Testing suggests Google's #AI Overviews tells millions of lies per hour

A new analysis from The New York Times attempted to assess the accuracy of AI Overviews, finding it's right 90 percent of the time. The flip side is that 1 in 10 AI answers is wrong, and for #Google , that means hundreds of thousands of lies going out every minute of the day.
#artificialintelligence #gemini #search

https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/04/analysis-finds-google-ai-overviews-is-wrong-10-percent-of-the-time/

New on the Kagi Tips blog: Take control of your search results with domain ranking.

"I forgot sites like Quora and Pinterest even still exist."

https://blog.kagi.com/tips/domain-ranking

#Kagi #Search

"Kagi represents a radical, refreshing alternative: a paid search engine. By charging a modest subscription fee, Kagi aligns its incentives entirely with the user. You are the customer, not the product."

https://www.ubuntupit.com/reclaiming-your-digital-autonomy-a-comprehensive-guide-to-privacy-respecting-software-alternatives/

#Kagi #Search

> For example, Google reduced our headline “I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything” to just five words: “‘Cheat on everything’ AI tool.” It almost sounds like we’re endorsing a product we do not recommend at all.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/896490/google-replace-news-headlines-in-search-canary-coal-mine-experiment

#news #TechNews #technology #google #search #AI #LLMs #enshittification

Oh wow, and this might get worse.

"The user never sees what your team built, they see what Google's machine learning model thinks they should see instead."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2026/03/06/google-just-patented-the-end-of-your-website/

via https://mastodon.social/@SteveRudolfi/116279083767770070

#news #TechNews #technology #google #search #AI #LLMs #enshittification

Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines

According to Scroogle, 《The goal is “better matching titles to users’ queries and facilitating engagement with web content”》.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/896490/google-replace-news-headlines-in-search-canary-coal-mine-experiment

#Google #Scroogle #AI #enshittification #technology #search

Ever wonder if you're using Kagi to its full potential? Our new Tips blog is here to help, with feature guides, use cases, and more.

https://blog.kagi.com/tips

Think of a feature or product you could use a full guide for? Let us know! We're aiming to update this resource on a weekly basis.

#Kagi #Search #Tutorials #Guides

No matter how esoteric AI literature has become, and no matter how thoroughly the intellectual origins of AI's technical methods have been forgotten, the technical work of AI has nonetheless been engaged in an effort to domesticate the Cartesian soul into a technical order in which it does not belong. The problem is not that the individual operations of Cartesian reason cannot be mechanized (they can be) but that the role assigned to the soul in the larger architecture of cognition is untenable. This incompatibility has shown itself up in a pervasive and ever more clear pattern of technical frustrations. The difficulty can be shoved into one area or another through programmers' choices about architectures and representation schemes, but it cannot be made to go away.

If one were to continue the genealogy in this article from 1995 to present, one would find many of the same issues inherent in Cartesian dualism present in large language models. Like the STRIPS system Agre surveys, LLMs also generate sequences. They also must make choices among many available options at each step of sequence generation. They also use heuristics to guide this process that would otherwise explode intractably. The heuristics, or what Agre dubs "determining tendency", are random number generators and "guardrails" in LLMs instead of the tree-structured search of previous-generation AI systems. But otherwise the systems are structured similarly.

It's fascinating, but not coincidental, that the determining tendency of AI systems like these is so often perceived to have mystical or even God-like qualities. Breathless predictions about the endless potential of tree-structured search in early writing on GOFAI resembles modern proclamations of imminent AGI or superintelligence among generative AI boosters because both of these mechanisms---tree search or random number generation---are situated where the Cartesian soul would be. These mysterious determining tendencies, homunculuses of last resort, or souls are timeless, acausal factors that choose a single path from an infinite space of possibilities, and thereby direct the encompassing agent's behavior in an intelligent manner.

This is one reason why I posted the other day that if you removed the random number generation from LLMs, the illusion of their intelligence would more than likely quickly evaporate. You'd be excising their soul, leaving behind a zombie!

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #GOFAI #search #heuristics #CartesianDualism #IntelligenceAsRandomNumberGeneration

I'm an old.

I keep seeing #scam voicemail from different spoofed numbers, all asking me to call the same number:

855-357-2070

#search is slop. There's no reason to #report spoofed numbers, but I do it anyway. My #cellphone #provider swears that they do some kind of deep scrying on spoofed numbers, " Scam ID also catches spoofed calls because T-Mobile reviews beyond the incoming number and tracks actual call behavior." So how does their #spying fail to recognize these calls?

