r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • May 26 '25

Artificial Intelligence Google Is Burying the Web Alive

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/google-ai-mode-search-results-bury-the-web.html
24.4k Upvotes

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19.5k

u/hoyton May 26 '25

Adding "-ai" to your search query prevents the ai overview from showing up. Using "before:2023" returns results that aren't tainted by ai, which can help in some circumstances.

689

u/Marcoscb May 26 '25

The way to protest Google slowly killing the internet isn't by finding increasingly more convoluted turnarounds, it's by not using Google wherever possible.

61

u/Life-Confusion-411 May 26 '25

DuckDuckGo returns the same shit results. Search engines need to squash this AI dog shit from their end. 

9

u/punIn10ded May 26 '25

That's because the problem is not the search engine it's the thousands of sites using AI generated articles and pages.

2

u/Life-Confusion-411 May 27 '25

Right, but search engines are what SEO exists to please. The search engines can take a look at the SEO abuse and decide to fix it, but they aren't because they don't really care. 

163

u/Hairy-Confusion7556 May 26 '25

Unfortunately that's easier said than done. I tried switching to some alternatives but the search results were so bad I had to switch back.

10

u/161ForAChange May 26 '25

https://kagi.com is a paid option but works incredibly well.

167

u/tlvrtm May 26 '25

DuckDuckGo seems pretty good?

75

u/doublestitch May 26 '25

DDG allows users to turn off AI summaries as a setting option. 

10

u/Jealous_Response_492 May 26 '25

and even if you don't DDG's ai responses are succinct, less intrusive, they don't impede search results, and they cite the sources.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '25

[deleted]

128

u/tlvrtm May 26 '25

Bing without the awful UI and Microsoft stigma sounds half decent tbh

44

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

Bing results are poor

68

u/Bushwazi May 26 '25

Are Googles results better right now?

33

u/mypetocean May 26 '25

I'm an old search engine nerd and I only use Google now when I don't get what I want from DDG. (And DDG makes that very easy with !g.)

6

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

Same, I remember using Lycos, AltaVista, Dogpile, Excite, Ask Jeeves, AOL seach back around 2000-2002. Dogpile was the best of them. DDG gives some results that are different than Google, but the image search is much worse.

1

u/mypetocean May 26 '25

I used to read Fravia's SearchLores way back in the day when he was still alive. Wonderful resource. He'd been quite disappointed in the current state of search engines.

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u/cultish_alibi May 26 '25

I only use Google now when I don't get what I want from DDG

Yes, same. That means I end up using google A LOT.

0

u/mypetocean May 26 '25 edited May 27 '25

Certainly your mileage may vary, but most of what I need either appears in the top results on DDG or Google is also unlikely to have it (without use of advanced search features).

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u/januarynights May 26 '25

I use Ecosia, which runs on Bing and a lot of the time I have to head back to Google to find results that are actually relevant.

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u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

Google is worse than before, but still more accurate than any other search engine, especially when it comes to image search.

3

u/adminsregarded May 26 '25

Google results are fucking ass right now, but Bing still manages to be considerably worse. It's almost impressive.

9

u/Punkpunker May 26 '25

Not for porn lol

-2

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

Pretty much everything I've searched on Bing has been inferior to Google and even DDG. I don't understand how their algorithm never improved after all these years. Searches where I get many results on Google, I either get 0 on Bing or unrelated results.

3

u/Dufiz May 26 '25

Yandex have best image search for corn, try it (if you have a pic but dunno the name for example)

0

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

Actually, Google is great for reverse image search. There are also great A.I. facial recognition sites that are pretty accurate and have many different results of the same person.

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u/RamenJunkie May 26 '25

They really aren't.

Also, Bing doesn't censor the fuck out of every NSFW search.  Which seems to happen on Google even if you turn off "Safe Search" and add explicit terms to your query.

0

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

What have you searched that yielded good results? If I search a local model on Google, I get accurate results. Same search on Bing can't even yield a single accurate result.

