Without Google's grubby paws across most the web, it'd be much more like the initial intent of what the internet was supposed to be, a welcoming place with open and accessible info!

If you don't want to pay to access a web search service, just use docker and run your own SearXNG instance! This will also allow you to host our own AI model that searches the web through SearXNG. While it may sound like a lot of work, it truly takes an afternoon and some unused RAM on your PC to make happen, then you're set up!

We know what the internet would have been without Google and other corporations closing it down because some of us lived it.

It was mostly decentralised niche forums that you had to know the links for, and you'd receive random emails telling you to visit this or that new site. People would also share links around school.

Sure, there was a chance you'd get Chlamydia if you opened the wrong link, but it was exciting and overall the experience was wholesome.

A massive amount of folks are fucked due to using google for email, data storage, calendar, contacts, etc.

Using other search engines, I imagine.

just dont use google? I havent used google search for years now and there hasnt been single time where i would have needed to use google search even once. Though unfortunately i'm still bound to the damn gmail because i cant find better alternative for it.

Literally just use Wikipedia more

They've already got it mapped out.

If it looked like https://ooh.directory/ I would be delighted.

written before reading the article; it get the topic from another, more interesting and less imaginary, angle

Do we explore it post-Google or post-anything that would take its place?

Because those are two very different scenarios. There are plenty of Big Tech corps that are willing to take Google's place.

If we actually mean no one does search with targeted advertising and stuff, my bets are on more indie sites popping up, and Fediverse getting stronger as well.

We'll have more link indices, and more relevant search results hosted on different corners of the Internet.

On the negative: unless open-source projects step up their game, usability and quality of web interfaces will suffer dramatically. And without truly massive Fediverse or at least decent webrings, finding basic information and connecting to others might actually get harder.

Lmao there's whole books about this. One is Life After Google, published 10 (?) years ago and it said blockchain would rule the world :) The subtitle is literally "The Fall Of Big Data And The Rise Of The Blockchain Economy"

Everything remains the same or with few changes

I am asking my local searxng. As long as websites produce content there will be search robot that will crawl them, doesn't matter if it's google or common crawl dump. The content will be scrapped and indexed and you will be able to chose from where to find it. Google just relies on users that are locked in their freemium services. If they can force users to pay the users will pay for search. Fortunately for me I am not one of them. Good luck.

No different for me. I have never used googol garbage so nothing will change.