In search of more diversity – an opinion on search engines

Google is increasingly becoming a parasite that is devouring and replacing the web. It's time to give alternative search engines a chance, says Jo Bager.

Jun 2, 2024 at 6:30 am CEST

2 min. read

c't Magazin

By

Jo Bager

This article was originally published in German and has been automatically translated.

"Let Google do the Googling for you": This slogan was used several times during the keynote speech at Google's I/O developer conference. The search engine is being transformed into an answering and doing engine that will soon be able to answer complex questions and complete tasks on behalf of the user with plenty of artificial intelligence. Sounds appealing at first.

Jo Bager has been working for c't for almost twenty years and has also been working for heise online since its launch. He writes about search engines, social networks and web services of all kinds and is always fascinated by how the IT industry is constantly reinventing itself.

But if you take the idea further, you end up in a dystopia. Google will then lure users even deeper into its realm than it already does. Who will still visit the site from which the information originally came if Google uses it to formulate an answer? Who will go elsewhere to plan their trip abroad or have a training plan generated if they can get everything from a single source at Google?

Google's robots have devoured the content of the web, its AI has digested it. A parasite is now growing in this nutrient solution that has the potential to slowly starve out its host - the rest of the web - and take its place.

But it doesn't have to come to that. The new era of generative AI has produced a whole range of exciting alternatives to the quasi-monopolist. None of these services are perfect. But let's be honest: are you actually satisfied with Google's search results?

It's just so convenient. Google is the default search engine in many browsers. Somehow, you come to terms with the service. And ignore the fact that you have chosen an advertising company as the most important gatekeeper for your access to the web.

Give Kagi, Perplexity, You.com or another alternative search engine a try. Not for one or two queries. Set them up as your default for a few weeks to get used to them. Maybe you're like me. I've been using Kagi for a few months now and am very happy with it.