Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
I've just switched my default search engines to DuckDuckGo - very easy to find and turn off the AI options.
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(From a followers-only subthread. Response to an example of a way Google got worse since I ditched it a year ago.)
@mcc I just want somewhere that isn't pushing AI onto me, and Kagi/Ecosia/DDG all do that. Sure I can adapt, but I'm uneasy because I don't want the technique to pour our the pre mixed piss from my tea, I just don't want to come back to that tea house ever again.
And deGoogle is something I'm trying and not doing well yet. Mostly the phones I don't have a viable alternative. And using Microsoft at home because of work kills me.
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
@mcc literally just echoing your own sentiment back at you but boy do I wish I could ever run towards a new technology rather than away from an old one
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
@mcc I wish I could, but I can't afford subscription-based search engines, and none of the free ones have the features Google still has (robust date search and finding images with transparent backgrounds).
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@mcc literally just echoing your own sentiment back at you but boy do I wish I could ever run towards a new technology rather than away from an old one
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My steps to configure Kagi as a genAI-free search engine:
In settings
- Disable General->"Keyboard Shortcuts"
- Click Appearance->"Custom CSS" and paste in the text from https://codeberg.org/zerodogg/kagi-no-ai/src/branch/main/kagi-no-ai.css
- Disable Search->AI->"Auto Quick Answer"What's nice about this is it's bound to your account, so it "works everywhere". You don't have to use a particular browser, you don't have to set up plugins on all your machines.
I've been using Kagi this way for about a year—results seem just as good as Google
Does this get rid of the AI interpretation of your search query and force a search on your actual search terms?
Because No AI duck duck go is garbage in this way. It avoids posting stupid AI summaries, but it still reinterprets whatever you type into the search box, and runs a search based on what it thinks you are looking for, rather than what you actually asked for
I use it more often than anything else, but that doesn't mean it isn't complete crap. Everything else is just even worse right now
Lycos is the only search engine I know that actually searches on what you type in. But it's clearly deprioritized by its owning company, and is down about 50% of the time
The whole search industry is now back to where it was at before Teoma -- and then Google which stole its logo and concept
Everything on the market is garbage, and whoever can produce something that actually works will win all the customers
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Does this get rid of the AI interpretation of your search query and force a search on your actual search terms?
Because No AI duck duck go is garbage in this way. It avoids posting stupid AI summaries, but it still reinterprets whatever you type into the search box, and runs a search based on what it thinks you are looking for, rather than what you actually asked for
I use it more often than anything else, but that doesn't mean it isn't complete crap. Everything else is just even worse right now
Lycos is the only search engine I know that actually searches on what you type in. But it's clearly deprioritized by its owning company, and is down about 50% of the time
The whole search industry is now back to where it was at before Teoma -- and then Google which stole its logo and concept
Everything on the market is garbage, and whoever can produce something that actually works will win all the customers
@NilaJones when i want kagi to find exact matches and not synonyms i put quotation marks around the words, such as turning
rust curses library
into
"rust" "curses" "library"
I would have preferred functionality like old google where if it decides to deliver an approximate search it tells you and asks if you want to search exactly. But I'm told google doesn't work like that anymore anyway.
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@NilaJones when i want kagi to find exact matches and not synonyms i put quotation marks around the words, such as turning
rust curses library
into
"rust" "curses" "library"
I would have preferred functionality like old google where if it decides to deliver an approximate search it tells you and asks if you want to search exactly. But I'm told google doesn't work like that anymore anyway.
I tried that with a longer phrase, on kagi, but no luck
It still gave me a bunch of unrelated web pages that did not include the (very public, but non-commercial) one that had my phrase on it -
I tried that with a longer phrase, on kagi, but no luck
It still gave me a bunch of unrelated web pages that did not include the (very public, but non-commercial) one that had my phrase on it@NilaJones if you are looking for an exact phrase, I would put quotes around the whole thing. Also, did you notice "verbatim mode"? If quotes around entire phrase is not an exact phrase match, maybe the "verbatim" option is.
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@NilaJones if you are looking for an exact phrase, I would put quotes around the whole thing. Also, did you notice "verbatim mode"? If quotes around entire phrase is not an exact phrase match, maybe the "verbatim" option is.
I did not see that, no! Thanks very much. Now if only it could be the default...
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I did not see that, no! Thanks very much. Now if only it could be the default...
@NilaJones it says here you can set it as the default https://help.kagi.com/kagi/settings/search.html
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
@mcc I was a long term user of DuckDuckGo, and gave up on them with all the MSN news links. But it looks like they’ve fixed that.
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Sometimes I see people frustration-post screenshots of Google searches marred by Gemini AI banners.
And that sucks! I'm sorry. But I have to ask: If Google frustrates you… maybe switch away? There *are* no-AI alternatives!:
- Kagi is an AI-infected search engine, but they offer a "custom CSS" feature (see next post) you can use to remove the AI.
And *this* is the time to get out. Before Google takes the search you're used to away completely: https://aftermath.site/google-search-ai-changes/
@mcc I tend to add https://github.com/iorate/ublacklist and some filters at https://github.com/rjaus/awesome-ublacklist
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@mcc I fear that Google and Microsoft will eventually cut access to their indexes in order to force people into their "AI", and IIRC both Kagi and DDG are not doing their own indexing. (Again, IIRC; Kagi usess Google's index and DDG uses Microsoft's.)
@BoydStephenSmithJr @mcc Mojeek indexes independently. Haven't tried it though.
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@jdp23 @mcc @ireneista IIRC this is in line with findings on misinformation in general, that you don't generally remember where you learned a thing, and it is easier to accept than reject claims, so just being exposed to misinformation makes one more inclined to inadvertently internalize it
edit:
- this Vox article summarizes and links to several studies
- more explanations (and examples) in this article at The Conversation
- this Conversation article notes that "the fine details needed to debunk a myth are generally more complicated than the myth itself" and therefore harder to remember
- see e. g. this 2009 paper arguing, basically, that easier-to-remember things are perceived as truer; this 2019 study on inducing false memories about Ireland's 2018 abortion referendum; or this 2024 study on repetition and climate-skeptic claims
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@ireneista @jdp23 @mcc caveat that i am not very knowledgeable about psychology and did not do a proper Review of the Literature, this is just the kind of stuff i've seen reported on in media
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@BoydStephenSmithJr @mcc Mojeek indexes independently. Haven't tried it though.
@RuchiraSDatta @BoydStephenSmithJr tried mojeek, it was the best of the "small" search engines I audited. Not quite on par with Google/kagi though and there was a box advertising its "AI" on every page
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@ireneista @jdp23 @mcc caveat that i am not very knowledgeable about psychology and did not do a proper Review of the Literature, this is just the kind of stuff i've seen reported on in media
