[HN Gopher] Searchception
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       Searchception
        
       Author : Sami_Lehtinen
       Score  : 6 points
       Date   : 2025-04-10 17:43 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.mojeek.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.mojeek.com)
        
       | treetalker wrote:
       | > We call this phenomenon searchception: the illusion created by
       | the merging of browsers (and operating systems) with search
       | engines, where every attempt to go somewhere online loops back
       | into a search event. Events that can tracked, filtered, and
       | monetised.
        
       | esafak wrote:
       | This article is 15 years too late. It's old hat and search
       | engines are dying.
       | 
       | And combining the two was a good idea: the browser can detect
       | when you're entering a URL.
        
         | darkwater wrote:
         | Unless is a domain that's not supported. An edge case, but it
         | still frustrates me.
         | 
         | In any case the real point they made was that it was a way to
         | get traffic and hook people to their search engine, showing ads
         | in our faces.
        
         | weinzierl wrote:
         | It was a good idea for Google but it was never a good idea for
         | the user. We should have used the 15 years to raise awareness
         | about phishing risks and I believe it would have been a lot
         | easier to educate users about two distinct fields than teaching
         | them why it may be OK to enter a half remembered fragment of a
         | name to get some entertainment but that it is very risky if you
         | do it with the name of your bank.
        
           | janalsncm wrote:
           | I don't see how that increases the phishing risk. If the user
           | mistypes a url, DNS doesn't have any anti-spam mechanisms. If
           | they mistype part of a url, Google can correct it.
           | 
           | Whether or not they do so in practice is another question of
           | course and there are well publicized examples of them
           | failing.
           | 
           | If what you're saying was correct then preventing most
           | phishing emails would simply be a matter of "educating
           | users". I believe at scale that is an impossible task.
        
             | weinzierl wrote:
             | The point is that you rely on the search engine to correct
             | it properly.
        
       | janalsncm wrote:
       | Omni bar solves an obvious problem: the vast majority of the time
       | showing a DNS error is way less useful than guessing where the
       | user meant to go. That's the alternative.
       | 
       | If I set my default search engine to Mojeek and type in "spotify"
       | will they not suggest spotify.com? If I type in "sp<tab><enter>"
       | is that taking away my agency from potentially going to
       | spootify.com instead?
       | 
       | I am game for a conversation on the power of defaults and
       | monopolies but that's very different from saying suggestions are
       | bad because people should just remember everything.
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-10 23:01 UTC)