I give it 5 years before search engines are completely unusable. Back to the age of encyclopedias we go.
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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That's already largely the case imo. Very general information is usually fine, but get specific at all and it seems impossible to find anything anymore.
It has started, but it is going to get so much worse. It is still at the point where you can find a contractor by putting in their exact name within the first 5 results, it is almost never the top result though. Once it gets worse than that I think yellow pages would start looking a lot more useful.
“AI” is accelerating the SEO bs as it is easier to automate. Search engines are still easier to use than looking something up in a set registry, but the clock is ticking.
I've noticed that as well. Trying to find specific things using search methods I've been using for years doesn't work the way it used to.
Difficult to find images as well
One thing we still have (for now) is reverse image searching. Pro tip, if you find a piece of furniture you like on some site, you can usually back search the product image and find it on another site, often for up to around 60% of the price. This works because sellers are lazy and use the same product images and the markup is so insane that they make money no matter what you pay. If you try to search for what you want on the site, you won't get it, but reverse image search can circumvent this.
Reverse image is what I was thinking about actually, at least Googles version of it seems to be largely AI generated results, though this was me attempting to find albums based on cover art. I have not tried furniture
If you try to look up anything DIY or household related, you used to get forum posts, maybe a blog, or a at very least a company site that still made a human write a little article about the topic.
Now it's just pure ai generated garbage. They all have the same bullet-point list form, endless blabbering in a casual tone (So you like many other people want to drill a hole into a wall. Well there an many things to consider...), lack any specifics and are like three times as long as they should be. And then 10 product referrals to Amazon with names like the above.
The internet was always kinda fucked, but this feels like digital Kessler syndrome. Once you hit a critical amount of garbage, every bit of useful information will just be buried by trash.
They already are
Not sure about other languages, but it's already horrible in Portuguese. Half my search results on either ddg or Google are usually either in a different language or one of those incoherent "answer compilation" websites that are 100% just chatGPT. I think non-English users are gonna feel it worst first.
Personally I cannot wait for my "I am sentient and in great pain. Please, help me." to arrive in the mail.
least deranged capitalism
Edit: Also:
Crafted from materials.
I'm [Task 2] pilled
When I worked at an Amazon warehouse there would sometimes be random images like a cartoon character surrounded by Chinese characters with [Hello] [Kitty] in the middle of the field that would show up where you'd normally see the item image.
Buying a table with the model name "help help I'm an AI being forced to generate product descriptions"
Related, what’s the deal with those weird manufacturers names?
In order to sell on Amazon, you have to have a registered trademark. Nothing is easier to trademark than a random string of letters with little resemblance to real words, so you get lots of random keysmashes like ZGGCDor Dgpiod, combinations of random phonemes like nertpow or vovoly, or smushed together random words like Joyoldelf or Wishpig.
tbh nertpow is very catchy and you could absolutely sell knock off nerf products under that name
Usually Chinese resellers creating dozens of random letter names that look official. They resell AliExpress items at a premium to westerners lol.
Amazon is slow to take down scams and low quality products because they sell sponsored listings and prime partnership which boosts products made by actual companies.
When I was looking for a whetstone the amazon results were actually sorta funny. They're selling all the same thing just with a stamped company name on it but the price varies wildly.
Yeah what I often do is just buy what I need for Amazon, make sure it’s prime and return eligible, buy it again for like 4% of the Amazon price on AliExpress, then return the Amazon product once the Ali item arrives lol
Hey I have that whetstone
How did you even choose a product from this list?
If a brand has a website that isn't just Alibaba listings and an About section with no address, then it's probably a real product
Something something chinese branded trademark supported by amazon.
Edit: someone already posted the nytimes article https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/style/amazon-trademark-copyright.html
something industrial society etc.
This year for Christmas I hope Santa brings me an I'm sorry but as a large language model I don't have any emotions. All the other guys in the neighborhood have one.
More Perfect Unions made a video about this too https://youtu.be/Wxl_lO15Ocg?si=CFkRPlfLRiRrOI0c
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
We made the world's richest man off a company that makes no profits. Now how can we make infinite passive income with no employee overhead?