Google Just ENDED Itself. The Internet is Moving On.

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-28

[00:00:03]So, it looks like it's duck duck goes moment in the sun because Google is going to blow itself up with AI search and a lot of people are rejecting Google's new AI search and they're installing duck.go. They're going to duck.go. Um, I think it's kind of funny to to watch this cuz we said this would probably happen when Google made the announcement that ev everything now with their search engine, everything is going to be basically a chatbot type thing and people don't want that. There not going to be any links to websites really. Um, it's going to be a huge mess and it's going to kill so many websites. And uh you know, we were asking ourselves when we did that other video, how did we get to this point that we had like more than a dozen viable search engines and then we wound up getting stuck with Google and then Google had a, you know, heel turn and here we are.

[00:00:54]>> Google pretty much like either bought competition out or ran them out.

[00:00:58]>> Ran them out >> and then, you know, made sure they made deals with the cell phones and different places like that so that we're stuck with them. is that that that right there alone should have been enough that there's been questions raised and now people just don't want to do it. It's coming out more where people are finding out what's going on and they're like they're rejecting it. They're like we're not no we're not doing this.

[00:01:18]>> So let's um let's talk about this because I've seen now that with uh you know the push into AI that all these companies are forcing AI on people. I don't think AI in and of itself is necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think that they should force it on consumers, you know, stealthily install crap on your computer or, you know, force you to use it if you don't want to for whatever reason. Uh, I think it needs to be a consensual thing. And what they're doing now is basically just shoving it into everything. People were choosing Linux.

[00:01:50]We saw a bunch of people going to to Linux or rolling back their version of of Windows to avoid using C-Pilot and now they're like, "Oh, we're sorry.

[00:01:59]We're going to listen to you guys." And I think the same thing is going to happen with Google. I think a lot of people are going to go to competitors or competitors will pop up that do not use AI and uh people will go with them like Duck Duck. Go and then Google's going to be like, "We're sorry guys, we listened." It's like, "No, the only thing you listen to was, you know, the sound of money draining from your coffers." That's really >> all it takes to get these companies to change. But Google is so damn big, >> like it's it's very very hard to get them to change. Same with YouTube.

[00:02:30]They're doing all kinds of crazy AI stuff at YouTube now, too. And um I don't think there are any viable alternatives yet to a lot of the services Google has. And unfortunately, we let them get this big. We the consumers let them get this big. We should have said no >> 10, 15, 20 years ago. We didn't.

[00:02:51]>> We didn't. So, here we go. So, let's talk about this. Before we get into it any further, please subscribe for more pop culture news, views, and rants, guys. You'll get a woohoo if you do.

[00:03:00]>> This is Neon. I am here with Geeky Sparkles.

[00:03:02]>> Hello.

[00:03:04]>> This is Clownfish TV. And if you want more Clownfish TV, go out to more m o.clownfishtv.com.

[00:03:10]That's moreclownfishtv.com for more clownfish TV episodes and podcasts. you will not find anywhere else. And also, if you'd like to listen to the audio version of Clownfish TV, you can find that on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, wherever you listen to finer podcasts and ours. So, there we go. Um, >> this is uh this is coming from uh where is it coming from? TechCrunch. All right. So, uh Duck Duck Go installs are up 30% as users reject being force-fed Google's AI search.

[00:03:43]Um, last week after Google announced its huge overhaul to search, I overheard a woman on the phone saying she was switching to Duck Duck.Go because you can opt out of using AI. Google isn't Google anymore. She said it seems that others had the same idea. It's funny because Duck Duck Go is like for Nazis.

[00:03:59]I remember that being a thing. Yeah, >> I just think it's funny because you don't understand. I don't think they they fully understand the amount of people, especially younger people, that hate AI. like I don't think they and then you have people that are all about mad about AI because the data centers coming in and all the stuff going on with that but a lot of people are really anti- AI so of course they're going to go someplace else even though like you said that go's probably going to start using AI as well but you know for now yeah I think they they actually walked it back I think they started to that's the same with Firefox like I know Firefox went the opposite direction they actually have a toggle that you can turn off all AI features Firefox because all in fact people were pissed when they found out that Chrome apparently installs like a 4 gig file that has an AI running on your hard drive. It's like what locally? It's like what what are you doing? Like you need to tell people you're doing that. You can't just like do it.

[00:04:56]>> Well, here's the thing for me too. Like I was I was telling you yesterday they're getting so bad people hating AI so much. I saw a Chase commercial where they were talking about um robots doing everything and the guy they would never get the stuff right. the guy kept asking for and they finally went to Chase Bank and it was a real person that was like you come here and you can deal with real people and that's that's their selling point and now is you come to us and you deal with real people. I'm like that's how bad it's gotten now having real people work at your company is a selling point.

