vs the market share of Claude / Open AI. The assumption of the long tail still using Gemini because it is bundled might be correct, but I am not even sure if that is something that Google will be happy with.
- bellowsgulch 3mo agoSomeone has to crawl the web, and it's not the LLMs themselves.