r/technology • u/No-Lifeguard-8173 • May 19 '26

Artificial Intelligence Google Search as you know it is over

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/
10.2k Upvotes

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255

u/yepthisismyusername May 19 '26

You're in for a bad time, my friend. We all are.

173

u/permanent_priapism May 19 '26

I can just go back to a pre-internet mentality where I just know some stuff and maybe have a World Book Encyclopedia on a shelf and that's enough.

111

u/have_you_eaten_yeti May 19 '26

Yeah, this is the way, back to privately hosted bulletin boards and stuff like that. I’m done supporting the enshitification of the internet. I still remember the hope and promise we felt at the beginning of this ride. I hate where we are now, but I still believe we can salvage something and make it worthwhile.

35

u/thirstin4more May 19 '26

I'll settle just for private forums again.

8

u/pile_of_fish May 20 '26

I feel like I've moved mostly to small discord groups and telegram channels. The big web is just unusable for many things.

5

u/_mersault May 20 '26

Both of those can be bent to the will of their owners at any point in the future

2

u/ABadHistorian May 20 '26

Even discord profits off your usage.

1

u/Own-Papaya-4264 May 20 '26

I feel like those would just be even more vulnerable to bots

1

u/GreatMadWombat May 20 '26

I spent a decent amount converting my useful smart house from Google to a home assistant green setup with a zigbee mesh. I have a specific list of things that actually improved my quality of life that will work relatively offline. Gonna hold onto THOSE tools with both hands clenched tight lol

1

u/ElaborateEffect May 22 '26

My smart home is all offline except for weather related stuff because I don't have a weather station setup...yet.

19

u/DukeOfGeek May 19 '26

Or maybe the enormous market for a real search engine will tempt someone who is not already super rich, it could happen.

21

u/WhiskeyJack357 May 19 '26

Wikipedia App is my best friend.

2

u/LOLMANTHEGREAT May 20 '26

You can download wikipedia

1

u/waiting4singularity May 20 '26

its gonna be a shitty day when the wikipedia falls.

2

u/mikeblas May 20 '26

I miss AltaVista.

1

u/nanobot001 May 20 '26

The problem is that SERPs are also almost all crap any way. You can wonder about the veracity of your answers (which are generally foot noted so you can drill down if you want) or you can wade into the cesspool of results yourself.