On Browsers, A.I., and the Web ⇥ manuelmoreale.com
Now, while I’m here let me tackle a somewhat related issue I’ve been thinking about lately and that is the idea that AI is going to become the default layer between users and the web. We all yelled and screamed because the web has too many gatekeepers, we all lamented Google search results going to shit, and we all celebrated when new search engines were coming up. Why would I be happy trading a search result page filled with links — even if ranked in a flawed way — for a block of text that gives me an opinionated answer and maybe some links?
A fantastic question. One could easily ask the same about why we would trade the vast surveillance of online advertising for the universal surveillance gestured toward by Perplexity, too. It is all familiar, but more — in ways we might appreciate, and ways we loathe.