Whatever you say will be pulled out from the internet and presented to you, so you might want to be a bit wary about that.
Of course, Google still doesn't know PC exists, but hey, nobody's perfect.
 |
| Data as of June 1st, 2026. |
 |
| List of Indexed Pages, as of June 1, 2026. |
As you can see, Google has completely wiped out all of the "Indexed" web pages owned by Parallel Context, as if Google decided they didn't really exist. They are presently listed as "Scanned, Not Indexed", so if you can imagine the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's a bit like that.
 |
| Google: "Top men are working on it." Indiana Jones: "Who?" Google: "Top. Men." |
So when Google decided to announce changes to their search interface on May 19, 2026, I made a collective yawn. It doesn't matter how fancy the interface is, if Google itself isn't finding or indexing the data, you're not going to find it on Google.
I have been amused by the fact that Google and other AI companies might just be missing a major problem with their push to make everybody irrelevant: their own data pool.
Copyright issues notwithstanding, if your search engine's webcrawlers aren't providing you with data --and I presume that a small blog like mine isn't the only website that has issues appearing on a normal google search-- then your AI isn't really being trained as effectively as you think.
 |
| Results using a private browsing window on Firefox on June 1, 2026. |
And just for completeness (and, well, to rub Google's nose in it), Microsoft Bing knows I exist:
 |
| Results using a private browsing window on Firefox on June 1, 2026. |
That's damning with faint praise, as I'm really sick about Copilot this and Copilot that. Even though Microsoft threw in the towel and is beginning to back off from pushing the Copilot button so aggressively, they're not exactly giving up on Copilot either.
And remember Google Glass? The eyeglass wearable that ended up being pulled by Google because people who wore them started getting beat up by people who resented being on video without consent? Well, fast forward to 2026, and Meta, Apple, and Amazon have made eyeglass wearables a thing now. And nobody cares anymore that they're being recorded.
Given that I can go to the grocery store and (unintentionally) be following someone up and down the aisles and hear both sides of their entire conversation for 40 minutes, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I don't think any of the people who behave like this --and there are far far more of them than I'd ever have believed-- realize that anybody could record them and then use their discussions against them because they are holding a conversation in public.
This goes on all the time, and I'm the one who gets funny looks when I put my earbuds on when I'm at the grocery store, although that might be due to me using wired earbuds more than anything else. No, I don't hold phone conversations at the store, although I have been known to call home to ask whether Brand X or Y is fine since Z isn't in stock. No, I put on my earbuds to keep the noise at bay (I have tinnitus) and so I don't have to listen in on whatever the latest gossip that some fellow customer is insisting I hear by talking loudly into a phone a couple of feet from me.
I guess it's only a matter of time before all of these wearables such as the eyeglasses become used by Big Tech to feed LLMs. And I'd bet money that even then, Parallel Context won't show up on a simple Google search.
I think it's interesting that the second screenshot shows that they had you indexed but then basically decided to drop you. Just more of the ongoing enshittification of Google.
ReplyDeleteI've looked into alternatives several times now and seen a lot of recommendations for Kagi, but habits are hard to break and for many of my niche MMO searches Google still works OK (because nobody buys ads to override the results for "SWTOR space missions" or whatever) so then I get complacent again...
Yeah, the alternatives are kind of underwhelming. I'd seriously thought about moving to Wordpress, but the ongoing Wordpress changes that I get a ringside seat from (courtesy of Wilhelm) has convinced me to not do that. Besides, I'd have to let the Ivy League Consortium know about any impending blog moves, and while they tend to be responsive in general, it's just another step I'd rather not take unless I have to.
DeleteOh, I was talking about alternatives to Google the search engine, not Blogger.
DeleteI've pretty much given up on Google for search these days. Even using the "site:[site URL]" option doesn't help worth a damn, and from my perspective Google is too focused on the enshitirfication process to actually bother making a good product. I use Bing on a private browser, and then depending on what I'm searching for I might use Duck Duck Go instead.
DeleteIt's a shame, really, because I used to love Google and their old "Don't Be Evil" motto, but they threw that out the window when they allowed the Chinese Communist Party to censor Tiananmen Square search results (among other things). Has it really been 20 years since they first did that? Yikes.
I got a bit of the reverse from Google Search Console recently about my 18 year old second blog:
ReplyDeleteTo: Owner of https://evepics.wordpress.com/,
Google systems confirm that on April 12, 2026 we started collecting Google Search impressions for your website in Search Console. This means that pages from your website are now appearing in Google search results for some queries.
Ha! Go figure, right?
DeleteI guess there can only be enough room in Google's datacenters for one cranky middle-aged blogger who plays MMOs.
I've said several times on the blog that I thought Google were crazy to drop Google Glass. It was clearly a very useful device with a wide range of useful applications and a huge potential market. For a company of their size to be scared off by a few media scare stories was pathetic. Glasses of that sort, with AI feeds, are incredibly helpful for people with vision problems, for a start. In this country, they've been available from charities for a while but they're far more expensive than the new, commercial devices and as far as I can tell, nowhere near as good.
ReplyDeleteOn a less socially-conscious level, smart glasses could remove that problem musicians keep complaining about - everyone in the audience holding up mobile phones to film the stage at gigs - in a stroke. If everyone was wearing glasses like those, it would be far less intrusive for audience and performers and it wouldn't look any weirder than everyone wearing 3D glasses at the movies.
I'm thinking about getting a pair with my prescription lenses in!
The biggest problem that I see with Google Glass and its ilk is, naturally, the data itself. Who owns the data? Does owning a pair mean that some company owns access to your data and can sell it to advertisers or the government? Will they train their AI on it?
DeleteThese are the same questions I have whenever I consider owning a doorbell device such as Ring or Next, because I'd prefer to have that data go to a local hard drive rather than in Google's or Amazon's datacenters for them to pick through at their leisure. Besides, companies have bad habits of nuking perfectly good electronics because they don't feel like supporting them or providing good tools for them anymore. (See: Google's Chromecast Audio.)
The "it just works" mantra only goes so far for me, because Big Tech has done the one thing that would make them eventually obsolete: they have lost my trust. If they lose the trust of enough people, a new competitor can effectively eat their lunch.