Mastodawn

PatsyBaloney 4d ago

New site: google just killed search https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/

yeah, we know. We saw a massive drop in SO/Wikipedia traffic over the last 2 years, so yday's announcement was just closing the deal. Google has officially killed the web that was made of links. It is now a giant box that steals web pages/images/videos from all websites and pretends to know everything with its model and weights often with lots of wrong information. I hope this madness leads to a better search engine and EOL of Google.

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

TechCrunch

@nixCraft @kagihq kagi maybe?

@nixCraft "Giant box that steals web pages" is accurate as far as it goes -- but Google isn't dying, it's eating the web and becoming the web. The ten blue links were at least a map. What replaces them is a curator with no obligation to show you the source. The sovereignty question isn't whether Google survives -- it's who controls what you're allowed to find.

@alan @nixCraft yeah that is the main problem.

Ther are still alternatives, but who is going to use them? Is few years that i'm using duckduckgo as a search engine, but all the other people I know are still relying on google.
I managed to migrate few friends chats and group to signal, but then too many other are left on the other side. So the main problem is how to persuade the average users to switch.
This is the big challenge, and pretty hard to achieve in my opinion.

Roman Kolesnev 4d ago

@dreamos82 @alan @nixCraft

Big companies die form a thousand cuts.

Today it's much easier to convince people switch to Kagi than 10 years ago. It's easier to have meaningful connections on Mastodon/fedi than 5-10 years ago.

Internet is not dying. Some part of it is definitely rotting, agree. The most popular part, unfortunately. But you still can do Indie Web dives and find awesome things.

@ffloyd @alan @nixCraft Yeah I totally agree on that!

Fediverse now is at least a steady alternative, lemmy as well. And i'm using only them.

But is still hard to presuade average people, although I agree nowadays it's easier.

I'm trying to give my little contribution, moving few friends and groups toward alternatives.

But I really hope that big corpo see numbers start to go down, like it was happened with fb recently, and not being an isolate thing, but becoming a trend.

grrl_aex 4d ago

@dreamos82 @ffloyd @alan @nixCraft

Meta is still the largest social media platform, with only youtube as a rival. tiktok is 1/10 the size of meta.

90% of search traffic goes thru google search. 90% goes thru pre-installed browsers. Pre-installs rule because the vast majority of people are lazy.

OS same-90% win, android and apple, mobile and desktop.

This won't change much because big tech's market capture is complete. Any serious competition is simply bought out.

Yes this is sad & scary.

@kitkat_blue @ffloyd @alan @nixCraft Yes but apparently the EU DMA is bringing some results https://www.osnews.com/story/144954/the-data-is-abundantly-clear-the-eu-digital-markets-act-is-working/
When there is a choice, more users tends to opt for other software.
I know this is a very tiny fraction of their user base. At least is a starting point.
Maybe if everyone of us will start to move few friends toward alternatives (i.e. signal, mastodon). All tiny numbers will add up.. But what if europeans start to propose laws forcing adoption of EU alternatives even as OS?

The data is abundantly clear: the EU Digital Markets Act is working – OSnews

ItsComplicated 4d ago

@alan @nixCraft

If you control all the information, you can control the future.

@alan
Every time I try to do something on the web, and it will only work on Chrome, I hate it a bit more.

פְּרִי 3d ago

@alan @nixCraft not just what you are allowed to find, but there's no of ramp. It AOL, a guilded trap

Deven Phillips 4d ago

@nixCraft Thanks, I hate it! 😭

@nixCraft #books

@nixCraft
Hear hear: “I hope this madness leads to a better search engine and EOL of Google.” 🙏🏻

jzakotnik 4d ago

@nixCraft will be interesting how they’ll make money. A sponsored link was easy to understand by users. If they sneak in ads in their AI results, and this is not transparent, hopefully people will lose trust in the results and go to something else

The Lunatic Martin 4d ago

@nixCraft I have been using Mojeek for about a year now. It works for me.

Zeka Parıltısı 4d ago

@nixCraft there's nobody to stop corporations since they have bought out all the world's governments

Lyon Leshley 4d ago

@nixCraft Just install SearxXNG on your computer or server.

Carlos Solís 4d ago

SearxNG is a search aggregator, not a search engine by itself. There are several search engines that we can rely on besides of Google, but we still depend on proprietary services being around. Closest thing to an open-source engine alternative is YaCy, and that relies on random users being willing to both use their bandwidth to crawl websites regularly, and store the hundreds of gigabytes of data this generates.

@nixCraft Stopped using Google Search back in 2015. Never looked back. DuckDuckGo, Startpage or Qwant are awesome search engines that have delivered everything I needed.

