When I do a web search, I do not want Google to go to the websites for me, pull the information, and interpret it for me. I want it to give me a list of websites that I can read and evaluate myself because AI is frequently wrong: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/
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@evacide I really wish people on here could resist the urge to recommend some other search engine.
@evacide can't read because it wants me to disable my ad blocker. Anyway, I migrated to qwant some time ago _exactly_ because I was so annoyed by AI summaries, and I have not looked back.
@evacide simple solution Startpage or Duckduckgo with deactivated AI summaries and functions. I still would recommend Startpage over Duck Duck Go because of AI trash.
@evacide you are so 2010... 😁 And so am I.
@evacide but that doesn't help their "users of ai" number go up. I love the grift of it all /s
On a more practical note:
Anybody have a list of ranges and user agents I can use to ban Google from ever again indexing my website(s)?
Are their “agentic search assistants” coming from the same places and with the same user agents?
For anyone that wants to turn it off
https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/381948916/how-to-shut-down-and-delete-the-ai-mode-from-google?hl=en
@evacide and since google still wants to make billions by selling keywords the llm summary will contain tailored wrong information catering to whoever pays the most.
It will be wrong on purpose.
The vast majority of third party search providers just use the google or bing index. I see a not so distant future where they stop selling access to the index. Killing off those other search engines over night.
@evacide That's why I don't use Google.
@evacide With the information at https://udm14.com/ its possible to get the regular search "back" (make it a default) again.
@evacide
"This shift means that “searching the web” will increasingly be performed by AI agents rather than humans."
At first I read "shit" instead of "shift" and it made sense all the same.
@evacide how do you decide what sources are trustworthy though? For youngsters learning this skill that's a thing they still have to master, and that's a long term journey.
I suspect that the newer generations prefer the AI way, because they search their question and get an answer. I've seen my own kids get frustrated with search results that didn't even come close to what they're looking for.
The fossil fuel interests behind Google's product development decisions aren't benign.
#PrinceBonesaw has his own agenda.
Information pollution to match his climate pollution & public corruption.
https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/mbs-despot-in-the-desert
https://archive.is/qddWQ
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/07/heres-a-look-at-who.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/13/trump-tech-execs-riyadh/
Koch Network has powerful allies in its ongoing anti-democracy propaganda efforts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/technology/saudi-arabia-ai-exporter.html
@evacide they are really destroying the Internet, LLM contamination everywhere! 😡
@evacide
One of the techs at work was telling me about Windows 12 rumors that the user will ask copilot and copilot will run the apps. So there is always copilot between you and your programs.
@evacide thanks for the heads-up. I won't be using Google search.
@evacide
Google Search has been bad for quite a while now.
I switched to DDG 6 years ago when I moved to Linux Mint.
Even DDG can be meh at times, so I ocassionally use qwant or mogeek or ecosia to view alternatives.
@evacide Not to mention their black box AI gets to interpret the info how big tech wants it to. Billionaires already manipulate algorithms on their social media to push their agendas. You know damn well they will on their AI platforms.
@evacide I try to use https://www.mojeek.com/ as a first stop, close to the old GOOG but far fewer indexed pages and can be hit and miss so second stop usually https://www.ecosia.org/search
@evacide noai.duckduckgo.com
@evacide I agree with all the people in this thread who are saying to dump Google. I also think they maybe don't realize exactly how powerful and important Google search is to culture, the economy, politics, etc.
This has ramifications way beyond what search engine the people of Mastodon prefer.
(for the record, I use kagi.)
@evacide Dump Google.Try Duck Duck Go or Brave.
@evacide Watching the process that DeepSeek goes through, at lightning speed, allows me to guide it and get good results, similar to my own process of selecting web links to click, skimming information, etc. Only DeepSeek does it much faster and also elucidates the steps it is taking, while taking them. One doesn't believe the first website at the top of Google (and anyways, usually advertised), nor should one mindlessly take the first AI answer. Both processes, manual and with AI, require mindfulness.
@evacide fuck every single bit of that bullshit.
I switched to Duck Duck Go last week, apparently just in time. Google, once obsessively minimalist and functional, has descended into an ugly pile of crap. I can onlly hope the market gives them what they deserve. 😏
@evacide it's the end of the world(wide web) as we know it and I feel fine
(because I search the whole web less and less and if I do it's not through google)
Just for fun I tried using the "AI mode" (like there's still another kind), and prefaced my search with "Please give me a classic set of google search results, with absolutely no AI summary, for the following terms:"
I got about ten results. It couldn't resist prefacing it with something like "Here are web results for your query", which technically breached the request.
@evacide
I've started just asking AI to give me links to the websites. Just tell it "give me a list of websites that I can read and evaluate myself".
@evacide Not to pimp out my youtube channel, but I did a video on a few Google alternatives a month and a half ago. Could be it's helpful.
Yeah, I first saw reporting on this kind of thing a month or two ago. Google just decided this is the way the web will work now unilaterally and companies are expected to reshape their websites to provide raw materials for Google to fashion content from.
It’s fucking bullshit
Shrug. I switched to duckduckgo years ago.
I like Ecosia. You can turn AI off and it plants trees when people use it.
@evacide When I was using Safari with duckduck on it, I always turned off AI and search assist. I wouldn't install duck (those settings would've stayed) because last time I did that on my last laptop, I couldn't uninstall it.
When I see anything AI, I quickly check what I missed doing. I type out 90% of my typing because I don't want to lose my typing skills or abillity to spell.
It's a long way of saying that I totally agree with you.
@evacide Ask Jeeves should've hung on a little longer..
@evacide I just changed the default search engine on my phone and will do the same everywhere else once I get back home.
@evacide Agreed. And even if it’s not wrong, it might not be pulling all information from the website. What caveats might people be missing when they only rely on AI overviews? A lot!
Researching for papers always made me happy. Later, I used to Google so deep for so many things. It was my goal to find shit people gave-up looking for. Hell, I used to get a hit on Page 10.
I collected so many gigs of football uniform reference through Goog and the many small websites hidden in corners that it would find with the right guiding.
I quit using it entirely maybe 5 years ago.
Don't get around much. Anymore.
@evacide This is why I self-host a SearXNG instance. Too many search engines deciding what I need to see, so I ask them all to get a more complete answer.
Same here! The only complaint I have is the constant rate-limiting, but otherwise, knowing I'm effectively using ALL THE ENGINES (and with none of the LLM slop) is great for my usage case
@evacide hard agree.
search engines these days, even when not using AI, aren't returning useful links. It's all "what can I sell you related to your search" instead of "here is the information you requested" and its driving me nuts.
@evacide I hate everything google. I stopped using their search, maps, and gmail in the 2000s and I haven't missed any of it. As of last year, I finally moved to a Fairphone with /e/OS, so no more google evil in my phone. No one needs google and I'm amazed that anyone still uses their anything.
@evacide this will also kill the rabbit hole. No curiosity. No discovery.
@evacide The midwest of the US, has over 75% increases in power costs, and their aquifer existing millions of years, is now in direct threat toward extinction - and it's because of #TechBros #greed, heaping #DataCenter #AbuseOfPower upon the innocently ignorant masses.
We're now forced to accelerate desalination, without the benefit of competing energy sources other than #FossilFuels
These abusers must be replaced asap, with ethical #RootInfrastructure #scientists.
You can easily remove the AI Overview...
https://hachyderm.io/@scrivy/116536252469319380
@evacide Why are you still using Google?
