DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode.
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DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. Is anyone surprised by this result?
@nixCraft@mastodon.social
I ditched Google as my go-to search-engine not long after I ditched Chrome as my go-to browser. Yes, I still use both, but that usage is constrained to specific scenarios:
• Google Search is much better for finding images
• Chrome is effectively required for some of the sites I have to use (mostly for work-related things). To limit the potential damage of doing so (things like theweights.binfuckery), I run it inside a sandbox. -
@Mustardfacial @nixCraft thats a great question and I have no answer.
I believe the existing aosp still works, i have lineage with fdroid and there is no google in it at all.
@f4grx @nixCraft Lineage, Graphene, raw AOSP with fdroid is all well and good for the nerds like you and me. My concern is more on the general public who have no idea that you can install these OS's, let alone know how to it. What do those people do? Are we just going to expect them to buy a $2000 iPhone instead? That's not really an option for a lot of people.
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I have seen this before with their forced Google+ adoption game. Users aren't adopting Google AI at the rate shareholders or C suits expect, so they now force the adoption at the cost of search engine. Just like Google+ died out, this forced AI mode in Google search is going to die and I hope it will be the end of the company as well.
@nixCraft The thing is, I actually liked G+, it was a pretty decent platform all things considered. But oh well, I think other platforms had beaten them to punch, and you go where the people are (at that time it was FB which wasn't as awful as it is now).
But the FORCE EVERYONE TO USE IT tactic is never ever going to work because users have choices (somewhat limited) but they do have choices.
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@f4grx @nixCraft Lineage, Graphene, raw AOSP with fdroid is all well and good for the nerds like you and me. My concern is more on the general public who have no idea that you can install these OS's, let alone know how to it. What do those people do? Are we just going to expect them to buy a $2000 iPhone instead? That's not really an option for a lot of people.
@Mustardfacial @nixCraft the general public does not care. facebook and tiktok come preinstalled on most phones so they have little interest for apps except banks and shit. They have no idea what a browser is so they will only use the preinstalled chrome and thats it.
Companies will register with google to make their apps and they wont care either. They already do that for apple dev.Only power users matters. And I think we're already fine. Play store will still be available through aurora.
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@f4grx @nixCraft Lineage, Graphene, raw AOSP with fdroid is all well and good for the nerds like you and me. My concern is more on the general public who have no idea that you can install these OS's, let alone know how to it. What do those people do? Are we just going to expect them to buy a $2000 iPhone instead? That's not really an option for a lot of people.
@Mustardfacial @f4grx @nixCraft I was able to install custom ROMs and all that stuff when I was 12 - 13 years old. I just read instructions and of course expect bricking my phone and have to fix it, but yeah.
Still a headscratcher that technology has improved a ton but most people remain dumb with it. Idk.
I found over the years it's not really worth talking things like these to someone who doesn't really "get it" cos you're pretty much talking to a wall at that point, lol.
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@Mustardfacial @nixCraft the general public does not care. facebook and tiktok come preinstalled on most phones so they have little interest for apps except banks and shit. They have no idea what a browser is so they will only use the preinstalled chrome and thats it.
Companies will register with google to make their apps and they wont care either. They already do that for apple dev.Only power users matters. And I think we're already fine. Play store will still be available through aurora.
@Mustardfacial @nixCraft and for the rare apps that wont work without google play, we can have cheap burner phones.
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@Mustardfacial @f4grx @nixCraft I was able to install custom ROMs and all that stuff when I was 12 - 13 years old. I just read instructions and of course expect bricking my phone and have to fix it, but yeah.
Still a headscratcher that technology has improved a ton but most people remain dumb with it. Idk.
I found over the years it's not really worth talking things like these to someone who doesn't really "get it" cos you're pretty much talking to a wall at that point, lol.
@reallylazybear @Mustardfacial @nixCraft Sure thing.
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@Mustardfacial @f4grx @nixCraft I was able to install custom ROMs and all that stuff when I was 12 - 13 years old. I just read instructions and of course expect bricking my phone and have to fix it, but yeah.
Still a headscratcher that technology has improved a ton but most people remain dumb with it. Idk.
I found over the years it's not really worth talking things like these to someone who doesn't really "get it" cos you're pretty much talking to a wall at that point, lol.
Still worth planting a thought in someone's head about how cool it is, but yeah.
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DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. Is anyone surprised by this result?
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@Mustardfacial @nixCraft the general public does not care. facebook and tiktok come preinstalled on most phones so they have little interest for apps except banks and shit. They have no idea what a browser is so they will only use the preinstalled chrome and thats it.