[00:05:24]Well, because anymore I mean, you know, I just dealt with customer service today and I got, you know, kicked around from AI agent to AI agent and then I finally got somebody who's obviously from overseas and then they eventually kicked me to somebody locally. So, yeah, people are like, I I want to know who I'm dealing with and nobody knows who who they're actually dealing with >> anymore. And these companies, the reason they're doing this is not because people love it because clearly people don't love it. They're doing it because they're spending so much damn money on it. They have to justify it. They can't just >> then just take the loss because they're already finding all these companies are like it's costing way more money than it would have cost just to hire people.

[00:06:04]Then just admit that this was a bad idea and take the L and then just, you know, hire people and go back to the way you're doing. But they won't do that.

[00:06:11]>> No, they won't do that. So at IO, Google's annual developer conference, the company said it would transform its search box into a conversational engine, basically chat GPT that expands for longer queries, anticipates user intents, is going to autofill for you're not even looking for, and autocomplete searches. Rather than just returning a list of links, it will use AI overviews to answer questions directly first.

[00:06:36]>> By AI overview, I mean scraping everybody else's information to answer your questions so you don't go to their sites.

[00:06:41]>> Yeah. And this is going and we we talked about this. We did another episode, you can find it talking about the end of video game journalism. It's going to be the end of any niche journalism because nobody's going to go to your website anymore because they're not going to find it because Google's not going to send traffic to your website. They're going to scrape the content from your site, give people that information on their page, and they will never send them to your site. They'll put a little little uh footnote that this is where it came from, but nobody's going to click that. they're not going to >> they do put a footnote, but yeah, it's funny. I do when I see that, I actually go to the sites and make sure they're getting clicks because I'm like, screw you. I'm gonna go ahead and give them views. And that's what I do. Even if I don't like stay on there very long or don't use the information from there, I give them clicks because I'm like, f you Google, sorry, but I do.

[00:07:28]>> So, yeah, it's uh it's good for Google, it's bad for publishers. I know, you know, we've talked before that we had uh well still have, but they're definitely in the diminished state several, you know, pop culture niche related websites and um our advertising network has been sending out panicky emails pretty much every other day at this point. They're like, well, here's what you could do to maybe play nice with Google and maybe you'll get a crumb from Google.

[00:07:54]>> They were one of the better ones, too.

[00:07:55]>> They were one of the best out there.

[00:07:57]Yes. And we've had them for years and I have never seen this level of panic.

[00:08:02]Like normally we would not hear from them. Maybe once a year you'd get something. Couple times a year like, "Hey, we got a new feature, whatever.

[00:08:08]We're working with this company. Okay, whatever." But now they're like every other day like, "Okay guys, if if you try this, maybe it'll work. If you try that, maybe it'll work." Because they have to be looking at their prospects and they're like, "Well, damn. We're in the business of putting ads on websites.

[00:08:22]And if nobody's going to be going to websites anymore, we're cooked, man."

[00:08:26]>> Mhm. like we're cooked. And uh a lot of publishers, this is why you're seeing all these fire sales like BuzzFeed and I guess Vox and Vice and all, they were already in a bad place before, but they're all going to collapse because they're not going to have any traffic.

[00:08:40]It's >> Buzzfeed's going all in on AI animation now. So, that's a whole another story.

[00:08:45]>> That's a whole another Yeah, that's a whole thing. They're trying to pivot into It's like whatever. Good luck with that.

[00:08:52]Uh he said, "Well, a Google spokesperson noted that AI overviews have existed for two years and AI mode is not the default. The backlash has been They're going to >> AI overviews existed for two years and right then is when all the websites crashed and everybody started and it got worse every few months when you guys would roll something else out to put more into AI. As somebody had websites, that's that's when everything went to the crap.

[00:09:13]>> Yeah. Two years ago two years ago, >> we had websites that were like clockwork. we could predict about how much traffic we were going to get every month. I mean, we'd have spikes and dips here and there, but for the most part, it was consistent for years. I mean, we've been running websites, monetized websites since like 2008. And uh and you know, I was comparing notes with other site owners and some some of these guys own like major sites and I was talking and they're like, "Yeah, this is like we have never seen anything like this and we don't even know how to course correct." And that was before this. This is the kill shot, man. This is what everybody's been preparing for the moment when Google would just go all in.

[00:09:50]They were just kind of testing. They're probably testing it. They're like, "Oh, look. This maximizes revenue for us."

[00:09:56]>> Well, that's why these sites are selling off right now.

