Data on search engine market share is available, but I wonder what that looks like for Lemmy users in particular, who I would assume lean more technical than the average user, so probably use DuckDuckGo and alternates more than Google.

I use a mix of DuckDuckGo and Kagi. I’ll also use ChatGPT, which can be good if you’re careful to verify the answers it gives you as a check against hallucinations. It’s useful for short, direct answers without ads or SEO bullshit.

This article on Ars (and if you’re not a subscriber, you absolutely should be, as they are the best tech journalists out there) inspired the question: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/google-admits-reddit-protests-make-it-harder-to-find-helpful-search-results

Fucking Reddit. Enshittification ruins everything.

  •  Leigh   ( @SemioticStandard@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    I think this is due to the web itself just being full of useless bloat… sites that just scrape information from other sites that scrape information from other sites. Looking for actual reviews of items? Good luck.

    It hurts how true this is. Especially for reviews.

    •  howler   ( @howler@beehaw.org ) English
      1•1 year ago

      Yes, it is tragic… and I think it is also why the reddit collapse (well, collapse for those of us here, now) hurt so bad. You could find pretty much ANY niche, and ask specific questions, and get opinions on it. It was a very valuable tool.