Without google (or any other external search engine) reddit will be a worthless heap. One key feature of reddit was that one could find a lot of good information in relevant subs. A real treasure trove. But you could only find stuff with external engines.
The internal search function was a worthless waste of bits that could not find anything relevant, even if it bit the search function in the a…
Since the API exodus, I’ve only been using Google to look up something on reddit, strictly using cached versions only (no not give any more traffic to reddit). Whenever I could only find uncached hits, I still did the click of shame.
Thanks reddit, now I can cut the last cord. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Yeah my only interaction with reddit now is if I want to read honest discussion of some specific thing without worrying too much if it’s astroturfed, I can go to google and search like “wireless earbuds for sleeping reddit”. With this change I wouldn’t even have that option available, which I consider to be the last thing reddit’s good for.
How do you view cached versions only? Is this something I can do with DuckDuckGo too?
Not sure about DuckDuckGo, but for Google you just search something (only desktop version has the option when I do it on mobile), then click the three little dots next to whatever URL you want in the results. It’ll pop up a little “more options” window. From there you have to click the little down arrow in the top right of that window and it will reveal a “cached” button to click. There might be an easier way (and it used to not be as “hidden” as it is now beneath the menus) but this is how I know to do it.
I don’t think duckduckgo has a cached view (since the results tend to be a mix of the in house crawler and other sources, like bing), but I like cachedview.com for accessing Google’s cache (or the archived instance if Google doesn’t happen to have it).
this comment is aimed at those future “just passing through” visitors, who are still on the fence with regards to the fediverse.
any internet power user will know, and be able to tell you that the internet feels wrong as of late. everything that you try to use is slightly broken for some reason. why is it becoming harder to use basic services that we took for granted 5 years ago?
unfortunately, the internet is changing once again, and it’s time to pick a side.
you can side with big corpo, stay in their walled ecosystems, and embrace enshittification.
or, you can side with the fediverse, break out of your silo, and take control of your own means of content participation.
the choice is yours.
if you like following concepts or “things” (reddit-style), then try here: https://join-lemmy.org/
or, if you prefer following individuals or “trends” (twitter-style), then try here: https://joinmastodon.org/
Oh the irony
yeah this is exactly the point lol. 😅
it’s so hard to escape out of the walled ecosystems because so much of our content is already written in these places, and so even if fediverse grows exponentially, it will still take at least a decade of content creation for “free/libre” content to outpace the old silos.
but we have to start now, to get to that future.
I mean, good journalism costs money and journalists deserve a living wage. Everyone hates ads, so what does that leave reputable sites that don’t want to just be shills?
Maybe for that specific article it’s ironic, but it’s not like the Wired web page is bothering to check what the headline it’s serving is before asking readers to sign up.
“Free and open internet” still costs a ton of money. Not everyone is able, nor should be expected to volunteer their time to provide content or services to others for free.
you’re right, and i think that the thing that is being called out in the screenshot is not the money making per se, but the doom loop that everyone is forced to experience when trying to perform any basic information lookup using the internet in 2023. it goes something like this.
- google “enshittification” to find that neat article you read a few months ago to post in a lemmy comment
- first three or four results aren’t what you wanted, so keep scrolling.
- click the result you want (beginning of doom loop)
- “we value your privacy - so please click all the individual opt-outs, because GDPR didn’t say we can’t harass you with opt-outs to beat you into submission”
- “subcribe to our newsletter! we definitely won’t leak this email to a third party”
- “do you want to enable desktop notifications for this site?”
- “this page would like to know your location (so we can serve you geo-targeted adverts)”
- “get full access to our platform for
xxxyyy price!” despite fake discounting being illegal in many countries - scroll down to start reading the first paragraph.
- “…this is your 1st of 3 free articles this month. to receive 10 free articles a month, please register today!”
- after dismissing all of this, you then scroll 2 paragraphs in, and find out actually, this wasn’t the article you needed.
- press back on your browser a few times to wade back through all the privacy spam
- scroll 2 more results down on google, maybe this next one was it?
- goto 3. (you now repeat the doom loop)
this doom loop has to stop. yes, people and businesses need to make money under the current economic system we live in. but it doesn’t have to be like this.
but you know something? we all know where this is going.
some ““visionary”” san fran tech bro startup will have the “genius” idea of offering an interface between journo websites and customers, by offering a one-stop subscription shop. pay the tech bros once, they grant you access to all sites.
not unlike how uber operates as an interface between taxi drivers and customers, or how airbnb offers an interface between short term lets and customers, or how amazon offers an interface between cheap plastic vendors and customers, or how netflix operates as an interface between media content and customers, or how…
…the wheel turns.