[00:09:58]>> That's why they're all selling argued it'll kill the open web. Yeah, that's exactly what it's going to do. You remember they kept trying to push that there's a little net neutrality thing they were trying to do and it was basically like people were against it because um if you were a bigger company or you had a lot of money that you were going to be able to advertise and be found over the little guys and people fought it and won. It doesn't matter.

[00:10:19]They still did it. And now what's going to probably happen is if you you pay you're going to be found. Yep.

[00:10:24]>> Otherwise you're going to be a footnote that maybe people will click on maybe they won't.

[00:10:28]>> Yeah that's that that's exactly what's going to happen. And it's going to be um basically the hunger games of publishing and at the end of it we're going to have like five or six major companies with whatever brands they have and they're going to be the ones who get found and everybody else well just go post on Facebook and good luck.

[00:10:46]>> Well, they said they said here it's actually the AI overviews um have given inaccurate responses. Yep.

[00:10:52]>> They take away control from users who might not want to use AI and it over complicates things and it does over complicate thing. I get ticked because it used to be you could search something and you could find what you need. Now you have to scroll past commercials and other things and AI and and it's like that's not what I I I want because it's assuming what I'm wanting and that's not what I'm asking. And usually you could go through and you find the place of how you want. Well, now you can't just do that. You have to go through all their that isn't what you want to get to the ones you do.

[00:11:16]>> Yeah. Yeah. So, um the CEO of Duck.Go actually testified against Google in the antitrust trial in 2023. He said that Google's exclusive default search contracts harmed its ability to pitch itself as the default on other browsers.

[00:11:33]U Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out. He said Tuesday in a statement referring to Google's search overhaul. As a result, their results are getting worse, not better. We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want. Uh seems duck.go is beginning to benefit as consumers flee AI. They said that app installs went up 18% week-overweek on average during uh the May 20th to 25th period compared to Yeah.

[00:12:02]>> So I I hope I hope it gets out there and people start knowing this and they start going there instead.

[00:12:06]>> Well, okay. So I just want to walk this back because this a couple of years ago I remember backlash to duck. Go the >> I kind of remember that but I I wasn't on it like you were.

[00:12:18]>> People were mad because DuckGo was fair.

[00:12:21]They did not like the fact that Duck Duck.Go uh uh magnified disinformation.

[00:12:27]Basically, they put >> Oh, okay. Back when they they were hiding stuff on Google about it was about vaccines.

[00:12:33]>> It was about it was about and you the election, all that stuff.

[00:12:37]You couldn't find certain outlets. Yeah.

[00:12:39]On but you had to go places like that that go or Bing and stuff to be able to actually look up things.

[00:12:44]>> Not even Bing because Microsoft was Okay. So the government was putting pressure on all the major social media platforms to censor information. So yeah, you went out to Google especially or Bing looking for, you know, alternative opinions on the goings on of the day and you could not find them, but you go duck.go and websites that were basically blacklisted from Google would show up on duck.go. Now um back to talking about like our ad network, things were so crazy at one point in time. It's hard to believe because everything is like we basically had like three or four years of just pure insanity, but things were so crazy that uh our ad network actually brought in some like advertising ZAR uh overseers >> to go through and audit all of the websites on the network to make sure they weren't posting disinformation.

[00:13:35]Because if you're posting what they consider whoever these people were at this nonprofit, whatever, whatever they considered to be disinformation, >> which you could guess what that would be, >> you could guess what that would be. But anything that was overly political or whatever, you could get kicked out of the network. Um, you risked having your website blacklisted by Google. It was crazy. And they had all the major ad networks were having pressure put on them by these nonprofits that I believe were bankrolled by like USA ID or whatever it was. But it was it was a really scary time. Like it really felt like we were living in like Russia or something. It was just like you can't say that comrade or we're going to you know it's like what the hell?

[00:14:16]>> That was a really bad personation.

[00:14:17]Anyway, >> it was really bad. But see I make a very bad Russian. So >> I make a really bad any kind of accent.

[00:14:23]I'm terrible at it. I have noticed there's been Duck Duck Go commercials running on TV and stuff lately. I have noticed that as well.

[00:14:30]>> Yeah. Um that's one thing that they weren't doing before. And I I look, we need we need this because they just shut down I think um Jeeves Ask Jeeves. They finally shut Ask Jeves down. I didn't even know it was still around.

[00:14:42]>> I didn't even know that was still around.

