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+++
title = "A million Googles"
author = ["Michał Sapka"]
date = 2024-09-24T20:13:00+02:00
categories = ["blog"]
draft = false
weight = 2002
image_dir = "blog/images"
image_max_width = 600
abstract = "You can't outgoogle a Google"
listening = "Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement"
listening_bcamp = "https://kamasiwashington.bandcamp.com/album/fearless-movement"
listening_img = "kamasi-washington-fearless.jpg"
+++
I have left the Google Search Engine a few months ago - first for Duck Duck Go, and now for Kagi[^fn:1].
The field is very potent now - we've dozens of different engines.
Sadly, they all follow the same formula which has been already perfected by Google.
You type what you are looking for, some magic happens, algorithms are algorithming, databases are databasing and boom.
You get results.
This is what Google was great at some 20 years ago, but sucks at now.
But why?
The simple answer seems to be "enshiftification".
They replaced their technical founders with some random seller of opium - be it ads, server space, or (more recently) GenAI.
And yes, Google got progressively worse in a relatively short time span.
Yet, no one comes close to Google in its prime time.
The web has changed.
All the principles that made Google great were discovered, analysed and weaponised against the search engine.
"SEO" is what make the web worse because your clients/users/whatever are not your visitors, but the Algorithm.
With each following round, Google's engineers would try to adjust to the status quo, but the SEO crowd would win again.
Sooner of later, the Search Algorithm would fail, and it would again be used against the poor bloke searching for the best printer out there.
It's not that Pichai came and decided to make the search useless.
His money-chasing decisions made it worse, but even without his interference, the results would get worse.
Google had the best engineers out there, and they were destined to fail.
What makes you think that **you** will win this battle?
I am in full support for new search engines.
There is nothing worse than a monopoly, even if that monopoly would be effective.
But I don't believe that simply trying to outgoogle a Google is the way to go.
We need a new paradigm.
Kagi proposed something new with manual boosting of websites and "lenses", but it's not enough to become amazing.
It's better, but not great.
It's still only trying to add a quad damage to an Algorithm.
The only reason that SEOholes are not winning against Kagi is that Kagi is invisible.
Too small for them to care.
The web they create is still enshittifieed, but it's done against Google.
Is this an accept table solution?
Well, they may have crapped the carpet, but not in my bedroom!
We **deserve** a better web.
We can even call it Web3 (as no one remembers that Web3 was to be about crypto), but it needs fresh ideas.
Simply walking the same old paths, just with a funny walk, is not enough.
And no, GenAi is not an answer, unless the question is the reason of our destruction.
Death to the omnipotent algorithm!
[^fn:1]: Thanks, Louis!
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