this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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Why would something like Google search possibly be irrelevant?

well..

a lot of these search engines use search engine Optimization, seo to rank sites. It's also not secret that they choose what shows up and what does not.

Things like that have been a thing for years, and since there wasn't a good alternative search engines remained relevant as we users tolerated their direction.

Now you have Lemmy, Mastodon, Sharkey, Firefish (if it's still a thing) connected to the Fediverse. On the Fediverse there is no such thing as looking up a website, but rather you look up actual specific content and get real results handed back to you. A lot of these Federated services are split and one person pays for hosting a smaller server, and the next another, slowly building up the bigger federated Fediverse.

On Lemmy you can just type in Windows 11, and no website to click on to, no bs, you get to hear about what's happening with WIndows 11 from different voices. Is the *Windows cool, a tragedy, is there that one guy that *disfavors it, or is in favor of WIndows 11?

It's all there and you as a user gets to decide for yourself if you like all the results you see, or some, or none of them and then move on with your day as it should be.

Thoughts? Opinions? Statements? Judge rulings?

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[–] sramder@lemmy.world 88 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Is this a joke, hyperbole? To build on your example, what if I wanted to find out “how to disable Windows 11 update prompts” into lemmy’s search. Do you think I would get the answer I’m looking for?

I’m not saying I don’t want to be rid of google and all they do. I would pay for 10 proton mail accounts a month if just one of googles data centers spontaneously burst into flames right now!

Well I’m willing to wait a while longer… I have not tried Kagi yet, but I will as soon as I get bored with Midjourney. Hopefully someday we can collectively slip the yoke, but I suspect googles results will get a lot worse first.

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[–] chalupapocalypse@lemmy.world 72 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I've heard kids these days search tiktok instead of Google.

Kids are fucking stupid

[–] ramirezmike@programming.dev 17 points 8 months ago

I was driving my brother in law and he was trying to tell me some news he heard but couldn't get the specifics so he spent ten minutes searching tiktok for it. I couldn't believe it

[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've heard that's true for restaurants and stuff like that, such seemed pretty baffling to me considering Google Maps (and others) exists.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago

I mean there are cool channels that showcase the food instead of ratings. You can't fake the restaurant AND their food so quickly
Example (Also available on YT): https://www.tiktok.com/@japaneat
The only thing it would need to be a true superpower is to limit an area and then show all restaurants displaying their food.
BUT: This will quickly by gamed as well as nothijg would stop the owner of just creating instagramable dishes that taste just meh but paying the creator to say otherwise.

[–] magnetosphere@kbin.social 34 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What kind of fediverse search are you talking about? Provide a link. That would do much, much more than any explanations or testimonials possibly could.

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[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago

You must not have hard problems to solve if fediverse content is able to replace a search engine.

[–] Sal@mander.xyz 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Search engines like google aggregate data from multiple sites. I may want to download a datasheet for an electronic component, find an answer to a technical question, find a language learning course site, or look for museums in my area.

Usually I make specific searches with very specific conditions, so I tend to get few and relevant results. I think search engines have their place.

[–] solidgrue@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Search engines are good for what you might call "keyword searches" across websites. I'd say SEO spam has degraded quality of hits and made search results less reliable than even 5 years ago. There's a lot more chaff to winnow now in the main search services. You sorta need to discriminate on hits, and dig a bit deeper into the results to find that new nugget you didn't already see 3 or 4 times already in previous searches with similar, but different parameters.

I find the LLM AIs to be slightly better at turning up obscure info these days. The conversation sets some persistent context that's helpful when you need to dial in on obscure stiff like a driver issue, tuning problem or weird product spec. You still need to carefully vet your results, but the AIs understand technical jargon pretty well, and generally return some solid analysis for leas common scenarios.

They're also good for pick-and-shovel work in odd tech areas, but you really need to be careful with the results because they're confidently wrong in speculative conversation only slightly more often than they're confidently right.

That's just my opinion, but it's how I do search these days: use an AI to refine keywords, then use DDG or Google to find familiar sites with corollary content.

[–] dariusj18@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

Trash in/trash out. Small communities of experts can create quality content, but after becoming relevant enough astroturfing begins.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just wait for the bots. Also, search engines have been playing cat and mouse with SEO for a while. I don’t know why it’s gotten so bad lately.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 months ago

Fvo "a while" that are about 25 years. The pressure has been going up all the time as more and more companies and spammers try to shoehorn themselves into irrelevant searches.

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 13 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Perhaps we use search engines for different purposes... 🤔

I don't use Google, but I definitely use my preferred search engine numerous times daily.

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[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is only true if you need news or opinions. You can't really search Lemmy for technical questions or search for a specific site which are my main usages of a search engine.

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[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 11 points 8 months ago

Guess this guy never has to look up syntax stuff.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

I thought this post was going to be about ChatGPT. Instead it’s about how fediverse search is a replacement for the entire internet, which is utter nonsense.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Search engines don’t use search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is what people do to get their site to the top of a search engines results.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I only find search engines somewhat irrelevant because I'm almost never searching for, like, a website. I'm searching for information or software that's compiled on 1 of 5 websites and I can usually use the search function on those specific sites.

Used to use search engines to find new websites. Back when Google was new and it was easier to find cool stuff with keywords rather than by adding .com to random words in the URL bar.

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[–] tiredofsametab@kbin.run 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'm not going to give the fediverse my address and ask it where the closest dentist/clinic/restaurant is. Also, even if I did, 見る人がほとんどわからないかも。

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[–] Teon@kbin.social 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] TruthAintEasy@kbin.social 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Google is free, Im searching recipies, websites of companies I might invest in, the law in general and pop-culture crap 90% of the time

Seems like a waste of water and energy to ask a highpowered LLM about it. I heard each query on GPT uses 12L of fresh water, seems wastefull when I could just use a basic google

Edit: it is approx .5L of water for 5 to 50 prompts, thanks google!

[–] Obonga@feddit.de 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is a relative hot take at this moment but as the search results get worse and the fediverse grows it might become true. Time will tell.