Google's AI Overview is just bad
My new muscle memory is to automatically scroll past it.
I hate that Google is pushing AI Overview down our throats. It’s just terrible. At first, I figured maybe it’s a good thing to get a summary of my search term that tells me exactly what I need — without needing to scroll further.
But after getting burnt on terrible hallucinated results, I’m just so done with it. If you factor in the fact that Google is using content from websites (such as ours) without really sending traffic over, it’s just another way that Google is slowly killing the World Wide Web in its drive to be an AI overlord.
Let’s be clear, AI Overview is taking information from websites, packaging it into a summary it thinks is accurate, then serving it on top of relevant search results. When it first launched, I’m sure plenty of you clicked on the “Show More” button, read, and realise that it’s a terrible answer that didn’t answer what you were looking for.
To be fair, there are times when it works. But you would probably read the information and move on, without giving the people doing the work any credit by clicking on their websites.
Is it fair? As someone who creates content for a website, I’d like to think no. You not clicking through doesn’t give us a view, which helps with ad revenue that keeps us running. We only have minimal ads because we prefer to deliver the best experience for our readers. And it’s not like Google is paying us to use our content in AI Overview.
In fact, why isn’t Google paying publishers (big or independent) money for using their content for AI Overview? After all, they are claiming AI Overview is delivering ad revenues similar to traditional search as well. I’m pretty sure soon enough, someone is going to file a lawsuit about it, and maybe Big Tech will stop trying to rip off content creators without paying renumeration. (Who am I kidding?)
So for those hating AI Overview as much as we do, feel free to get a Firefox add-on, or add “-ai” to your search queries if you’re as tired as us.
Anyway, if you’re feeling up to it, feel free to hit that Paid Subscription button and give us a monthly paid sub — it’s just $5 a month, or what’d you normally pay for a bowl of wonton noodles or a Starbucks coffee (or much less actually, thanks inflation!). It will go a long way to helping independent publishers like us stay the course. Plus, we may launch a special mini-review section for paid subscribers if there’s enough interest.
This week, we tried out LG’s super-bright flagship OLED TV, Microsoft’s answer to the MacBook Air and Creative’s new SXFI-enhanced earbuds.
Featuring a new tandem OLED panel, the LG G5 is one of the brightest OLED TVs (40% brighter than last year’s version) you can buy now. It offers excellent picture quality, is slim, premium-looking, and is great for gaming with its 165Hz refresh rate. But be prepared to pay out S$4,999 for the 65-inch model.
The entry-level Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is the company’s take on the MacBook Air. It offers excellent battery life and a premium metallic design, though some corners were cut — at least compared with the 13.8-inch and 15-inch versions — to achieve its S$1,349 starting price.
Despite having a great sound and good battery life, the Creative Aurvana Ace SFXI was a disappointment. Because its headline feature — Creative’s SFXI spatial audio technology — was surprisingly underwhelming with a distant and flat sound. But at least it’s fairly affordable at S$169.