this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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97
What Does a Post-Google Internet Look Like (matduggan.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by tux0r@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Welcome to the future, where asking a question costs $4.99 and you'll never be able to find out if the answer is right or not.

top 41 comments
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[–] TidBit@mander.xyz 33 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

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!

[–] zout@fedia.io 21 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

the initial intent of what the internet was supposed to be

A communication network for scientists and the military?

[–] TidBit@mander.xyz 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Good call, I should have worded that better. While the government and scientists were instrumental in creating the foundation for the internet, I was thinking more along the lines of the early PC era. When the internet was more or less a tool for openly sharing and discussing information as well as ideas.

But a lot of tech stems from governmental need and/or government funding. I mean, the modern refrigerator was a result of NASA problem solving for the environmental conditions found in space! GPS, LASIK, MRI's, LED's, barcodes, closed captioning, and the human genome project were all also thanks to government research too!

[–] zout@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for taking my trolling in good stride. I actually loved the internet of 20 years ago. It was totally different from today, it's actually a shame a lot of the way it was is gone forever. I vividly remember frequenting a few blogs, just slow chatting in the comments, making your own response images, hosting your own stuff like these images, sound clips and whatever else. Most ISP's would give you some server space to host your own static html pages, and lot's of people used this. The blogs would host photoshop contests, link to stuff they liked, reported on news or music or whatever their niche. The blogs I visited are mostly still around today, but they just don't draw the engagement anymore.

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm just sad I'm too young to have ever seen that old internet, and what it was like...

Makes me more determined to try and steer the current internet back in that direction though.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

I mean, 44net is a rather early thing, a subspace for packet radio part of it.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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!

This shit is why open source software has a bad reputation.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

You can make an installer like the one Freenet has. Maybe even a wrapper with a tray icon in Tcl/Tk or something like that.

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Docker enshitification coming in 3... 2... 1...

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Meh there's a ton of other services like opentofu, podman, vms, ect...

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Im going to look into this. What's the benefit of hosting your own searxng instance?

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's yours, no issues trusting a public instance with your searches. Pages full of settings to tweak as you like. Less problems with an algorithm 'helping' you. It averages searches over multiple search engines that you choose, you can set up your own (or a curated) block list of crappy AI slop sites, don't like fandom.com or something, gone. Manage your own bangs, e.g. !aa for annas-archive. Pipe it through a VPN with gluetun for better isolation. If you have your head around docker already it's more like half an hour to set up, so why not?

Can hook it up to perplexica and a local LLM for a fully local AI search that you define, use it as a MCP server, do deep research with it...

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That is awesome. A little beyond me but I've played in docker a bit. Is a VPN needed to keep your ip from being exposed ?

Is just using an existing searxng instance just less secure then?

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Is a VPN needed to keep your ip from being exposed ?

No more so than using any search engine directly, it's a nice to have. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough.

Is just using an existing searxng instance just less secure then?

By the time you've investigated it, you could have stood up your own instance...

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

Unless general-purpose Internet services will be banned.

Have you noticed that laws about providing data on bad-bad criminals yadda-yadda implicitly ban everything not allowing to get that data?

And have you noticed that Russian bans of things that can't be filtered not only implicitly allow whitelist ban of protocols and services, but are also not very far from what EU and US lawmakers want?

In any situation, if what powerful guys are doing seems to promise good things for you, first consider the possibility that you don't understand what they are doing.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 14 points 4 weeks ago

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

[–] Pirate@feddit.org 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 6 points 3 weeks ago

I had to advertise my first website on paper!

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 weeks ago

Using other search engines, I imagine.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Though unfortunately i’m still bound to the damn gmail because i cant find better alternative for it.

I self-host my e-mails, but that probably isn't a viable solution for just everyone.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 weeks ago

i just want a service that i dont have to hassle with, so this would definitely not be good for me 😅 Also i dont think many places even accept self hosted email as "real", at least some places dont accept alias addresses.

its so annoying when any decent alternative costs money, which isnt very good thing for my "official" email which i need for important things. Dont want to end up in situation where i get locked out of it because i didnt or couldnt pay for some reason. Though i constantly have to slightly fear that with google too since they can lock anyone's account for any reason they see fit.

[–] eleitl@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Gmail is way more reliable than anything I could self-host. It's a huge pile of unsorted junk that is only usable with search.

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They've already got it mapped out.

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 weeks ago

Ah yes, the Volvo S90 and VW Passat, definitely SUVs. Even Google's screenshots show 40% garbage.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Literally just use Wikipedia more

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 2 points 4 weeks ago

I hope that won't disappear anytime soon!

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 4 points 3 weeks ago

Well, I liked how Microsoft teams/Skype made docs easily accessible. But as always MS totally fucked up big time. So I setup my own book library, music library and photo library. I love Joplin for my notes between devices, navidrome for music, photoprism for photos. That's what I think the future internet should include.

Now AI...instead of us paying for an AI chip to deport our daily motions and emotions to coca cola so it can decide what size shoes we should wear and when, I'd like to propose something. Could a company give me an AI chip that can search and categorize all my files such that I can ask questions about them? But without double crossing me and telling Macy's about the size of my left ball? No the internet should not be big brother keeping us trapped. It should be freeing.... Welcome Mr.Johnson! I've calculated your income to inflation risk and have formulated two strategies for improvement. Here's your personal news.... I know of three favorable sexual partners living near us and have organized a fun get together this weekend for you. Your car is fully charged but you should probably do work from home today since its meeting's day. Your favorite Shakespeare quote, would you like me to recite it in French translated to Japanese with Mexican accent? No? Well, if there's anything else I can do for you....not for Nike, Nikon, Costco, Apple or Ford or Chiquita Banana, just let me know.....

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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.

[–] IsaamoonKHGDT_6143@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 weeks ago

Everything remains the same or with few changes

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

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"

[–] vane@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

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.

[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago

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