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Is Google Getting Worse? (Update)

56m · Freakonomics Radio · 22 Feb 04:00

It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally facing a real rival, in the form of A.I.-powered “answer engines”?

  • SOURCES:
    • Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google.
    • Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics at Duke University.
    • Tim Hwang, media researcher and author; former Google employee.
    • Elizabeth Reid, vice president of Search at Google.
    • Aravind Srinivas, C.E.O. and co-founder of Perplexity.
    • Jeremy Stoppelman, C.E.O. and co-founder of Yelp.
  • RESOURCES:
    • “A Fraudster Who Just Can’t Seem to Stop … Selling Eyeglasses,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2022).
    • Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet, by Tim Hwang (2020).
    • “Complaint: U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC,” by the U.S. Department of Justice (2020).
    • “Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2016).
    • “‘A’ Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality,” by Ryan C. McDevitt (Journal of Political Economy, 2014).
    • In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, by Steven Levy (2011).
    • “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 1998).
  • EXTRAS:
    • “Is Dialysis a Test Case of Medicare for All?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
    • “How Big is My Penis? (And Other Things We Ask Google),” by Freakonomics Radio (2017).

The episode Is Google Getting Worse? (Update) from the podcast Freakonomics Radio has a duration of 56:53. It was first published 22 Feb 04:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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