I'm getting several every day, Who can I reach out to to stop this bullshit?

Yes, I am a T-Mobile customer because my queer-platonic partner and I have a legacy Sprint contract that no other provider can beat. Because we were old when cell companies thought olds couldn't use technology. And we're also poors.

"Free" search costs more than you think.

With Kagi, you get zero ads, zero tracking, and AI on your terms.

#Kagi #Search #AdFree #NoAds

Alt...

A comic flowchart comparing "Other Search (free)" vs "Kagi ($5/mo)." The free search forces A.I. results with ads and takes your data regardless. Kagi lets you choose A.I. or not, with no ads and no tracking. By @instachaaz.

Avis aux amateurs de décentralisation ! 🌐
Je viens de valider ma présence sur @HolosDiscover. C'est le moteur de recherche éthique qu'il nous fallait pour explorer Mastodon et au-delà.
💡 Comprendre la démarche : https://discover.holos.social/how-it-works
🔗 Lancer une recherche : https://discover.holos.social/
On se retrouve là-bas ? 😉
#Fediverse #Mastodon #Search #Research

"The AI-powered scam content army is here, and it's buying Google Ads."

"Use a search engine that doesn't show sponsored results at all. I use Kagi, which is paid and ad-free."

https://dev.to/davidshortman/i-googled-brew-upgrade-and-found-a-malware-operation-5be3

#Kagi #Search #Security #deGoogle #NoAds

Great review about Kagi, and all the features that make it worth paying for:

https://dandelion-utilitarian.com/2026/02/17/kagi-won-google-lost.html

#Kagi #Search

New study: "Our results also show #AI #search surfaces significantly fewer long tail information sources, lower response variety, and significantly more low credibility and right- and center-leaning information sources, compared to traditional search."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13415

The Call for Papers for the 8th International
Open Search Symposium is open! Deadline is March 1, 2026.
This years theme is Boosting Digital Sovereignty.
The conference will be held in Berlin in October, free of charge and is organized by the Open Search Foundation.

There is also a Call for Demos to young researchers and students to showcase their innovative work using the Open Web Index of the OpenWebSearch.eu project.

https://opensearchfoundation.org/events-osf/ossym2026/#CfP2026

#ossym2026 #NGI #OpenWeb #Search

@Sascha

When I used this string Bonn social I found these results in Duck Duck Go

In that engine all seems fine. When I searched in Google I got first page hits too

From my end on Android it's ok

Please Translate to Deutsch if needed

#Search #Alphabet #Google #suppression #database #test

Kagi featured on @davidbombal's "Best OSINT Tools 2026: What Pros Use Daily"

"These are absolute game-changers."

https://youtu.be/WHOgdsEiyew?t=1018

#Kagi #InfoSec #OSINT #Search

I'm working on a website for a consulting business with a friend of mine (note: the business has two consultants but no business at the moment; this is early steps). Using a Hugo theme I downloaded, and saw that it has some placeholder text (see image). I was interested in who wrote the text so I searched.

I still don't know who the author was, but now I have a fun way to find web pages that haven't been completed at businesses, universities, nonprofits, etc.

Here, you try! Just paste the following into your favorite search engine:

in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth

#words #literature #webdev #search #fun

Alt...

An off-white-on-other-off-white rectangle titled "ITEM WITHOUT IMAGE" containing the text below, which I add to the internet to add yet more noise to the search process for the author: Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

We recently added functionality for users to manually set their location, improving the accuracy and relevance of local search queries.

Helpful for those who access Kagi via VPN and still want to take advantage of better localized search as well.

#Kagi #Search #Privacy

You searched for: "fungicide"

Best result: "kerosene 4L"

??? I mean, maybe? Especially if you ignite it?

Retail websites!

#retail #search #product #suggestion

I'm thinking about how #discovery and #search could work in the #Fediverse. In particular, using one's social network as an alternative to a centralised search engine. One option would be to index URLs referred to in posts and boosts from your network, and I actually have the data and infrastructure set up to relatively easily try that, but I'm also thinking about a more deliberate way to post lists of bookmarks which others can index.

The simplest scheme I can think of is:

1. Use verified links to connect my #Mastodon profile to my homepage (done). This is a bit Mastodon-centric at the moment, but I'm sure there are similar approaches for other applications, and maybe we could eventually have a standard.