@nixCraft I think you're mixing up two things: AI search hurting traffic economics for the open web — real concern.

The old search already became miserable years ago because of SEO sludge, content farms and keyword voodoo.

LLMs understanding intent instead of forcing users to guess magic keywords is actually a huge UX improvement.

The challenge is preserving incentives for open knowledge, not preserving "10 blue links + SEO warfare" forever.

So let's agree to disagree. 😘

@isbm @nixCraft

If the only search experience you've ever had is Google, then sure, you do you. But it was out-paced by other providers with better results years ago, and as such your description and resulting conclusion is flawed and out-dated.

Ariaflame 4d ago

@isbm @nixCraft They don't understand intent. They're not intelligent. They don't know what you want. They just have statistical models that predict what the average person might want. Whether it is what you want is irrelevant.

@ariaflame @nixCraft correct. LLM is just that: a huge index of cr@p. So to use it as a search engine is actually a good and correct thing. The other problem is that they (providers, Google in this case) will basically use it to enforce paid content and promote products. This will entshittify this much faster. But from the pure technology perspective it is actually a correct move.

Joaquim Homrighausen 4d ago

@nixCraft Yeah, and then sites keep doing this, which may be another reason many just go G00GLE and ask their "AI" ... 🙄

I wonder if any of those ads may, perhaps, in a distant universe, be tracking visitors ... 🤔

diana 🏳️‍⚧️🦋🌱4d ago

@joho @nixCraft

I just disabled JavaScript for that site and looks perfect and loads fast.

Joaquim Homrighausen 4d ago

Yeah, ain't it grand 😎

Mensch, Marina 4d ago

@nixCraft Wasn't there an initiative to build a European Search Engine - open source?

FinchHaven sfba 4d ago

People really need to put some effort into expanding their horizons:

Firefox browser tab, DuckDuckGo with the NO AI option turned on for all searching

Viz: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind.

The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

DuckDuckGo

@FinchHaven @nixCraft
"Just order a pizza from DuckDuckPizza with the NO GLUE option turned on".

Why is there a glue option in the first place? And why would I want to eat anything from a place that serves pizza with glue?

FinchHaven sfba 4d ago

DuckDuck Pizza: "It sticks to your ribs!!"

primeapple 4d ago

@leeloo @FinchHaven @nixCraft Because glue gets you funding right now. Easy as that.

𐁂𐀑𐀐𐁐 4d ago

@nixCraft Bright side, Google has gotten bad enough that nothing of value has been lost.

Albert Cardona 4d ago

Aren’t they saying, in the absence of web search, use web rings and human-curated indices/directories of relevant pages? Didn’t work that badly back in 1998. Was a lot more local too.

Wikipedia, OpenAlex, ORCID, web archive, and many other repositories have their own search engines. A link to these online resources may suffice. And regionally focused efforts to relate e.g. businesses with locations of a map like @lokjo does also help.

Perhaps all we need to do is ignore Google and move on?

Albert Cardona 4d ago

@nixCraft @lokjo

The indie blog initiative is a good one too: https://mathstodon.xyz/@indieblog@indieweb.social

As is the humans.txt for personal web pages https://humanstxt.org/

Mathstodon

Joshua McNeill 4d ago

@albertcardona @nixCraft @lokjo If the sort of people who join the fediverse start ignoring Google, Google will still be perfectly fine, because the vast majority of the world probably doesn't even know other search engines exist and doesn't care either. The result is that, from now on, anyone who produces anything useful on the web is essentially strengthening Google. I don't personally think there's any way to stop big AI companies from ripping people off and controlling all information access

Joshua McNeill 4d ago

@albertcardona @nixCraft @lokjo Or at least, there's no stopping AI companies other than through laws that regulate them, but legislators are by and large too ignorant about technology to do that properly

Rat Sammich 4d ago

@nixCraft
This is why I use alternative search engines now and when I do use google I use the timeframe options to only search before 2019.

zetabeta 4d ago

@nixCraft
how the phrase goes: everything alphabet inc touches, it turns into 💩 .

is android next !?

https://keepandroidopen.org/

is there a search box in your android screen !?

will there be a.i. generated ads in your android screen !?

Keep Android Open

Your phone is about to stop being yours. In September 2026, Google will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with them.

Al & Val's Modern Homesteading 4d ago

@nixCraft Wouldn't know. Switched to a real search engine a long time ago. One that doesn't track you, sell you ads, tell you what it thinks you meant, or use AI. Insert YOUR favorite name here....

@nixCraft Google is not a search engine anymore.

