When did Google get so f-ing bizarre? – Sancho Panza’s Thoughts
I just lately had an expertise whereas doing a easy Google search that was so profoundly bizarre that it stopped me in my tracks.
Understanding this Google search expertise entails understanding a distinct segment mid-2010s basketball meme, so bear with me for a minute. In 2014 the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Dario Saric, who was taking part in basketball professionally in Turkey on the time. He introduced his intention to complete out his contract in Turkey, which means he would not come to the USA be a part of the Sixers for a few years. There was a joke throughout the fan neighborhood that Dario was “by no means coming over” which grew to become type of a shibboleth for a part of the fanbase.
I noticed Dario’s title talked about in an NBA article just lately and I needed to seek out a few of these previous humorous tweets about him from the 2010s, so I Googled merely “hes by no means coming over dario”. I assumed I might be both discover nothing (possibly I used to be remembering the phrasing mistaken) or discover previous Tweets/Reddit posts from that point.
Instead, Google did what Google does in 2026 and gave me an AI overview. These used to trouble me however at this level I’m largely happy with them, they’re generally useful. Here’s what the AI Overview stated:
Google, a search engine which doesn’t have human feelings, assumed that I had been spurned by a person in my life named Dario and determined what I needed was an empathetic digital buddy. What I needed was some hyperlinks, however that is not what Google does in 2026. Expanding the AI overview to see the complete reply gave me this:
What within the fucking hell? I believe this was the second I, the frog, observed the pot had been boiling for some time. In what universe is it Google’s job to console me and be an empathetic listener moderately than simply discover what I’m in search of on the web? In what manner does this “manage the planet’s data and make it universally accessible and helpful”? Maybe if I had loaded up a Gemini app with a chat interface this could be considerably acceptable, however I’m utilizing a search engine! Google has critically misplaced the plot.
If I scroll down just a few hundred pixels under the AI slop, Google did have precisely what I used to be in search of:
Regardless of what you consider AI or chatbots, I believe it is fairly apparent that is simply plain bizarre. Have we gotten to the purpose the place we have now to always be in a parasocial dialogue with our computer systems? Is it so laborious to think about that some components of search had been simply tremendous earlier than LLMs?
I’m undecided methods to really feel about all of this. Maybe I ought to go discuss to my buddy Google, it is all the time so good to me.