2. Use #FOAF autodiscovery to connect my homepage to a FOAF profile (done). This is resurrecting what seems to be a pretty dead technology, but it also does seem like a useful tool for the job.

3. Use some sort of semantic web technology to link my FOAF profile to my list of bookmarks (todo). I haven't yet found a good existing way to do this. There are various library and publishing oriented ontologies, some of which link to FOAF, but none really seem right for the job. It may be necessary to create something new here.

4. Express my list of bookmarks in a standard format (todo). Again, I haven't found an obvious existing way of doing this. The Firefox bookmark export format might be workable, but it's not great, and I think we really need things like annotations and a way to share indexing data. Maybe a single new ontology can cover both of these points.

I'd be very interested to know if anyone has any thoughts on any of this, or if anyone knows of any related projects, e.g. Ties from @raffomania and @pears.

Want answers 10X faster and 10X more accurate than LLMs? Use the DuckDuckGo CLI. I'm using that today to study for a cert. I had been using a number of LLMs but they are sooooo sloooooow.
https://github.com/jarun/ddgr
#llm #ai #search #DuckDuckGo

One of the joys of using Kagi Search is that you can make your search experience look however you want.

A Kagi member created a custom theme with the brutalist aesthetics of a cyberpunk megacorp, inspired by Cyberpunk 2077:

#Kagi #Search #CSS

This is how big companies quietly steal control from users. Youtube search options then → now

#YouTube #Search

Huh.

"In addition to excluding neocities.org from search results, when we discovered the block, Bing was also placing what appeared to be a phishing attack against Neocities on the first page of search results."

https://blog.neocities.org/blog/2026/01/27/bing-block

#neocities #indieweb #websites #tech #technology #microsoft #bing #search

Bangs are shortcuts starting with exclamation points (!) that quickly take you to search results on other sites.

Learn how to create custom bangs in Kagi Search to instantly search your favorite websites directly from the search bar.

#Kagi #Search #Bangs

Using the Kagi Search Android app? How would you improve it?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kagi.search

#Kagi #Search #Android #Apps

ICE Agents Reportedly Told They Can Enter Homes Without Warrants From Judge

Topline Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being authorized to forcefully enter homes without a judge’s warrant, according…
#NewsBeep #News #Topstories #federal #Headlines #ICE #Immigration #Maine #Minnesota #Politics #search #TopStories #Trump #warrant
https://www.newsbeep.com/368349/

@arteesetica

I may be doing something wrong, but...

I frequently delete all cookies, etc. and this means the DDG AI "thing" keeps coming back. AI should never be "opt out". It should be "off" by default and stay off until I ask for it.

I'm looking for a new search engine BTW. Suggestions welcome. 🙂

#AI #DuckDuckGo #Search

DuckDuckGo's search that removes the AI overview and AI images -- this is the way!

🔗 : https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

#AI #DuckDuckGo #Search #internet

FreeBSD search: <https://www.freebsd.org/search/>

FreeBSD mailing list search engine: <https://lists.freebsd.org/search/> – thanks to @_bapt_

#FreeBSD #search

my personal #digitalindependenceday state is this
✅ #Mastodon (instead of X/Meta)
✅ #Signal (although all the other messengers are still installed because #family )
✅ #Browser Vivaldi (replacing Firefox/Chrome/Edge)
✅ #search #Kagi (replacing Google and co)
✅ local music collection (instead of any streaming service!)
✅ #Vaultwarden (instead of relying on browser, 1Password, etc.)
✅ #bazzite #linux (for the HTPC in the living room)
✅ eMail Self-hosted and #posteo (parallel to Google, removing it from existing accounts as we go on)
✅ self hosted Synology instead of Google Drive / OneDrive, iCloud
⭕️ Payment (#VISA und #paypal)
⭕️ Android

Nilch ─ A not-for-profit search engine with no ads, no AI, and supporting all DuckDuckGo bangs…

https://nilch.org

#search #internet #web #WebDev #tools #software #tech #technology #tip #tips #FediTips #MastoTips #free

CC: @yvanspijk@toot.community @violanders@mastodon.nu

#search #DuckDuckGo #Google #Bing

How to use Snaps to search through Kagi's help docs.