Companies will register with google to make their apps and they wont care either. They already do that for apple dev.Only power users matters. And I think we're already fine. Play store will still be available through aurora.
@f4grx @nixCraft Yes, the general public doesn't care. On that we agree, what I am suggesting is more along the lines that if Google dies, and Android dies with it, then what happens? Does Google start remote bricking phones? Does Google Play no longer work?
For a large portion of people as long as the phone works, they don't care. But TikTok, Meta, Uber, et.al. are going to want to push updates to their apps, so how are they going to do so without a working app store? -
DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. Is anyone surprised by this result?
Small search engine @marginalia reported 10x more traffic after google started force feeding AI as well.
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DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. Is anyone surprised by this result?
@nixCraft removing chrome is liberating
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@nixCraft No, not surprised.
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I have seen this before with their forced Google+ adoption game. Users aren't adopting Google AI at the rate shareholders or C suits expect, so they now force the adoption at the cost of search engine. Just like Google+ died out, this forced AI mode in Google search is going to die and I hope it will be the end of the company as well.
@nixCraft aren't the stakes of the bet higher in with AI ? They seem to be all-in as the only road ahead for their enterprise demanded growth
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@f4grx @nixCraft Yes, the general public doesn't care. On that we agree, what I am suggesting is more along the lines that if Google dies, and Android dies with it, then what happens? Does Google start remote bricking phones? Does Google Play no longer work?
For a large portion of people as long as the phone works, they don't care. But TikTok, Meta, Uber, et.al. are going to want to push updates to their apps, so how are they going to do so without a working app store?@Mustardfacial @nixCraft Android is out in the wild and will definitely not die with google!
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I have seen this before with their forced Google+ adoption game. Users aren't adopting Google AI at the rate shareholders or C suits expect, so they now force the adoption at the cost of search engine. Just like Google+ died out, this forced AI mode in Google search is going to die and I hope it will be the end of the company as well.
@nixCraft I stopped using Google Search years ago already, it's utterly useless; Scholar and Books are still essential. Ditching OAuth2 is a PITA, AAPL require 2x FIDO2 2FA devices and they must be enrolled through AAPL devices. Security vs convenience? I choose Security eventually but I have to risk-manage. Moving GMail is even more of a PITA. Oh GMail seems to train on private email and sends hashes to Meta or something. Can't prove it, saw the tells. "Once is happenstance..." -- Ian Fleming.
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@nixCraft Too bad they don't FUCKING DO THIS BY DEFAULT. You have to opt out of all AI and choose to hide AI regurgitated garbage.
@lycanmatriarch @nixCraft
If you are able to, try changing your search engine to:Or disable Javascript and you get an html version of DuckDuckGo - caveat, I do not know if the html version of the page also tries to filter out AI slop.
I just checked with Netsurf browser and on typing in https://duckduckgo.com the browser gets redirected to:
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@f4grx @nixCraft Yes, the general public doesn't care. On that we agree, what I am suggesting is more along the lines that if Google dies, and Android dies with it, then what happens? Does Google start remote bricking phones? Does Google Play no longer work?
For a large portion of people as long as the phone works, they don't care. But TikTok, Meta, Uber, et.al. are going to want to push updates to their apps, so how are they going to do so without a working app store?@Mustardfacial @nixCraft TBH, I dont care if people loose access to uber et al.
And also they wont, because companies will definitely make sure that the apps stay available.
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@nixCraft DDG isn't inherently AI-free, but it does give you the option to disable that crap. I hope this surge makes them realise there's no growth in AI. LLMs are a dead-end technology and the sooner people see that the better.
@StarkRG @nixCraft Try noai.duckduckgo.com
While I was installing a new version of LinuxMint on my remaining elderly parent's laptops recently I changed to the noai version of DuckDuckGo in all of the browsers that I installed.
My elderly parent is very thankful as it cuts out a lot of confusing elements in the standard AI enabled DuckDuckGo search page.
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@nixCraft The thing is, I actually liked G+, it was a pretty decent platform all things considered. But oh well, I think other platforms had beaten them to punch, and you go where the people are (at that time it was FB which wasn't as awful as it is now).
But the FORCE EVERYONE TO USE IT tactic is never ever going to work because users have choices (somewhat limited) but they do have choices.
@Sablebadger @nixCraft Google disabled the search modifier "+" in advance of launching G+.
It enshittified the search syntax that used to exist in Google search.
Up to that point you could search for a specific term using +searchterm.
Also IIRC if you wanted to search for a specific phrase you could do +"specific search term as a phrase"
As well as (AFAIR) +specific +search +term +as +a +phrase.
