Google rolled out AI overviews across the United States this month, exposing its flagship product to the hallucinations of large language models.

Google rolled out AI overviews across the United States this month, exposing its flagship product to the hallucinations of large language models.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
    2713·
    6 months ago

    The head of Google *Search right now is the same guy that was head of yahoo search when it was dying. To put all of this in perspective.

      • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
        1051·
        6 months ago

        Thanks.
        Being a CEO must be amazing. You can fail and even bring an entire company down, and keep on getting the same job somewhere else.

        • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
          291·
          6 months ago

          He has experience and obviously that means he learned a lesson after failing at a job that requires being a belligerent asshole to get.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          41·
          6 months ago

          Of the company doesn’t even have to collapse, you just have to make it seem like it did. Lehman Brothers didn’t go bankrupt in the sense of the word a normal person thinks. If you or I go bankrupt it means ramen for dinner for the next decade. For Lehman it was just a strategic move.

        • habanhero@lemmy.caEnglish
          1315·
          6 months ago

          I get your point but from a business perspective Google is doing pretty well (see last quarterly earning and they announced dividends for the first time). It’s good to be a shareholder and from that perspective the CEO is doing a good job.

          Time and time again markets have shown, within reason, poor user experience and anti-consumer policies do not negatively impact stock price.

          • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
            251·
            6 months ago

            Well not when it’s a company that people can’t get away from. Big tech is so big and there are so few alternatives that they can treat people how they like.

            We are living in the mega corp world now where they have more money than countries.

            Money is power to make the rules what you want.

            • habanhero@lemmy.caEnglish
              9·
              6 months ago

              Yes, again I’m not saying that’s how it should be, I’m saying what is.

              Enshittification won’t be a thing if actual user experience matters as much as we like it to in business.

          • exanime@lemmy.todayEnglish
            221·
            6 months ago

            It’s relatively easy to squeeze a profit boost by sacrificing long term vision… Last quarter will mean nothing if Google is knocked from its pedestal in a year or two (which is what the current trend looks to be pointing to)

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
              34·
              6 months ago

              Yeah I want evidence for this. Please show me something that is even approaching the power of AdSense. Then do it for everything else they own. YouTube, Google maps, gmail, Android, the play store, etc.

              It’s this weird thing I see on lemmy “well I stopped using a product therefore it is dead”. News flash: Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons and Meta has a capitalization over half the countries of earth GDP.

              Problems don’t go away because you have decided to ignore them.

              • exanime@lemmy.todayEnglish
                3·
                6 months ago

                What you are stating is nowhere near the point I was trying to make.

                We have seen a million times how a company can be destroyed for short term gains… Most recent public example is red lobster

                I have no clue if this is what’s going to happen to google… But my point was that have a good last quarter (the one associated with the new head of Search) is not an indication that his strategies will pan out … In fact, everything he touched before went the same way, short term profit, long term demise

              • habanhero@lemmy.caEnglish
                1·
                6 months ago

                To be brutally honest, many times I see Reddit / Lemmy proclaim, “Product X is dead because it did Y” - these claims are usually followed by surges in revenue / stock performance by said company and soon no one really talks much about it. Example - Netflix Password crackdown.

              • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
                1·
                6 months ago

                Seriously, most of the internet still uses that ban happy nonsense that is Reddit. I hate being referred then when I have problems, m,y account was perma-suspended over bullshit!

              • mint_tamas@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                6 months ago

                FWIW they are cannibalizing ads right now with AI summaries, since people will navigate less to websites (in the world where they are useful, which they don’t seem to be at the moment).

            • habanhero@lemmy.caEnglish
              7·
              6 months ago

              Sure but Google Search has been crappy for many quarters.

              I’m not saying thats how it should be, I’m just pointing out what is.

    • egeres@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      6 months ago

      That argument it’s fallacious and reductionist, I’m not denying the situation it’s messed up, but objectively speaking we all have 0 idea about who’s making what decisions and how this google search shitstorm was caused

      • Dayroom7485@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        I dislike the entire article. Of course google search still works just fine. Claiming otherwise is only possible by magnifying a small, admittedly disfunctioning part of google search.