I'm using Ecosia right now, but they added AI overviews too, and have a chatbot tab. I don't know how they can claim any kind of "eco".

primeapple 4d ago

@Fedihacker @nixCraft They are afraid AI is eating their lunch (and in all honesty -> it will). So they pivot towards it.

Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸3d ago

@Fedihacker @nixCraft Ecosia claims that everytime you use it "WE PLANT A TREE".
Well @ecosia when the #AIMonster drinks all the water, all those trees will die.
Nothing "eco" with #AIShit

@nixCraft
#enshittification : search edition

God Emperor of Mastodon 4d ago

@nixCraft so: time to block gogglebot as it gives nothing back.

Or are they using the chinese "random residential ip and chrome" tactic now?

Scotty Trees 4d ago

@nixCraft can't say I really care 🤷️

NoraBell 🏳️‍⚧️🌈4d ago

@nixCraft How have people not caught on to this yet? It's been the pretty obvious goal for years.

Don't use google y'all, find a metasearch engine you like. I'm partial to omnisearch from bwaaa.monster. It searches DDG, Mojeek, Startpage, and yahoo. I'm not sure how the ranking algo works but i get way less AI articles in the results with omnisearch than using any of those search engines directly.

Home | bwaaa.monster

@nixCraft @briankrebs Kagi. Kagi. Kagi.

@nixCraft I'm publishing links (https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/p/information-for-future-envirohealers.html) here on Mastodon that interest me and I suspect will interest some others, under the assumption that some of us still know and appreciate bookmarking, and in some cases downloading, vital primary sources in anticipation of them becoming harder, not easier, to find under the AI bubble. This should take, along with my daily vanity links (https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/), maybe about a year. After that, if alive and independent, I will probably mostly be cutting cabbages and watching the neighborhood crows. How 'bout y'all?

Information for Ecohealers

Enclosure of the commons / colonialism by the rich and their corporations, or by governments on their behalf, leads to depletion of vital ...

Hyzenberg 4d ago

@nixCraft in about 5 years, I think most people won't know what hyperlinks were. Already they have apps for everything, for social media, banking, and now search.

Joshua Aspinall 4d ago

@nixCraft I want no part of Google or Meta's internet, and haven't for several years now. Things seemingly keep getting worse.

We can but vote with our clicks (somewhere else), and by educating wherever possible. We must collectively champion and build the web we want, avoiding the mega corporations with their own interests.

End rant transmission!

GSStamas 4d ago

@nixCraft it’s like we need a new internet. Can’t read the article with turning off my adblocker (not happening). Can’t wait til someone figures out how to monetize breathing.

Neil E. Hodges 4d ago

@nixCraft @Barkeep Reticulum time. :3

grrl_aex 4d ago

Whos is going to continue to build websites when gen-ai insures few people ever visit them?

Might be a good time to download wikipedia...

Neil E. Hodges 4d ago

@nixCraft Letting supervillains be the stewards of the modern-day Library of Alexandria was a mistake. >:(

@nixCraft We’re going to trade search engines for siloed expertise where each AI provider pools what they learn through interactions with their users into their individual companies’ protected datastores.

So we might have one AI provider that’s the best at C#, another at medical diagnoses, etc. And they’ll all be dependent on not free labor but labor we’re in effect paying to provide.

And, for most who can afford to pay, what we get back will make the trade worth it.

@nixCraft There it is.

https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/116605812770318671

jonny (nonvenomous) (@[email protected])

There IS NO LLM USE not associated with the project to seize all information as a product. That is the WHOLE gamble being made that is driving all those billions into getting as many people as possible dependent on the most preposterously expensive and inefficient model of computing ever devised. It is only worth it if the upside is owning the whole economy. Every step you take towards building LLMs into your daily habits and work ratchets the spring tighter on the mousetrap until, surprise! It clamps shut while your whole ass is wrapped around the cheese. Don't make me laugh with local models nonsense, if you think that those don't get deprecated the moment they pose the slightest whiff of a threat to the profit model - meta isn't releasing weights to be nice, it's to capture labor and control the tooling space. Don't be a sucker.

neurospace.live

Dr. Evan J. Gowan 3d ago

@nixCraft Is there an easy way to block Google from crawling my website? It is unlikely my site will come up in the results if they are just copying everything and spitting it out in some AI slop.

Biorreactivo 3d ago

@DrEvanGowan @nixCraft I wonder if this is useful. At least for Wordpress, there are some extensions that could be useful. These bots usually don't honor robots.txt, so I added Known Agents to detect their visits and BlackHole for trying to avoid scrapping.
BlackHole has a whitelist for listing allowed bots (from legit search engines, for instance), but mauve it's time to remove all Google* from it).