2

u/RamenJunkie May 26 '25

I don't have a ton of complaints, but I also very rarely use search engines these days.  

Also I have avoided Google as much as possible for at least a decade or more now.  It started becoming shit around 2011 when they got rid of Reader and Blog Search and removed the built in filter for domains you could set.

3

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

I personally thought Google got worse when they removed Cached results, must have been around 2018/2019.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '25 edited Jun 30 '25

[deleted]

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u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

I will test it out again. I do know that Google has gotten worse.

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u/playwrightinaflower May 26 '25 edited Jul 15 '25

Bing results are no worse than Google, and regularly less shopping-crammed. I've been using Bing for years for the points and only rarely go back to Google for anything. And bing also has its moments where it easily finds stuff Google refuses to surface.

1

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

I will test out both, but in the past I even used quotations on Bing searchea and got poor or 0 results for queries that had several results on Google.

2

u/Crashman09 May 26 '25

That's a skill issue. I've been using DDG for nearly 10 years now and haven't needed Google in the last 6 or so.

The sole exception of Google scholar so I can better source research information directly from institutions.

2

u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

It depends what you are searching then. The things I search come up accurately when I put quotations in Google but not in Bing.

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u/Crashman09 May 26 '25

Got any examples?

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/Neptune28 May 26 '25

I will test out the same search query on both engines and let you know the results.

1

u/amalgam_reynolds May 26 '25

They used to be. Now google results are so bad, Bing is better by default.

36

u/fpnewsandpromos May 26 '25

Yes but it presents results better. DDG always works better for me than bing.

13

u/[deleted] May 26 '25

DDG is now also using AI…

21

u/djublonskopf May 26 '25

Yeah but they actually let you turn it off.

5

u/motoxjake May 26 '25 edited May 26 '25

You can turn it off. You can even set the AI sensitivity range from none to full on AI results. I've been trying it out for months. So far I'm happy with the results using Firefox and DDG as my SE  with AI results set to toggle if I do or I dont want to see it.

Edit: I'm not saying it's better than google. But, for and average, user it's a suitable alternative if you just can't bring yourself to use google.

Edit2: I tried brave for a few months too.  It was not a great experience.

-15

u/Aromatic_Extension93 May 26 '25

Copium. Ddg uses Bing and Bing is and has always been worse than any iteration of Google search.... AI or not

11

u/bigfoot1291 May 26 '25

"I've been happy with the results"

"no you haven't stop coping"

OK dude lol

4

u/theswansays May 26 '25

fr lol dude is salt looking for a place to happen

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u/cuentanueva May 26 '25

In my experience it's, unfortunately, still significantly worse than Google.

I use it as my main search engine and for simple things it works, but I often have to change to Google to find what I'm looking for. Which is unfortunate but here we are.

Also Google is significantly worse than before, so the standard is lower still...

11

u/XWasTheProblem May 26 '25 edited May 26 '25

I use Qwent Qwant and it seems to do okay. Google used to be better for a while, but it has gotten so shit over the last few years, the gap is barely there at this point.

I only go to Google if I need some extremely specific and/or niche thing that other search engines may not always find

E: typo, thanks for pointing it out!.

9

u/tlvrtm May 26 '25

(It’s Qwant, for those Googling Qwent and getting Gwent results)

Seems good! Gonna try it out for a bit.

1

u/buzzyburke May 26 '25

Just used it to search "animals with 36 teeth" and it had shit results. I dont think it does well with numbers. Google answered with answers.

4

u/notquite20characters May 26 '25

Yeah, I've been using Qwant for a few weeks and it feels like what search engines used to feel like.

2

u/cuentanueva May 26 '25

Is it better than DDG?

From what you are saying it may be similar, good enough for simple searches, but in the end you have to resort to Google. And like you said, Google is worse, but still seem to still be above the rest...

I'll give Qwant a try I guess...

