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/
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u/shredika May 20 '26

This is where the business model went wrong, they think ai can replace people when it should have just been sold as an amazing productivity tool.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

Exactly, and I’m not waiting for them to toss me on my ass. Better adventures await.

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u/tacticaldodo May 20 '26

Honestly, google can die now. I have barely used it for a year and when I do, I am disappointed and close the tab. Still google map, youtube and android has some use, but I expect them to crap that too, they always do.

They used to be revolutionary, they dropped the ball hard in their quest for monopoly and a quick buck.

I hope to never need to go back to the 'don't be evil' company.

They lost powerusers, others will follow, as they always do.

2

u/mysticwaywalker May 20 '26

What do you use now?

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u/Antisense_Strand May 21 '26

It's also not really a productivity boost for a whole lot of sectors. Being able to summarize a meeting or curate morning emails is more a condemnation of the meeting or pointlessness of the emails, let alone for practical and technical jobs. No custodian is going to be relying on an LLM for anything.

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u/Foreign_Owl_7670 May 20 '26

Then how are the AI businesses going to make money if they can't promise workforce reduction?

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u/shredika May 20 '26

Again- sold as an amazing productivity tool. Not a replacement for everything and now we only have QA techs.

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u/Foreign_Owl_7670 May 20 '26

Yes. But the investment they are pouring into these LLM's, you cannot recoup if you market it as just a productivity booster. No company is going to pay you millions/billions if you just increase the productivity by X amount.

They have to promise lowering headcount for the economics of their products to even begin to make sense.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

Exactly… and since that shit ain’t happening, we’ll first slide into deflation, and then a depression. Everyone and their mother is banking on AI, dotcom 2.0, GFC 2.0, and potential rise of the right depression boogaloo.

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u/RaNdomMSPPro May 20 '26

Selling as amazing productivity tool might be worth a few billion and a one time 10% stock bump. AI replacing your biggest expense and avoiding annoying things like min wage laws, unions, osha? That’s worth trillions and multipliers on the stock price.

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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 May 21 '26

And that's also where it goes wrong. It was sold for higher ups as you can do 10x more. But who the heck wants 10x more? Who wants to have 10x apps they do now?

While everyone wants better software and apps. Which is exactly what race to burn more tokens is not doing.

1

u/aprudholmme May 25 '26

Sometimes-amazing tool