Clive ThompsonDec 18, 2023

Man, the "dead internet" is arriving

@bhawthorne describes his recent experience searching for basic info online -- he looked for the temperature to roast hazelnuts, and got nothing but stochastic-parrot garbage: https://infosec.exchange/@bhawthorne/111601578642616056

He concludes:

"I think it may be time to download an archive copy of the 2022 Wikipedia before we lose all of our reference material. It was nice having all the world’s knowledge at my fingertips for a couple of decades, but that time seems to be past."

Brian Hawthorne (@[email protected])

How bad are the thousands of new stochastically-generated websites? Last night I wanted to roast some hazelnuts, and I could not remember the temperature I used last time. So I searched on DuckDuckGo. Every website that I could find was machine-generated with different temps listed. One site had three separate methods listed that were essentially differently worded versions of the same thing. With different temperatures. So I pulled my copy of Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook off the shelf and looked it up there. I think it may be time to download an archive copy of the 2022 Wikipedia before we lose all of our reference material. It was nice having all the world’s knowledge at my fingertips for a couple of decades, but that time seems to be past.

Infosec Exchange
Show threadJay 🆘Dec 18, 2023

@clive I think this is grossly overstated.

The first result for "how to roast hazelnuts" on DDG is Wikihow. The second is culinaryhill.com, whose hazelnut roasting page has been up since (at least) 2019 according to Wayback.

The 8th and 9th results are Martha Stewart and Epicurious, two well-known brands whose pages I would trust.

Three of these pages say 350deg; Martha Stewart says 375.

I'm frustrated by #AI consuming the web, too, but the AI doomsaying on Mastodon is off the charts.

Show threadSir Osis of Liver 🇨🇦 🇲🇽Dec 19, 2023

@jsit @clive

I switched to the DDG browser 6 or so months ago. Very pleased with it in general.

Browser aside, DDG search results are pretty solid relative to Google.

Show threadClive Thompson

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver @jsit

I've been DDG-first for over a year now -- I generally like it too

Dec 19, 2023 at 2:36amWeb