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  3. Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

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  • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

    Here is where it really starts to show that this journalist is just lightly paraphrasing a press release. "Links will become an afterthought," will they? What is your evidence for that confident statement about the future?

    >>

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    nitrml@tyrol.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
    nitrml@tyrol.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
    nitrml@tyrol.social
    wrote last edited by
    #40

    @emilymbender alternatively the intended meaning could be "links become an afterthought for Google, because Google doesn't think about links anymore"?

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    • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

      For one final shudder: Pichai here seems to want to think this is helping the world somehow? Gah.

      >>

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      guillotine_jones@beige.partyG This user is from outside of this forum
      guillotine_jones@beige.partyG This user is from outside of this forum
      guillotine_jones@beige.party
      wrote last edited by
      #41

      @emilymbender
      More rubbish from Google's Pichai.

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

        Here is where it really starts to show that this journalist is just lightly paraphrasing a press release. "Links will become an afterthought," will they? What is your evidence for that confident statement about the future?

        >>

        Link Preview Image
        tiikerikani@dice.campT This user is from outside of this forum
        tiikerikani@dice.campT This user is from outside of this forum
        tiikerikani@dice.camp
        wrote last edited by
        #42

        @emilymbender And here is that press release... https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026/

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        • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

          Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

          Link Preview Image
          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.

          favicon

          TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

          A short thread
          🧵>>

          allancavanagh@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
          allancavanagh@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
          allancavanagh@mastodon.social
          wrote last edited by
          #43

          @emilymbender so… search is now Google Wave but with robots.

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • gerhardd@olching.socialG gerhardd@olching.social

            @emilymbender The good news: nobody needs #google. I've blocked all their MTAs, and resisted using their apps for quite some time. No problems so far.

            6@possum.city6 This user is from outside of this forum
            6@possum.city6 This user is from outside of this forum
            6@possum.city
            wrote last edited by
            #44

            @emilymbender@dair-community.social @GerhardD@olching.social eh, gmail is still biiig, i wouldn't outright block it (but it would be fair to send straight to spam lol)
            most of the stuff's unneeded tho ye
            there's very little that's actually needed, it's just the Default Effect + ecosystem effect

            some people do need it tho, much like some people need microslop's stuff
            usually when they're already invested, and used to things, it would be
            possible to migrate away but that would take a whole lot of effort for only moral gain

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            • S shadsterling@mastodon.social

              @romli @hamishb @emilymbender for the AI overview that precedes any actual search results, that link doesn’t describe a persistent opt-out, only a per-search bypass with “ -ai”. Which is a start

              miclgael@hachyderm.ioM This user is from outside of this forum
              miclgael@hachyderm.ioM This user is from outside of this forum
              miclgael@hachyderm.io
              wrote last edited by
              #45

              @ShadSterling @romli @hamishb @emilymbender

              Link Preview Image
              No Shit Sherlock – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

              Download No Shit Sherlock for Firefox. Filter out AI slop and social media spam from YouTube and DuckDuckGo search results

              favicon

              (addons.mozilla.org)

              Would love to know if this works for you!

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                For one final shudder: Pichai here seems to want to think this is helping the world somehow? Gah.

                >>

                Link Preview Image
                airwhale@beige.partyA This user is from outside of this forum
                airwhale@beige.partyA This user is from outside of this forum
                airwhale@beige.party
                wrote last edited by
                #46

                @emilymbender

                It sounds better than the truth. This helps Google, the ad-company, to better shape the “experience” as it best suits their paying ad-customers.

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                • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                  Not satisfied to cut people off from the important sense-making of looking at information in its context and finding and navigating different perspectives (what "AI overviews" do), Google also wants to tell you what to search for:

                  >>

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                  androcat@toot.catA This user is from outside of this forum
                  androcat@toot.catA This user is from outside of this forum
                  androcat@toot.cat
                  wrote last edited by
                  #47

                  @emilymbender
                  "rather than making you decide" is such a fancy way of saying "we've removed your choice".

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • nicoe@mamot.frN This user is from outside of this forum
                    nicoe@mamot.frN This user is from outside of this forum
                    nicoe@mamot.fr
                    wrote last edited by
                    #48

                    @Qybat @emilymbender if no one sees the ads, the companies will stop buying adspace. That's not what google wants. So I guess they will embed the ads in the search results.

                    And the web will have finally evolved to be just like television. Just a bit more interactive because you'll be allowed to purchase directly what you see on screen (but probably nothing else).

                    S 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                      More stenography here. Google starting shoving the "AI Overviews" into query results as an opt-out situation. That is, you have to take action to have them not pop up. I don't doubt they are *shown to* 2.5 billion monthly users, but that doesn't mean they are used by as many or desired by them.

                      >>

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                      energisch_@troet.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                      energisch_@troet.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                      energisch_@troet.cafe
                      wrote last edited by
                      #49

                      @emilymbender this is enshittification of the next level to turn us into brainless puppets on their strings

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                      • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                        Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

                        Link Preview Image
                        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.

                        favicon

                        TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

                        A short thread
                        🧵>>

                        scottgal@hachyderm.ioS This user is from outside of this forum
                        scottgal@hachyderm.ioS This user is from outside of this forum
                        scottgal@hachyderm.io
                        wrote last edited by
                        #50

                        @emilymbender Is this an article of press release? Either way it's AWFUL.

