It is clear that the signal to noise ratio of the WWW is getting worse. It's much harder to find good content when using a good old search engine. And if it's good it is usually hosted on Reddit or Stackexchange.

So remember, even if it's easy too Google something (well, it isn't nowadays), we want to create a fediverse of good content that helps people (I hope). So, it's always better to write a real answer if you have the time and energy. Please help boost the SNR and reverse the AI fueled information degradation loop.

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[–] Philosofuel@futurology.today 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I've noticed that a lot of people are just really bad in using the right searching terms, and then quickly shifting through all the info to find the right information. Googling well truly is a skill. Though be it a strange one.

[–] K4mpfie@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Same! Had a discussion recently with a guy searching about gun law in Austria for 3D printed weapons. He showed me his Search Query. Didn't even include the word "Law". People just really forgot how to properly query search engines.

[–] nepenthes@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I was going to bring up card catalogues and microfiche, but it is more difficult now, especially with all the AI written articles popping up a la carte as top results.

I guess it would be like the physical library having a fee^1 to enter, the librarian men and women in lingerie and banana hammocks, and all the publications unsorted: Fiction and Non-Fiction together with celebrity magazines, The National Enquirer, and nazi publications.... and lots of torn out pages.

^1 Fee replaces ads. I'd rather not picture a world where the advertising in the show Maniac exists. (Can't afford the bus? The ad-reader shows up and speaks ads at you until you have "earned" the $1.25, or whatever.)

[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world -5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's not even much of a skill anymore now that there's so much focus on natural language question and answer. You can straight up Google "how do I X?" And get a relevant answer for just about anything.

Edit: I'm not even talking about generative AI here, googling simple questions without using AI worked well before the AI craze.

[–] soul@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That's not exactly true. The AI answers are often wrong or incomplete. You still need skill, it's just that the required skill has shifted to accepting this is true, recognizing when the AI answer is not complete and correct, (which can be more difficult due to the answers often being seemingly correct, yet slightly wrong or incomplete), and then doing what you'd do in any other search that nets poor results: adjust and search more or dig further down the given results stack.