I’ve noticed lately that I barely touch Google when I’m trying to figure something out.
If I’m trying to buy something, learn how to do something, or even just settle a random debate — I’m going to TikTok, Reddit, or YouTube first.
Google just feels… off sometimes? Ads everywhere, SEO blogs that don’t say much, weird AI answers now too.
I still use it, but way less than I used to.
Does anybody else do this? Where do you go when you actually want a straight-up answer or solid advice?
Comments
Nowadays I type everything into chatgpt. Sad but true.
Grok is the new Google.
Regardless of how you may feel about Musk.
It’s incredible at axtuslly answering questions and giving you as detailed reasons as you need.
Depends what I want to know
Do I want to know when a game was released? Wikipedia
Do I want to know if a store I plan to go will be open? Google Maps
It’s inauthentic that’s why. Blog articles are always promoting something or have paid to rank higher in search and the advice is often generic. Reddit and ChatGPT are my go to places for answers now
I use google to find the reddit post I’m looking for, so I guess I’m 50/50? Like if I’m searching something about cameras I’ll type something in the google searchbar like “does X lens do Y reddit”
You’re right about the AI answers though. My phone doesn’t have the calendar app, so yesterday I typed what day the 16th of May is and the AI overview thing said it was a Saturday? A quick scroll below it clearly says it’s a Friday.
If im at work I use bing first. Gather points because it’s a work search query and I like Amazon gift cards.
When that fails – 90% chance it does – I use copilot chat gpt or grok depending on what I’m doing. And maybe a Google search that will lead to disappointment.
Reddit and GPT chat is what it boils down to.
Just use a different search engine.
I never use chat gpt to find something. Why would I use something that I need to verify again? . It’s just too slow. Reddit search is a mess. I am very good at googling anything because I’ve been using it since day 1. My google-fu is very strong.
It depends on what I’m looking for. If I want quick information like “how tall is Ryan Reynolds” I’ll use google. But if I want more in depth information I use Reddit.
Chat gpt. Google now is all Ads. I’ll literally type in Geico and a Progressive ad is the first three links. Waste of time.
For general looking something up, I generally use Bing, although I’m more and more using ChatGPT for everything because it gives more thorough responses and because I can have a verbal conversation with it.
The only time I use Google is if I’m searching for occurrences of an exact phrase because it’s better at that than anything else.
I’m citizen of country that has it’s own popular local search engine i switched to it as first stop long time ago (well, two others didn’t survived Google) – it works better with our language and don’t follow political (and ‘religious’) agenda of either Alphabet or US. Basically google for me now is ‘purely english search engine’.
As for social networks and forums – IMO they’re less reliable than old-style search engines (after you skip AI and ‘promoted content’ in those) ‘cos of content amount and preferred data formats.
I use Reddit to crowd source reviews, and chat gpt for quite a lot of other stuff, it even works as a search engine.
I might use google to look for stuff on Reddit, Wikipedia or YouTube
How to remove sticker adhesive.
Stickers have adhesive so they can be applied to flat surfaces.
I tried reddit ask, that seems to be able to scan previous questions and answers. I do Google some stuff.
I’m more prone to asking friends for advice, the internet can be hit or miss, more on the miss.
Though I heard of someone who faked a career as a car mechanic and fixed cars by watching YouTube videos. That’s wild though, I’d be afraid of getting bad advice on YouTube or something that I would not intuitively know that’s more obvious to actual mechanics, that wasn’t actually mentioned in the videos. But to each their own.
that is a global trend… I dont use it, and most of my friends (developers) dont use it. The reality is that most of the web is dead now.
I use bing, it is the same, with less ads (most of the time you google only a name to go to the site itself). And for complex things, I use AI (gemini, chatgpt, deepseek, qwen, etc)
I Google with reddit added to the end
I use AI far more than Google now.
You could test out ecosia and plant some trees while you search.
Never tried it personally but I know a couple of people who don’t mind it.
Not any more.
I still primarily use Google, though sometimes I’ll specifically search for a Wikipedia source or Reddit post. If I have a really specific question that I don’t think Google will be helpful for I go to Perplexity AI and look through the sources it gives me.
Often I add ‘reddit’ to my searches now just because google is full of sponsored biased and skewed results. The AI overview is helpful but I still prefer looking at reddit if I can.
Given the nature of my searches, Wikipedia or IMDB are usually my first stops. I use Google if I can use natural (non-Boolean) search terms. Or I’ll search Reddit.
I use DuckDuckGo for searching. It sucks sometimes but I feel better using it. I agree tho, if I want to learn about something, I find people with credentials in that field somewhere else, like tt or yt. They’re always better at explaining things and it’s faster.
It’s my autocorrect helper. Since apparently the auto correct that comes with an iPhone is horrible. One letter off and it’s like “no replacements found”
I use Perplexity for my Searches nowadays.
Google has the best search engine (imo), so if I want an answer on a specific website, I just type in the query then put “specific website” at the end.
Google search results give me Reddit answers 99% of the time.
YouTube is google
Most people under 20 think they can run life and country on phone, it’s all the adverts confusing them, if you want money get educated and work long hours
I would never ever choose TikTok as a reliable source of information.
ChatGPT is my new Google.
Use DuckDuckGo instead
I use Google and jump to the third page straight off.
I use google so I can type Reddit at the end of every query
Yep, totally. Google-fu has long gone. Now it feels like I’m wading through a swamp. I use Google to get Reddit links.
I switched to duck duck go so I don’t google shit.
Who in their right mind uses TikTok as their information source?!?