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                          How infantilizing --- you thought you were looking to find something that someone else wrote on the web. But woah! Now you've been "dropped into" an "interactive experience". Yeah, Google can just fuck right off with that.

                          >>

                          yala@degrowth.socialY This user is from outside of this forum
                          yala@degrowth.socialY This user is from outside of this forum
                          yala@degrowth.social
                          wrote last edited by
                          #51

                          @emilymbender

                          @energisch_

                          I stopped reading after "Google Search will drop users".

                          energisch_@troet.cafeE 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • yala@degrowth.socialY yala@degrowth.social

                            @emilymbender

                            @energisch_

                            I stopped reading after "Google Search will drop users".

                            energisch_@troet.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                            energisch_@troet.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                            energisch_@troet.cafe
                            wrote last edited by
                            #52

                            @yala fits perfectly @emilymbender

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                            • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                              But all the academic papers in the world showing why something is a bad idea won't stop companies from doing it, if it's profitable and/or fits into their quasi-religious beliefs that "AI" is the future, alas.

                              So let's look at what Google is up to now, or at least says they are, via TechCrunch as stenographer:

                              >>

                              bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                              bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                              bms48@mastodon.social
                              wrote last edited by
                              #53

                              @emilymbender I'll see you that and raise you cogent arguments about why behavioural change, not just education, are needed: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/largest-quantitative-synthesis-date-reveals-what-predicts-human-behavior-and-how-change-it Secondary reference from the APNIC blog about why IPv6 uptake has failed to reach certain expectations; which, ironically, is a part of the Internet relatively free from unwanted LLM scraper incursion, so far. The neat Hilbert curve based heat maps for IPv4 address spaces do not map so neatly to IPv6 because of the massively increased address space.

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                              • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                                5 years ago (2021) Google researchers Metzler et al put out a preprint talking about how LLMs would change information access ("Rethinking Search"). It was full of TERRIBLE ideas, and Chirag Shah and I wrote a reply ("Situating Search"):

                                Just a moment...

                                favicon

                                (dl.acm.org)

                                >>

                                bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                                bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                                bms48@mastodon.social
                                wrote last edited by
                                #54

                                @emilymbender The point that their search product was already, to use the vernacular, crap, at this point, must have been lost on them, and Sundar Pichai in particular is responsible for this, as Ed Zitron has neatly elaborated upon elsewhere.

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                                • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                                  For one final shudder: Pichai here seems to want to think this is helping the world somehow? Gah.

                                  >>

                                  Link Preview Image
                                  bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                                  bms48@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                                  bms48@mastodon.social
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #55

                                  @emilymbender Infantalism is GAFAM's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The comparisons with Aldous Huxley's seminal work betray themselves.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                                    Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

                                    Link Preview Image
                                    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.

                                    favicon

                                    TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

                                    A short thread
                                    🧵>>

                                    rogue_cells@chaos.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
                                    rogue_cells@chaos.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
                                    rogue_cells@chaos.social
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #56

                                    @emilymbender I want my printed encyclopedia back...

                                    1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                                      We don't have to buy this journalist's view of the future as already written by Google. Every time you click through to look at the actual source page you are helping to maintain our information ecosystem and build a better world.

                                      /fin (for now)

                                      tero@masto.aiT This user is from outside of this forum
                                      tero@masto.aiT This user is from outside of this forum
                                      tero@masto.ai
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #57

                                      @emilymbender Thank you for this summary and analysis!

                                      aimeemaroux@mastodon.socialA 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • nicoe@mamot.frN nicoe@mamot.fr

                                        @Qybat @emilymbender if no one sees the ads, the companies will stop buying adspace. That's not what google wants. So I guess they will embed the ads in the search results.

                                        And the web will have finally evolved to be just like television. Just a bit more interactive because you'll be allowed to purchase directly what you see on screen (but probably nothing else).

                                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                                        simpleanecdote@mastodon.social
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #58

                                        @nicoe @Qybat @emilymbender why "embed" ads when you can manipulate information in a way that curates the "search result" so it positions the paid-for "goals" as the only valid options or cast in the most "positive" light. Which is a problem when the business is motivated by ads revenue. And a bigger one when politics get involved. A reality distortion on a massive scale.

                                        nicoe@mamot.frN 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • emilymbender@dair-community.socialE emilymbender@dair-community.social

                                          Wow some terrible reporting about Google's latest horrible ideas about how to distort information access in the name of "convenience" (or something):

                                          Link Preview Image
                                          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.

                                          favicon

                                          TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

                                          A short thread
                                          🧵>>

                                          kimeragupta@todon.euK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kimeragupta@todon.euK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kimeragupta@todon.eu
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #59

                                          @emilymbender Six alternatives to Google Search hosted in Europe

                                          Link Preview Image
                                          European alternatives to Google Search | European Alternatives

                                          Google is the biggest search engine in the world, from the USA-based company Alphabet.

                                          favicon

                                          European Alternatives (european-alternatives.eu)

                                          I usually use Qwant and I'm very happy

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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