• Sneezycat
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      4 months ago

      Google is just a search engine, the sites you find with it may or may not be trustworthy.

      …unless you use their AI crap, idk, I haven’t used Google for years.

      • HN82@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Can you tell me what search engine you have been using, I have tried duck duck go but more of the same.

        • Sneezycat
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          4 months ago

          Searxng! You can self-host it, but I just use a public instance, there are tons you can find out there. You can also install a firefox extension1 to be able to use it directly as your default search engine :)

          1 you don’t need to download an extension, you can just go to a site, right click on the address bar and add it to firefox/librewolf as a custom search engine, as per these instructions.

        • SeekPie@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          My favourite’s been Startpage so far, because (IIRC) DDG just uses Bing’s results (probably) more privately.

  • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    It has gotten to the point where the people I know just wholly believe almost everything I say, unless I preface or follow up with “I’m pretty sure that’s right but now I’m gunna double check” (and if I’m wrong because of new info, or I misremembered something, I totally own it, and read the correction from someone else out loud)

    I could so very easily horribly mislead all the people I know, because I’m a random information machine, but I almost never say things I’m not entirely sure about without the preface or follow up combined with actively looking it up and setting the record straight. If I turned evil, it would take them years to realize it was intentional.

    New people are fun. They challenge me a lot on things I don’t need to preface or follow up. Never works out that well for them, but we get to learn about each other!

    • My sister likes to think that way, and constantly tries to tell people they’re mispronouncing words even though they are not because she can’t figure out how to properly use the pronunciation guide in a dictionary and takes the god damn TTS system Google uses that is mispronouncing words as the gospel truth.

      • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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        4 months ago

        Haha, I totally understand. I don’t trust those guides at all.

        I’m a language lover myself (I like learning, but after trying for many years with multiple languages, I’m not super into practice ;) so I learn about how languages work instead!) and if there’s anything I’ve learned about language it is this:

        It does not matter how you sound or what you actually say as long as the message you intended to get across actually gets across to whomever you mean to hear it. If people mispronounce, it is usually either regional (and thus correct for them) or something they read and have never heard anyone say. If they use the wrong word but it’s kinda right, they are probably language learners.

        This was galvanized for me when I took an art history class as a general education credit in college. I learned that clerestory is pronounced clear-story. I’d only ever read the word before that, and thought it was more in line with modern patterns to be CLE-rest-ory, which is embarrassingly wrong. I’d been reading it that way for years.

        Your sister sounds like a language prescriptivist, and they are always wrong, because language simply doesn’t work like that.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Excuse me sir! I will have you know we will not be changing the founding dictionary we all base English on, not for you nor anyone!

          It has stood for thousands of years, UNCHANGED, for a good reason you heathen! God save the dictionary!

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Yup, same here.

      What’s bad is that some of my family still like to get all pissy when I tell them to gtfo when they come to me for an answer after they’ve wasted my time by arguing over things they had come to me for in the past.

      Don’t ask me your random crap, wait for me to give a good answer, then argue with me. Even if I was wrong, why the hell did you come up me in the first place if you didn’t think I knew what you were asking about?

      Like you, if I don’t know, I say I don’t know. And I’ll be clear about any gaps or uncertainty. More rigorously than I do online because idgaf about random online opinions, and I still usually follow those rules online.

      For a couple of years, I would tell my sister that I’m not her private google after she made a habit of wasting my time asking things and then arguing things that she didn’t know in the first place, and arguing wrong things. Just got tired of being taken for granted.

      Mind you, if she’d heard the answer and just asked more questions, discussing the matter, it would be fine. But saying things as utterly infuriating as “but it said on facebook”, and “I don’t believe you” pushed me to my patience limit lol. Like, what? If you didn’t think I was reliable after the hundreds of things I was right about before, why did you even ask?

      • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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        4 months ago

        That’s just rude. I like knowing random things and sharing them with people. I have a literal degree built around doing that. You don’t have to think I’m being genuine if you don’t want to, but this is my experience.

        • hate2bme@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Haha I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It was just a goof. I am sorry.

          • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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            4 months ago

            Have literally never seen that sub tag used in any way but as an insult, but alright, I’ll take your word for it.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              Insults can be funny. Sometimes people just think the first thing, which is this is funny, and then post it before they consider the second thought, which is this is rude.

              At least they took it back after you pointed out the lapse.

    • Githyanki@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      Sometimes there are different answers to the question. Much depends on the way you search and interpret the results. We had a small leak and the wife wanted to decide if there was anything to worry about afterwards. Lots of information about mold and rotting wood etc, but she didn’t get that if the leak was only for a very short time that mold and rotting wood are not concerns.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        I think the internet never was for personalized advice. Its much the same as going to the library to figure out how to fix a car.

        Its pretty rare someone will take the risk to give personalized advice without expecting to be paid for it as well.

  • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Oh man. My ex absolutely hated it when I was right. She would get so mad at me for it too. It was ok for other people to be right when she was wrong; just not me. 🤣

  • CaptainEffort@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    My brother now storms off whenever I go to google something to show that he’s wrong.

    I also saw a friend of mine’s gf straight up say the results were wrong when they googled it and she was proven wrong.