Wait, if you can (or anyone else chipping in), please elaborate on something you’ve written.

When you say

That means they can engineer a solution to any problem that has already been solved millions of times already.

Hasn’t Google already made advances through its Alpha Geometry AI?? Admittedly, that’s a geometry setting which may be easier to code than other parts of Math and there isn’t yet a clear indication AI will ever be able to reach a certain level of creativity that the human mind has, but at the same time it might get there by sheer volume of attempts.

Isn’t this still engineering a solution? Sometimes even researchers reach new results by having a machine verify many cases (see the proof of the Four Color Theorem). It’s true that in the Four Color Theorem researchers narrowed down the cases to try, but maybe a similar narrowing could be done by an AI (sooner or later)?

I don’t know what I’m talking about, so I should shut up, but I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable will correct me, since I’m curious about this

What is the sound of one banana clapping?

Zatoichi approves.

Thanks! I actually misread the last line by OP (sorry, I read it before going to bed!).

The comparison makes sense now

I don’t mean to be argumentative, but I want to genuinely understand your comparison: Scottish English and American English are the exact same language (sure there are differences that can be assimilated to regionalisms), but Spanish and Portuguese are two different languages (they come from the same root ane grammar is similar, but not the same, the vocabulary is generally different (though similar sounding)).

When you compare Scottish English and American English, I tend to see a relationship more similar to Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal.

Cheers, mate!

So you’re texting while driving, uh?

We should all report you, but we’re too curious to know the source of perpetual motion that’s been powering you since May!

Thanks! So it’s some sort of guidelines Google and other search engines laid out which can be exploited to maximize visibility. Very annoying indeed

I’m late to the party and I don’t understand several things I read in the comments, so I need to ask for clarification.

What is Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? I looked it up, but the websites StartPage was giving me were not useful (probably ads or spam sites). Is finding these ads/spam sites the problem?

How is this a search engine’s fault? I mean, if the internet is now made by walled gardens and spam sites, search engines have trouble finding something really relevant, but how is it their fault?

I should add I navigate logged out on Firefox with the Ublock Origin and NoScript extensions (among others) so I at least don’t see Google’s ads.

I agree there are some searches where it’s next to impossible to find informed sites from spam ones: just a week ago I was looking for “Best Nintendo Switch games released in 2023” and I got lots of dubious blogs, and even when I got hits from IGN, GameSpot or PcMag sites, I realized I don’t know if any of these last sites are genuine or bought out (and checked the Wikipedia for more wisdom about their veracity), but how is it the search engine’s fault to not navigate through seas of crap?

When I search for academic things, Google or StartPage still seem to give me useful answers.

I have been wary about searches related to reviews about anything, but it just seemed to me the internet is a worse place now in general (because of walled gardens and spam)

Disclaimer: I’m late to this whole discussion and I also don’t understand some things (I don’t fully understand what SEO is and why it’s bad, though from the comments I understand it’s part of what’s making search engines worse nowadays)

Given that: I also made some searches where I wouldn’t get anything good in the first pages, but that seemed to be dictated by the amount of spam sites too, isn’t it?

I mean, I use the Ublock Origin and NoScript extensions for Firefox and search logged out of Google, so I don’t get advertisements, but I agree that, depending on what I search, I need to fight through large amounts of crap to find something good. Still I don’t understand (and it’s my lack of knowledge in this) why it’s the search engine’s fault for not being the best and hiding spam sites

Honest question: what you’ve described is very disturbing (having to wade through lots of bot reposts), but why would this be Google’s fault (or DuckDuckGo’s or Bing’s or StartPage"s or Kagi’s)?

I’m not trying to save the search engines since they’re also out to make a profit, but if half the internet is spam, why would this be a search engine’s fault? I mean, we can complain it’s not sophisticated enough to navigate through the crap

Fixed: added second paragraph

It reminds me of a fattened Batman’s tumbler

Thanks, I'll check them all out!

So they're all front ends or apps, they're not really alternative hosting services!

I have Android on my phone and MacOS on my laptop (I've been on Linux for several years, but I unfortunately don't have time to work on installing it and making sure everything works. Just life changes)

Apologies for my ignorance, but… What are they?

Are they front ends that strip YouTube of ads or straight different hosting websites, which will certainly incur in high costs to maintain the amount of videos posted to YouTube?

I guess I've also seen someone mention Piped. Is it the same thing as Newpipe (if you know)?

Thanks!

I've been on Lemmy.World for a couple of months and I've been enjoying it. I've switched between 5 apps. Now I'm mostly on Eternity and I'm enjoying it. The whole experience for me feels like the first few times I was trying Linux out and wasn't sure what distribution would be for me at the time. It's true Lemmy.World has downtimes, but I am having a good experience so far. I find I'm less and less on Reddit.

It's great you gave it several go's. If it's not for you now, try again in a while. Apps and instances will get better, they already have

Good luck!

I still find Slashdot relevant! It doesn't feel like it faded into irrelevance, only that it stopped growing (it reached its needed critical mass and that was it)

Edit: fixed grammar

Perhaps it was a already a washed up idea, but at the time, Freejack had a brilliant concept idea that totally hooked me at the beginning of the movie.

Then the movie seemed to have almost no special effects and to be set in a future that looked too much like the present and the cars and tanks didn’t look amazing at all. Freejack was from 1992 and the world had already seen sci Fi marvels as Back to the Future Part 2 which, defects aside, really “looked like the future”

Still, the movie had a pretty good ending with the dead billionaire stalling the hero in order to capture his body and the main character’s posing as such billionaire after having managed to screw with the takeover procedure (and making up the confirmation code), and making a mistake afterwards showing he knew how to drive (when the billionaire didn’t)

It was a deeply flawed movie with terrible special effects, but it had an engaging premise and some smart ideas along the way.