Pluralistic: Gemini is better than search because Google enshittified search (29 Jun 2026)
9 hours ago
- Google's AI summaries replace actual websites, breaking the symbiotic bargain between search engines and publishers by extracting value without giving back.
- Google's market saturation led to 'enshittification,' where search results were deliberately worsened to increase ad revenue, favoring spam and shovelware over quality content.
- The open web deteriorated due to Google's ad monopoly, which reduced publisher revenue, increased ad loads, and drove users to rely on AI summaries as a shield from poor web experiences.
- Tech companies are converging toward a surveillance-heavy, walled-garden model, with Google moving from an open-web conduit to a parasitic service that keeps users within its ecosystem.
- Despite having the capability to deliver better results (as seen with Kagi), Google chooses not to, illustrating that the problem is a deliberate choice, not a technical limitation.