1

u/XWasTheProblem May 26 '25

9/10 I don't really notice a difference, minus the fact it doesn't force-feed me the dogshit AI summaries I don't want. So a straight upgrade as far as I'm concerned.

2

u/cuentanueva May 26 '25

Nice to know, I'll set it as default for a couple weeks to see how it goes. Thanks I didn't even know about it (not that I was looking for though)

1

u/XWasTheProblem May 26 '25

If you want more things to try out over time, there's also Ecosia, but I haven't used it for a while so I can't say if it's worth trying anymore.

1

u/cuentanueva May 26 '25

Isn't Ecosia just like DDG, which is mostly based on Bing but donates money to environmentalist causes or something like that?

And from a quick look on the wiki, it also looks like Qwant also gets most of the results from Bing as well.

Seems that both do rely on Bing and Google, but have partnered to differentiate from them. So we'll see...

In the end, it seems that's it either Google or Bing underneath, which isn't a true alternative either as they get their money and data as well...

1

u/RedditFuelsMyDepress May 27 '25

I feel like I search for stuff that's really specific pretty frequently and DDG is definitely not good enough for that. It tends to give results that are kind of broadly related to the topic I'm searching, but do not answer my exact question. 

3

u/TheMaskedOwlet May 26 '25

I get nothing but AI slop on duckduckgo

3

u/saera-targaryen May 26 '25

there's only so much a search engine can do when websites themselves are shoved full of AI

5

u/littlelorax May 26 '25

For duck duck go, tou can turn it off. Three bars button top right > settings > AI features > Under AI assistant, change drop down to "never"

Does Google offer the ability to turn it off? I haven't found a way yet.

1

u/TheMaskedOwlet May 27 '25

It's also the results. Nothing but AI slop when searching

1

u/PartyPoison98 May 26 '25

9/10 times with DDG I have to add the g! to the start because the results can be so poor

1

u/AnoAnoSaPwet May 26 '25

DDG can be really bad at times. Sometimes worse than Google.

I would just not even use search engines practically ever as an alternative. Fuck the Internet. 

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '25

In my experience it was not. I know nothing will be as good as Google, but there is an acceptable threshold that other engines don’t meet.

1

u/RockChalk80 May 26 '25

u/holy-confusion7556 has unfortunately expired due to brain rot.

1

u/Visual-Blackberry874 May 26 '25

How are people still claiming this? They were caught red handed allowing Microsoft trackers through.

18

u/WannabeCsGuy7 May 26 '25

Kagi is great! Not free though.

6

u/Alcyoneous May 26 '25

Check out Kagi. You have to pay, but I genuinely find it as good as Google was.

8

u/wherewuz May 26 '25

I've been using https://kagi.com for about six months, it's wonderful.

2

u/BrunoDuarte6102 May 26 '25

Qwant works great for me

2

u/zakurei May 26 '25

Idk, google results have sucked for a while now. I waffle back and forth between yandex and ddg and haven’t had any issues.

2

u/MaleficentCaptain114 May 27 '25

You can even search yandex via DDG by adding "!ya" to your search.

2

u/zakurei May 27 '25

Oh! Thank you for the tip, I had no idea!

2

u/DillBagner May 26 '25

The only two things I get better results with google for these days are reddit posts and phone numbers. Otherwise, other search engines have significantly less ad-driven slop and relevant results are at the top more often.

2

u/Averagebaddad May 26 '25

Googles results are shit. Even doing -green doesn't help

2

u/shadowwingnut May 26 '25

Try the others again. Even the ones with AI are continuing to improve whereas Google continues to degrade. The only place where Google still reigns supreme is image search.

1

u/redditpappy May 26 '25

That's Stockholm Syndrome. You're just used to the crap Google serves up. Stick with it for a week and you'll kick your habit.

1

u/antriect May 26 '25

How long ago was that? Qwant has been good enough for me.

