Chatbots Are Not Replacing Web Search, But They Contaminate Results
Slopfarms are not yet a solved issue. Some search engines still feed them. Here's an example from yesterday; Google News is feeding 3 slopfarms operated by the same person/s:
Those are not real articles but LLM slop with slop images. It is machine-generated garbage.
After nearly 30 years Jeeves or Ask.com shuts down and some of the media tried to find some "hey hi" (slop) angle, as usual. Some say stuff like, "oh! Because people use slop!" (They don't say "slop", they say "hey hi")
No, not really, search usage is still vastly higher than chatbots' usage (for "entertainment purposes" only). Here is how statCounter sees it this month:
Such data does not support the media's unproven hypothesis about chatbots causing the demise of Jeeves or Ask.com. Nor does the recent data, even from slop pushers, about declining usage levels of LLMs.
People still value pages written and curated by humans; they use search engines to find these. █