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dgerard@awful.systems

Google is replacing search results with only the AI (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

replace the Web with slop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aji8lhaV3XM&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260520-google-replacing-search-results-with-only-the-ai - podcast

time: 9 min 04 sec

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[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 22 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Information-gathering agents are an evolution of Google Alerts. Beyond spotting changes, they can make sense of them, too.

… Links will become an afterthought with the coming changes to the Search results experience.

Web publishers should honestly just block googlebot at this point. Why should they provide credibility to whatever Google's stochastic parrot hallucinates if Google won't even give them any kickback?

So what do we search with instead of Google? There isn’t a lot of choice. There’s various flavours of Google or Bing.

Microsoft deprecated their Bing API back in August, instead telling people to use some Azure AI thing. DDG and the like weren't affected because they have contracts, but I can't imagine they'll be renewed.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yikes! 😳😬

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If sites start blocking googlebot en masse, then googlebot will just start ignoring robots.txt

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago

Can they just put an EULA on the site and then sue Google for unauthorized access?

Not in the US of course, but in the EU or something

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Then you can just block the user agent in nginx or whatever you use, like all the other AI scrapers who ignore robots.txt (*cough* Amazon)

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Then the user agent string will just quietly become randomised so you can't match it reliably because it turns out that honouring robots.txt was always little more than a "gentleman's handshake".

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

this is a problem we have had for a while now, i assure you

[–] Evinceo@awful.systems 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah an adversary like Google isn't something you can easily block without really annoying legitimate users unfortunately. Nothing is stopping them from turning every chrome instance into a botnet node except for the angry article that would run in Ars Technica.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it's possible to allow google search bots but not Gemini bots?

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The point is that there's going to be no difference, soon Google search will be just another chatbot interface.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Guess I'll just have to use ddgo, then ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[–] flowerysong@awful.systems 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Unfortunately DuckDuckGo sucks ass at search, even compared to how much the Google search results have degraded over time. I use the no-AI version as my primary search engine, but I have to resort to using Google to find the thing I'm looking for about 1 in 5 times.

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago

DDG has been my main search engine for over a decade but it has degraded as it became basically a reseller of Bing results after Russia started the current phase of the Ukraine war and they stopped partnering with Yandex.

[–] TrashGoblin@awful.systems 1 points 2 weeks ago

Probably 2 in 5 ddg searches are worthless for me, but trying again on Google rarely if ever helps. Usually, both are returning SEO slop or Product™️ rather than the thing I was looking for.