alt Hacker NewsMy father is 75. He often says with a smile, “Let’s just Google AI it.” The smile is because he thinks he’s cutting edge. He hasn’t been cutting edge for 30 years, but Google has made AI so accessible through his existing search habit.
I imagine their retention data through this uncanny valley transition is very good.
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"He hasn’t been cutting edge for 30 years, but Google has made AI so accessible through his existing search habit."
Maybe his smile is because he remembers how crappy search was 30 years ago.
Dogpile is still around. https://www.dogpile.com/
I remember my friend’s dad saying proudly how his computer came with Microsoft Copilot, back when the branding had only existed for like 6 months at most.
It's pushed me away from nearly all google products and subscriptions, but I wonder about other people, as I'm not a typical user. The times I do go to google out of habit or DDG is providing its atrocious results, it never understands the intent and hallucinates half the time on top
I've since given my agent access to Exa, Tavily, and SearXNG so it can filter through today's low quality search results for me, search as we knew it is dead. I don't mind paying either if it leads to more alignment with my providers.
It genuinely makes some searches that were impossible, possible. I was looking for a website that had a similar name and character to another but had an adjective at the start, I had forgotten the name. I just searched something to the effect of "site similar to X but has an adjective that starts with A" and it actually found what I wanted.
Literally impossible before. When it works it's like magic.