this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2026
659 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

88252 readers
6780 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
659
‘I miss old Google’: readers tell us how they search the internet in the age of AI (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago by Corvidae@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
159 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google has put artificial intelligence at the front and center of its search bar. The most-visited site on the internet still shows the same list of links to users, but they have to scroll past a summarized response from an AI chatbot, a feature Google calls AI Overviews. The change to what was once the gateway to the rest of the internet has been profound, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting.

...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Same list of links?

Since when?

It used to give you what it thought was the most relevant based on the terms placed in the search field. It was excellent.

Now it gives you: AI, youtube, sponsored links, ad links, shopping links, SEO garbage, social media links, and out of all of these there’s a good chunk that have only tangential relevance to your search at best, and then MAYBE you might get a link to a site that presents the information you seek.

Sometimes google search returns nothing at all.

Same list of garbage.

[–] iocase@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know its love it or hate it but i use Kagi. Closest thing to old Google i've found. I haven't tried their AI stuff though.

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

I do sometimes use the AI feature where you opt in to the AI overview. I've found that though the AI behind it is rather basic (same with the chat), its still decent when you want a quick answer instead of SEO slop (at least when you dont care for perfect accuracy).

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Try an AI prompt like: Give me a 2006 style Google search result of the modern web for the search "Apple Pie Recipe"

They can still do it, if you ask.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hah, I can’t blieve I’d have to use AI to get rid of AI results.

Edit: OMG. It actually pretty much worked. Holy shit. Can’t click through the pages of results, though.

[–] mriormro@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

“computah, make it like it used to be”

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 2 points 2 days ago

I haven't tried this one, but "reformat my Facebook content to look like Myspace" would be hillarious.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

My god this is brilliant! I don't use Gemini and I'm not going to do it just to test this, but I spent years chasing the golden age of search results.