DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode.

[the_wub@mastodon.social]

@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.

[schamschula@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft If all the original content providers put Googlebot* on the robots.txt block list, or better yet, add a Google specific noindex meta tag to all their content, it’ll speed up the demise of the Google “search” engine. I did so last week.

[finchhaven@sfba.social]

@arielmt

"Its AI features are on by default; it's just they can still be disabled."

You mean to tell me that people are incapable of thinking and learning new things?

Shocking if true

Which it's not...

Here

Always use this link as your starting point: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

cc @nixCraft

[fedihacker@masto.es]

@nixCraft Let's hope it dies.

[finchhaven@sfba.social]

@StarkRG

Here

Try this

Leads to this: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

I mean, goddamnit people, I just went to fucking --> Google <-- and searched for "NOAI DuckDuck" and got exactly that

Maybe y'all oughta try thinking and doing something new for a change

cc @nixCraft

[syrupsplashin@infosec.exchange]

@nixCraft Is there any real infrastructure to fill the void left by Android/Play Services and Youtube? Google runs some pretty important platforms, I don't see how they'd be allowed to die

[normjess@tech.lgbt]

@the_wub @lycanmatriarch @nixCraft
I'm experimenting with Quant

there's also Startpage, Mojeek and a bunch of other alternatives

its important we have multiple options so when one Search company does something shitty we aren't tied to them

like going all in on AI when we have too much of that crap being forced into everything already

[starkrg@myside-yourside.net]

@the_wub @nixCraft There's also the built-in switch, which stays disabled if you accept the cookie.

[technotenshi@infosec.exchange]

@nixCraft once you go "quack", you never go back.

[the_wub@mastodon.social]

@StarkRG @nixCraft If you mean using the standard DuckDuckGo page with AI features turned off, this falls down if you then search in a private browsing session.

The AI features (in my experience) are all enabled in private browsing mode even if you turned them all off in a standard browsing session.

As I often search in private browsing mode this became quite tiresome after a while.

AI features stay turned off in a private browsing session when using the NoAI version of DDG.

[starkrg@myside-yourside.net]

@the_wub @nixCraft That makes sense, it's certainly a nice feature to have.

[andxor@mstdn.social]

@nixCraft the comments on that thread are brutal though (for good reasons IMO).

It looks like we're going back to the days where no single *good* search engine existed. We live in interesting times.

[joshlaw@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft IMHO

personally I like AI mode, but there should be a option to turn it off for people who don't like AI

And since, yk, Google uses AI for even their definitions

Some guy searched "stop" and it said the meaning was

"Ok I'll stop"

[madsenandersc@social.vivaldi.net]

@Mustardfacial @nixCraft

Google will not die, at least not without a new kid on the block eating their lunch.

Being assholes will not drive users away as long as your product is better (actually or percieved as) than the competition.

So, if Google dies entirely, it will be because all of their products have been killed off by competing products.

Any product still good enough to be a contender would be bought up by someone else or (more likely) be spun off into a new company.

So, I seriously doubt that Google will die, but it may very well face the same destiny as Microsoft, who was absolutely untouchable on the desktop OS market back around the time when Windows 95 and 98 came out.

Yes, there was OS/2 and Mac OS, but they were niche players. Today, the world is completely different because of mobile devices, and none of them runs a Microsoft OS. Microsoft is now just "a" operating system provider, not "the" operating system provider.

My guess is that Google could end up in the same situation as Microsoft once the dedicated AI-companies start eating into parts of their business.

Oh, and make no mistake. LLM is here to stay.

It will not be the do-all-end-all tool that some wants it to be, but it is definitely a tool that has its uses as e.g. a dedicated knowledge management tool internally in companies.

[crovanian@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft I just wish DDG had an ai reporting feature on image search- I’m glad they clear out the ai ‘emoji’ database spam, but websites using ai images remain.
Before:2023

[ferricoxide@blahaj.zone]

@nixCraft@mastodon.social Speaking of "weights.bin fuckery… A quick (DDG) search indicates Google may not have finalized the location of the file and that location may have shifted since the initial kerfuffle. Looks like you may need to wholly disable Chrome's AI extensions, instead (of just nulling the Chrome-installed file's original location). If they are still figuring out where to place it, I wonder if they're at least cleaning up the prior placements before trying to write further 4GiB files?

[iambababoey@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft

AI sloppification plague is coming for every major proprietary service out on the internet, sooner or later

[derhaendler@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft That moment when "we have a specific feature NOT" ist the USP.
A result of very sad times...

[nobookbanmom@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft

I use duckduckgo instead of chrome but on the app it has ai. Have to go online to noai.duckduckgo.com to eliminate ai.

[tk@f.kawa-kun.com]

@nixCraft @andxor Competition time. #capitalism