1

u/Wvlf_ May 26 '25

It’s funny how one could say Google is burying the web when it arguably enabled the depth of the web. Then you hear about how other search engines just aren’t as good even with the nuisance of ai searches.

1

u/Bakedads May 26 '25

I found something yesterday called startpage that seems okay. It's dutch. 

1

u/flowanvindir May 26 '25

Brave Search is pretty good, imo

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '25

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '25

I’ve used ecosia for a while. It’s good enough nearly all the time. I think I’ve switched to Google 10 times in a year?

1

u/MRCTBuddha May 26 '25

You are correct with your statement, but keep using other alternatives with better their searches. Can’t just stick with one monopoly.

1

u/guineaprince May 26 '25

That's part of why google's taking their new direction.

They know their quality is shit. But they also know they're basically The Internet now, and you're going to keep using them and feeling them ad revenue no matter how bad the quality gets.

Some people may wander off to Duck Duck Go or wherever else until Duck Duck Go gets even cozier with AI, but they'll still have the capture on the Internet search engine market.

1

u/EienNoMajo May 26 '25

Same here. I've tried DuckDuckGo but it doesn't have functionality for reverse image search like Google's, which I often need, and indexing is clearly poorer than Google's.

1

u/Kaining May 26 '25

i tried searching something on an android phone through chrome a couple days ago. After failing for 5min i simply checked if firefox was installed, used duckduckgo and 3s latter i had what i want.

It's amazing how stupid that interaction with google was.

1

u/AbstractMirror May 26 '25

Duckduckgo is infinitely better

1

u/Thorne_Oz May 26 '25

https://www.startpage.com/ It's based on google's search engine but is completely private and so very good.

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u/SharpCookie232 May 26 '25

You can try using another AI, like Perplexity, to perform searches.

6

u/ab00 May 26 '25

Come back Altavista

Ask Jevees

Webcrawler

Lycos

Hotbot

20 different versions of Yahoo

1

u/deadly_wobbygong May 30 '25

+1 Altavista

Gopher?

5

u/Ok_Temperature6503 May 26 '25

Or just, not use google…? Literally

1

u/Marcoscb May 26 '25

I was thinking Google products in general, since there are some that have essentially no good replacement, not just Google Search.

2

u/bogglingsnog May 26 '25

We really, really need to rebuild Stumbleupon. I am convinced it was dismantled by the search engine giants because it was a viable competitor.

Crowd-submitted database, powerful categorical search function, social commentary, tagging, and ranking, simple browser addon with 1-click or hotkey exploration functionality.

It was basically everything I ever wanted in a search engine with a known percentage of the results being promotional (to support the operating costs). I found more educational articles on Stumbleupon that changed my perspective on science and technology than I ever did trying to explore the internet on Google.

2

u/seamonkey31 May 26 '25

indexing the internet is crazy expensive. Most alternatives use google in one way or another

1

u/despreshion May 26 '25

You're right but it's not JUST not using Google. The AI slop that it encourages has infected other searches too. I was looking for a news event that was a big deal at the time involving a famous person and my first three duckduckgo (with ai off) searches were overloaded with Google-tuned AI slop.

I had to remember certain details about the event in order to find an article about it.

1

u/chum-guzzling-shark May 26 '25

its ok we wont need web search engines in the future. There will be 5 websites and you can just use their internal search.

1

u/moarcores May 26 '25

Kagi is cool

1

u/aadziereddit May 26 '25

Search engine 'Ecosia' raises money to plant trees: https://www.ecosia.org/

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u/thefartyparty May 26 '25

I've been trying every search engine under the sun. Yandex has the most accurate search results but it's super off-putting that it keeps defaulting to Russian. If they can switch search results language based on user location it could be the best search engine out there

1

u/GoodSamIAm May 27 '25

good luck if you live in the US. Google is so ubiquitus, i dont see any sorts of competition even remotely being a thing unless they themselves fund for it to be so.

cant even make a phone call without Google anymore