[evouga]

There was a magic period of time lasting about a decade when internet search Just Worked. If it was on the public web Google would find it. Search worked so well I took it for granted.

Today I avoid Google search at all costs, and use it mainly to find Wikipedia pages or to search Reddit.

The Googlers blame SEO and there is some truth to that; but Google has on retainer a huge stable of the world’s best-paid engineers, and still couldn’t be bothered to invest in their flagship service.

[lampiaio]

I just checked my search history, and about 80% of my Google queries contain "site:reddit.com". It's becoming harder and harder to find real content.

[MichaelZuo]

I agree, Google up until ~2013 felt magical and nowadays even news.ycombinator.com, a site frequented by many search engineers, isn't fully indexed anymore, not even 80% indexed for some obscure search terms.

[nvarsj]

The flagship service is ads not search.

[MarcellusDrum]

Well good luck showing people ads when people start using ChatGPT for all their internet searches.

[ptmcc]

It'll be so easy to inject ads into things like ChatGPT, and it'll even look "natural" to most readers.

[mattlondon]

It would be trivial to insert banner ads, or even "native ads" in the response.

LLMs are probably even better suited for monetisation since they have a better understanding of what people want, so a better ad can be shown that is more likely to be clicked.

Do you think people were losing their shit when ChatGPT went into bing simply because web search gets better/easier? No - people were losing their shit because it meant the ads in search are going to be turbo-charged and so that is why the share prices are surging (GOOG up 40% over last 6 months): more ad revenue from "better" ads shown to users.

[survirtual]

People still need products to solve problems. When you ask an AI "I have X problem, what products could I use to resolve it?" that is a natural and ethical time to include advertisers into the equation. The LLM can be trained on product specifications, details, and relevant uses, as well as plug in to a review database. Companies can pay to be included in the results of possible solutions and the AI can use the available information to make specific recommendations based on real data.

Hopefully, the future will completely prune intrusive, non-consensual advertising completely and any companies that inject thoughts into our minds will fail.

[account42]

> People still need products to solve problems.

For some problems. For many more you don't need a "product" at all but advertising still wants to sell you one.

> that is a natural and ethical time to include advertisers into the equation

Not at all. Ads means showing the product of whoever is paying the most or at least preferring paying products over others. Ad-free suggestions means showing the product best suited for the task. If those two match you are defrauding the advertiser by making them pay to show what you would have shown without ads. If they don't match you are degrading the service for the users.

[survirtual]

Imagine a world where we prioritize optimizing for the best human experience instead of doing the bidding of people with capital.

You can do it, I believe in you.

[Pooge]

Which search engine do you use?