[00:14:44]>> But we have gotten so damn lazy that everybody just Googles stuff. We used to have to work for our information. I remember a time when there was like I used to have like a dozen different um web crawlers and search engines and portals bookmarked because certain ones you found certain information better on this site than you did that site whatever and uh so much of the internet I think is hidden from us because it all depends on what Google wants to show you and that's the thing Google should not determine you know what you see it should be like you use Google as a tool to find what you want to see but Google is telling what you need to see or don't need to see >> and and who's who's who decides that.

[00:15:25]You know, we have more information we've ever had at our fingertips, but you can't find it unless they say you can.

[00:15:30]And that that's concerning. I know with the medical stuff we were talking about, like there was even doctors and stuff doing articles and papers and stuff pro with proof that they didn't think things were the way that people were saying they were and they were they were blacklisted because it wasn't the correct opinion at the time. And that's concerning like you should be allowed to look up I mean within reason. And I mean obviously some things you shouldn't be you know on but I'm just saying it's like who gets to decide that.

[00:15:54]>> Yeah. Well the tech companies and this is the this is the problem when you centralize all the power whether it's Google or Facebook or you know YouTube which is you know part of Google everything's part of Google Microsoft.

[00:16:07]Um this is what happens if if there's you know they decide to turn on a dime.

[00:16:13]They will destroy you. They can destroy you. They can destroy your livelihood.

[00:16:16]they could uh you know the ramifications now they're talking digital ID and I think all these these major companies these tech companies are going to play ball with that and that's what this is all about and uh we need more options so people can say you know what I'm not going to give you business I'm not going to give you clicks but again duck go I I wish them the best the problem is that you know Google is the brand when people talk about searching for something they're going to Google it >> it's not even just that if you if people whose websites are based on like ad, you know, supported and things like that to be, you know, to be paid for. And Google owns all the marketing.

[00:16:52]>> Double click and AdSense and Adwords.

[00:16:54]Yeah. They own all that.

[00:16:55]>> Then how are you going to monetize it?

[00:16:57]Because people, they've gotten sued before for blocking monetization off on people to to because they thought they were their competition and they're in lawsuits right now for that.

[00:17:06]>> Rumble, I know Rumble. Yeah, Rumble couldn't monetize because you know almost all video ads get run through unless you it's like Disney or a platform owned by you know a company like that where you buy the ads directly but >> most video it all runs through Google um almost all advertising >> that's why it's a monopoly and people will say they need broken up >> and that's what this is all about it's basically they don't want to share they don't want to send you to an outside site that may or may not have Google ads on it and even If the site does have Google ads on it, they have to give such a large portion to the publisher. They want you on their page where they get maximum revenue, maximum profit. Like it never is enough. That's the thing. Like Google is hands down one of the biggest corporations on the planet and it's still not enough. It's still hungry.

[00:17:56]>> The system worked well for years and years and years and years and years and then now, you know, I guess probably depending on what country you're in.

[00:18:03]>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's that's >> well I know other other c countries are fighting back against it and have different laws but other places you know suddenly half the top 50 results are all people from one place that happen to be the same place the CEOs from. So just saying >> that is a that is an ongoing issue that we are noticing now. Yes, there are certain geographic locations that do tend to to get uh favored. I've noticed a lot of the news stories lately are coming from websites written by people that seem like they're from a certain geographic location. the call center you got getting redirected to happen to also be from a certain geographic location.

[00:18:37]>> I'm not saying it's related necessarily, but once you start to notice it cuz I'm like I never used to get websites that were based out of that certain geographic location and now half of them are >> the person in charge of Google and the person in charge of YouTube are from that certain geographic location. So, here we are.

[00:18:56]>> It's a little weird. It's a little weird. All right, so anyway, there we go, guys. Uh, I think we're going to see more options pop up out of necessity. I have said before, we need another internet. I think we need to scrape the corporate internet on that.

[00:19:09]>> Yeah, I I'll get right People are like, "Well, you can do it." I'm like, "Yeah, okay."

[00:19:12]>> Well, people were telling you you could do it. I >> Yeah. I'm like, "Yeah, okay. Yeah, sure.

[00:19:16]Sure, J. I'll get right on that."

[00:19:18]>> He's He can do a lot of things, but I don't think that's one thing you can do.

[00:19:20]No offense.

[00:19:21]>> I can't do that. But I think if we had enough people with enough resources, the problem is the people that have the resources to do it would want to control it, too. for all his talk of free speech, if Elon Musk decided he wanted to run the internet, it would be a disaster, too. So, you know, I think uh anytime you've got like one corporation uh controlling a good portion of the traffic, the internet traffic, it's going to be a problem.

[00:19:46]>> But anyway, we're going to wrap it up.

[00:19:48]>> Yep.

[00:19:49]>> Please subscribe for more pop culture news, views, and rants. We'll talk later.

[00:19:52]>> Bye.