#Kagi #Search #Snaps

@greger Very hard to find. Both @kagihq and @Mojeek have this feature called Lenses/Focus which I find very useful; allowing you to search a specific set of domains, like online encyclopedias, small independent sites like blogs, university websites only, etc.

If I know I'm looking for hard facts from reliable sources and not generic and bloated content writing for ad revenue, I use those options.

#search #searchEngines #internet #webtools #mojeek #kagi

OK, who can explain to me why #DuckDuckGo image search results change when I switch on the 'Italy' setting (top left)? Dont say "results from Italy" because there's a Japanese Wikipedia result in there.

(This is no invitation to come tell me why I should use another #search engine.)

Alt...

DuckDuckGo image search results for "Debra Messing", setting "Italy" switched off.

Alt...

DuckDuckGo image search results for "Debra Messing", setting "Italy" switched on. Although they are different images of the actress, they are not visibly different in style. They seem to be different *random* pictures.

How search should work.

#Kagi #Search #NoAds

Alt...

Two-panel comic contrasting search engines. Top panel "How Search Works": User asks for "the thing" but receives irrelevant ads, data collection requests, and wrong results from multiple sources. Bottom panel "How It Should Work": User asks for "the thing" and immediately receives the correct result. Credit: @instachaaz

I did a basic image search from StartPage yesterday, for "Sisyphus".

Wow.

I guess it's been a while since I tried this. There are lots of famous paintings and drawings around this classic character and his story, but rather than getting a lot of those, 95% of the results were very obvious "AI" slop. Awful, shitty slop. Stuff that jumps off the page saying "No human intellect or feeling was used in the production of this image".

A few big landowners are really letting their flocks shit all over the village commons. Not gonna have much of a commons left at this rate.

#commons #AI #slop #diffusion #image #search #village #VillageCommons

If you are outraged over Mozilla putting "ai" features into Firefox, you should be just as offended by your search engine pushing, promoting, and profiting from them as well.

That is why I am giving @MetaGer a try. It ticks off most of the boxes of my search engine wish list. They respects your privacy by not spying on you, no ads, open source, nonprofit with a community led open governance model, custom filtering & prioritization, and most importantly they doesn't push a LLM onto you.

While I cannot find any mention of their stance on LLMs (please let me know if you have a source). Their social media posts seem to suggest they are not fans of it. The fact that they try to filter out slop and do not offer "ai" features is such a relief.

Since they do not have ads they rely on a donation of about €0.01 per search. I think that is reasonable. I am willing to pay for a good service that does not make me the product.

https://metager.org

#MetaGer #Mozilla #Firefox #noai #ai #Privacy #Gemini #openai #chatgpt #SearchEngine #Search #DuckDuckGo #Google #Bing #Brave #StartPage #Yahoo #Ecosia #Qwant

GAH. Gotta remember to stop using #DuckDuckGo search.
I literally searched for bookshop.org
The first hit is an ad for a different book retailer.

#internet #search #broken

Alt...

search screen with bookshop.org in the search bar (probably a typo prevented me from just finding the website the first time I typed it). First hit: thriftbooks.com (search ad) second hit: bookshop.org (the thing that is literally right there in the search bar)

Ugh, I’m getting tired of searching for simple programming answers and hitting pages that start “Python is a really popular computer programming language”, then scrolling down 2/3 of a page of guff before finding what I need.

No I won’t ask ChatGPT, that’s a whole different dumpster of wrong.

#programming #search

Microsoft has announced it is to retire access to its Bing Search APIs for must users on 11th August.

Comment from #DuckDuckGo, @brave @MetaGer and @Mojeek on Microsoft’s sudden move

https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2025/microsoft-s-plan-to-retire-bing-api-access-and-what-it-means-for-web-search

#technews #bing #microsoft #search #ai

Google is innovating search in an amazing and yet predictable way — it’s removing the search results. There will only be the “AI Overview,” much loved by nobody.

You might think the point of search was to find a thing, then go to it. But then Google doesn’t make enough ad money. Trying to wheedle an answer out of a hallucinating robot might keep you on the page longer.

Edit: Reading the Google blog post about this change more carefully (thanks @picklish@weirder.earth ), it seems more of an experimental feature than a default. I think the worry that Google will eventually make "AI overview" the default is a real and valid one, but I don't it's the case right now. If it ever does happen we will need to stop using the word "Google" as a synonym for "search" and declare RIP Google, 1998 - 2025

#IR #InformationRetrieval #search #Google #RIPGoogle #AISlop