Haha fuck the corponet!
Sorta off topic but her voice to be is the epitome of a smoker’s voice.
I’ll see your Cpt Janeway and raise you a Kathleen Turner
I’ll see your Kathleen Turner and raise you a Nina Blackwood.
I see your Nina and raise you Shohreh Aghdashloo ( I had to Google the spelling :/ )
Lol idk her whole vibe is just Virginia slims and boxed wine. Got those grandma feels to her.
This is a terrible moment for the internet. When people look for hobby information the loss of information accessibility it might be painful, but not critical. But there is tons of information on rare diseases, drugs and supplements which can be absolutely vital for the tiny minority which is affected by rare genetic conditions.
It’s ok. It will be replaced. Everyone acts like these things are the only option. They didn’t exist before and they’ll be replaced in the future. Just like everything ever.
When a company is shitty. Get rid of it as soon as possible to make room for replacements to grow as quickly as possible.
We gave nothing from too big to fail in any arena
The most valuable part of reddit is always in the comments, as it has over time replaced forums to become the biggest central repository of (mostly relatively high quality) human generated English text data on the internet in discussion format, and even knowing this, reddit has never attempted to have a remotely decent way to search for information in the comments, as post titles can be incredibly vague or irrelevant.
This is the reason why using Google or another external search engine for reddit, because it is the ONLY way to find information in the comments.
If reddit does block Google crawlers, then it would make sense for Google to start prioritizing alternate source of open, high quality human generated data in their search engine optimization, and that would hopefully be the various Lemmy instances, which could be a strong driving factor in Lemmy’s growth in the future.
No it can’t. Which is funny
I think now is the best time to extract information from Reddit because we won’t be able to look up answers to niche problems with their shitty search function
google.com bro not 🦆 🦆 🏌️
Like anyone who knows how to DuckDcukGo still uses fucking Reddit
do Reddit admins think they have any kind of search function without using Google and site:reddit.com?
They think they have a great app without third party developers, so probably. :/
oof
The reddit search was broken for years
Are they using their own search function to find a fix?
Did it ever work?
I see people in this thread say they never had a problem with the search feature but honestly personally I always used Google
It was good for certain situations, such as obscure subreddits and google was good for others.
They both had their benefits and drawbacks.
Lol
Literally the only time I use reddit now that my 3rd party app got fucked by spez is when I Google a problem and reddit pops up as the answer.
Will I ever go to reddit and search for my issue? Hell no because their search function is absolutely useless.
I don’t even use Reddit for that anymore. If I’ve got a problem there’s plenty of forums I can consult for help, or I can post the question here on Lemmy, on the fediverse, on Bluesky, you get the idea.
I managed to get a Windows XP virtual machine working with GPU passthrough thanks to a forum MattKC (tech youtuber who does repairs and reverse engineering) had set up and posted on. Even when I used Reddit, there wasn’t much info on getting BIOS-only versions of Windows working.
are all these execs on crack ?
Hope they crash and burn
Damn still angry about that API?
It’s funny seeing the corpos implode because they had record growth, which means nothing can match it in the coming quarters and therefore they’re going to have to find someway to meet their stupid investor demands.
The only exemption is Twitter, which is just imploding because Elon is a dumbass and not because of greed.
Alright y’all, this is the moment.
Time to go to all those Lemmy Communities about tech support and coding questions, and ask away/ give answers.
GO GO GO!!!
This is the opportunity of a lifetime!
How good is lemmy/google search (for searching lemmy’s post)? It’s not gonna be good if both are bad.
Not great. I’ve found this site to be useful though: https://fedi-search.com/
They threaten to saw the branch they sit on.
Btw, greed and jealousy are cancers that eat the brain.
Are spez and Musk having a race or something?
Of they were, both sites would be gone by now. I could tank a huge site in a week. This is just incompetence.
Lonnie is a dumbass business man. Spez has no sense of (or doesn’t care) what users want. That’s what’s happening.
Fuck these unimportant men with more power than they deserve.
That’s what happens if narcissist billionaires get lauded by the media. Copycats are glory hounds and want their share of brown-nosing as well.
