[ojr]

Google Search has gotten better unless you think AI mode is a downgrade, the alternative of having a wikipedia article, reddit post or random website as the first result is not better technically maybe morally for you but not matter of factually. The average user does less manual filtering.

[nicoburns]

I definitely think the AI mode is a downgrade. It has me seriously considering abandoning Google for different search engine. With a reddit post or a Wikipedia article, it's much easier to assess the credibility of the content.

The AI mode does at least attempt to list it's sources, but it's extra hoops to jump through.

[ojr]

For the average Google User, searching for things like who perform in the Superbowl it is not extra hoops and incredibly fast. It's going to power Siri soon, enjoy.

[elorant]

AI overview though is crap. It almost always gives wrong answers and contradicts things that are in the results.

[ojr]

hasn't been my experience, I am able to search for information faster, speed to correct answer has increased on average, I feel, if we start providing examples your argument starts to fall fast. Think about the average Google Search, you really think it gets it wrong? Your search query is probably more obscure than mainstream web users.

[misnome]

I’d infinitely prefer a relevant wikipedia article to an AI “Answer” that is almost always wrong.

Google lens image search used to be amazing, I tried a repeat of a search I did before of a piece of art, it showed the same piece but confidently listed the artist and year wrong by about 300 years.

I’ve had relatives do “research” about things I mentioned I needed to do, and they’ve just sent screenshots of the incorrect AI answer.

It’s made google almost entirely useless, there is zero incentive for them to try to make search better (vs incentive to make it worse) and even if they did want to make it better the sheer volumes of slop have made that even harder.

We’ve completely sabotaged out ability to collate information at scale as a civilization, for the benefit of a few companies that were already the largest in the world to begin with. And it turns out, very few people notice or even care about this.

[ojr]

almost always wrong is just incorrect. Ask it who made Hackernews and it says Paul Graham with a informational paragraph it scraped from Wikipedia, without me clicking into Wikipedia. I can provide so many examples.

[snarf_br]

Factually and environmentally as well.

[ojr]

I guess all the publishers and advertisers are worried and complaining about nothing