When you search online to try to figure something out -- are you getting a lot of generic results? Is it AI generated?

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Title says it all -- trying to figure something out online and you search for help... a lot of the web search results are generic web pages that will seem like they are helpful but they are kind of generic and vague. I think they are AI generated. Are you seeing this same stuff?
 
Here is an example of a real garbage web site that I came across when I needed to reglue a guitar bridge. https://www.fuelrocks.com/replacing-a-bridge-on-an-acoustic-guitar/

I haven't found anything this worthless when searching for auto repair help, but this is a good example of the kind of stuff that looks helpful at first, but as you read it, you can see that it's worthless!

Acoustic guitar soundboards. Acoustic guitars come with a back and a side. This type of back is made of black wood. The Alaskan Yellow Cedar has been described as having large backs. The Acacia back, sides, and tops are all black. A Honduran Mahogany back (without sides) is available. The Laurel has a pair of backs and a pair of sides.

There are no backs in these Indian Laurel Sides. The backs and sides of ukuleles are ideal for practicing or laminating. Blanks are found on the body of the electric guitar. The body of a Khaya (African Mahogany) electric guitar is Blanks Paulownia’s. The buttocks, as well as the sides, do not have a koa.
 
The pages that appear first have keywords or seo( Search Engine Optimization) that a someone added to help it come first. Not AI just optimization.
 
The first thing I suggest is to do when searching is to not opt for "all results" but 'verbatim.' Unless you choose 'verbatim' Google will try to market something to you, whether goods or opinions and you will receive search results that are largely irrelevant.

How to get 'verbatim' search results:

When you search for anything, you will see tabs with categories (images, videos, news, etc.). To the right of the tabs, you will see two more options: All Filters and Tools. Click on Tools and choose 'verbatim.' Your search results will reflect more precisely what you are looking for.

All results is the default setting, so you need to go through this rigamarole choosing verbatim every single time you want to search more efficiently.

I'm sure you all have looked for something very specific on Amazon only to be bombarded with results showing not exactly what you were looking for but something in a different color, different size, etc. They don't care what you buy. They'll throw everything at you in the hope you'll find anything.
 
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Absolutely. I've personally seen a marked increase in garbage sites with rehashed information. AI is oversold, overhyped, and will eventually kill us all.

My wife is about to go to a sci-fi convention and the actors cant talk about 80% of what they do because of the strike. I hope their protest is wildly successful.
 
There are a lot of sites that have some limited uses but provide either generic info, incorrect info, or are really a front for Amazon links. It stinks because some seem to have useful irl names and catchy info, but as soon as you read into the site you can tell it’s worthless.

And duck duck go seems to be much more succeptible to this and other worthless sites than other search tools. The price one pays for some privacy I guess.
 
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I was searching for something small engine related the other day and read a poorly done article. It was at least badly translated to English or at worse chopped up and pasted together by AI from other articles. I'm thinking it was an AI generated article.
 
AI or not, searches often give useless results. Why is Walmart always in the first 10 results but then it always says, OUT OF STOCK. Isn't there a way to filter out that result?
 
Google and most other secondary search engines like Bing and such, no longer drill down and prioritize what is the most relevant sites people are visiting and extracting the info they are looking for.

Google pushes to the top web pages that are tailored to their ad sense algorithms. There is a lot vague and generic websites that are just there for the ad space and not really to give exact detail information and just a word salad of nonsense.
 
Yep, search results are just about as worthless at this thread is in the mechanical/maintenance fourm.
 
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Another one that seems to be nonsensical...started off about pinion preload in the diff then suddenly to the rack and pinion ...
This is exactly the kind of site I'm talking about.
 
So I was staying out of this but I think it's only obvious/inevitable that AI will become the main thing with stuff like this?

It was already being done somewhat crudely with annoying sites like Just Answer that pop up on every technical question you search. Even that site with 700R4 in the url is similar-- it shows up everywhere with generic advice on codes, etc

AI will be able to take this to the next level and I'm sure it's already pretty well along in doing so. It's simply way more efficient to have AI actively trolling and compiling (mostly useless) results on the fly. I want to believe it's mostly for advertising dollars but there's a darker side, too, which I won't discuss because it's way too far afield
 
Wanted a simple answer right now, how do I get the backlighting to turn off on my work laptop. It was on constantly (not right). google it and it says FN F10, on the dell website. But my F5 key has a light icon.

It was not FN, it was alt F5. too much ridiculousness online. Because a human isn't designing things or proofing them.
 
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