Say what you will, but using "google" is just the fastest way to say "search the web." Unless a better, equally convenient phrase comes along, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
I have some triggers that make me stop reading or watching something. Using "google" as a verb is one of them. I perceive people doing that as blindly following a sort of cult, and I am not interested to learn anything from this kind of people.
Around here "google it" has been replaced by "spørg botten" which means "ask the bot" or "spørg GPT". I've been putting an effort into saying "look it up" and stuff like it instead of "google it" for a couple of years now. Looks like it'll probably be wasted effort soon though.
Even if this was true (it's not), it wouldn't make any difference to my actions. "What's good for GM is good for America" was false 70 years ago and has not become any more true in the intervening period.
Maybe you could argue that we'd be better off with big tech, but foreign state actors have absolutely destroyed political discourse in the US. It's the reason why we all distrust each other and are sliding into autocracy.
Don't listen to them, they're not your friends. And if you listen to enough motivated reasoning, you'll lose track of what's true and what's not.
Searching is dying. I mostly hear "ask Claude/ChatGPT" these days. Googling will most of the time result in wall of slop on the first page unless you search with the exact source or site hint.
I have no problem with this person choosing to use different language to describe this.
But I do have a problem with their attempt to convince others to do so (primarily in the title). This sort of linguistic prescriptivism seems in vogue for political reasons lately, most saliently in the hordes of people who insist that you must not use natural anthropomorphic language when talking about LLMs.
Okay, just so I understand you here: you are policing other peoples polcing of language and we must accept your imposition of changes to norms of policing language, currently which means not policing it, except to ensure that nobody polices it. Er, almost nobody.
I think this is focusing entirely on the wrong thing.
Non-Mac computers are still called "PC's", but IBM has nothing to gain from this. Similarly, copy machines at least in my country are called "Xerox's" but it's very rarely a machine from the Xerox company.
If you want to de-throne Google, you cannot do so by policing language. You have to build a better search (not more private! better!).
Searching for webpages, at least on google, have died like 10 years ago. Even if you knew the exact domain and words, it wouldn't be able to find it somehow. Always pushing "fresh results", changing your words (quotes or not), translating languages, etc... I tried to be smart and ruined everything that was good about it. On top of that web changed a lot and loads of content moved to private platforms. And now "AI".
It pains me that DuckDuckGo has the name that it has, since you can't even pretend to want to use that as a verb. You can use generic terms, and that's what I tend to do (usually just 'look it up (on the web)', alternativly 'search the web'), but there's good reason google entered the common lexicon and functionally replaced those terms, and finding a replacement that is as good is very, very hard.
Brave search is the best alternative to Google. They have an independent index and good UI. Very rarely do I switch to another engine. Brave does well at surfacing forum threads and the AI summary has been surprisingly good for a while.
I've been doing this since I started using Kagi since it sounds weird to say "I googled it and..." when I didn't actually use Google. I'm also not saying "I kagiied it" since half the people I talk to don't know what it is and for the rest it still sounds awkward so I've been going with variations for "I searched for it", "I did a web search", "I looked it up"...
While "google" may end up like the "kleenex" of web search, it seems more likely that people stop searching the web at all and just ask AI instead.
There's no good verb for "I asked ChatGPT", is there? "I slopped it"?
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[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 19.6 ms ] threadIt's also way past time to ditch Google (Noun), though that's an even harder sell. But, you should still do it.
Don't listen to them, they're not your friends. And if you listen to enough motivated reasoning, you'll lose track of what's true and what's not.
Well... thanks?
1. real anti-americanism, made much worse by confrontational foreign policy, but also coming from the usual hatred of the dominant group
2. state actors, but I think this would get nowhere without #1.
This was triggered by my mother Googling something on Bing.
But I do have a problem with their attempt to convince others to do so (primarily in the title). This sort of linguistic prescriptivism seems in vogue for political reasons lately, most saliently in the hordes of people who insist that you must not use natural anthropomorphic language when talking about LLMs.
Resisting force and asking to keep things as they are is a different thing than forcing people to change their language.
Non-Mac computers are still called "PC's", but IBM has nothing to gain from this. Similarly, copy machines at least in my country are called "Xerox's" but it's very rarely a machine from the Xerox company.
If you want to de-throne Google, you cannot do so by policing language. You have to build a better search (not more private! better!).
It pains me that DuckDuckGo has the name that it has, since you can't even pretend to want to use that as a verb. You can use generic terms, and that's what I tend to do (usually just 'look it up (on the web)', alternativly 'search the web'), but there's good reason google entered the common lexicon and functionally replaced those terms, and finding a replacement that is as good is very, very hard.
"Let me DuckDuckGo that for you." "I already DuckDuckWent."
Google Photos -> Immich (better)
Google Search -> Claude (better)
Google Calendar -> Apple Calendar (better)
Google Chrome -> Safari or Firefox - someone please make a basic browser that can handle 30 tabs without needing gigs of memory
Google Maps -> .... I've been seeing if MapQuest is "good enough"
GMail -> .... I think Fastmail is "good enough" - GMail's bells and whistles aren't as important anymore
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/search-engines/
While "google" may end up like the "kleenex" of web search, it seems more likely that people stop searching the web at all and just ask AI instead.
There's no good verb for "I asked ChatGPT", is there? "I slopped it"?
edit: maybe I'll bring back "bing it" since nobody would actually assume you're using bing for it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrEHTd_3vD0