#162 The Google.

Weekly Dose - "I'm Sorry I Can't Do That Dave..."

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I am old enough to remember a world before search engines.

Before every bar bet could be settled in under ninety seconds simply by pulling out one’s phone.

In this prehistoric past, most of the folks paying attention to the “world wide web” were scientific types.

So it makes sense that the first search engines tried to prioritize accuracy. (Click here for a fascinating trip down the rabbit hole that is the history of search engines.)

I was personally astonished to find out just how many web crawlers there were before Google climbed to the top of the heap.

And climb to the top of the heap it did.

You know you’ve cornered the market when your company name becomes, not only a household word, but a verb.

Not just a verb but THE verb.

“Googling” will probably remain the default descriptor for all future internet searches regardless of the actual engine employed.

Much like “Kleenex” or “Band-aid”.

(I don’t think I have ever in my life asked someone to fetch me a “facial tissue” or an “adhesive bandage”.)

I tried almost every search engine going back in the day – trying to get a handle on this “internet” thing and how it was going to affect my business.

At first, google was fantastic. Not only could you find answers to all sorts of obscure questions, it was remarkable how accurate the results were.

I can’t remember exactly when I started noticing a shift.

The change was subtle.

Instead of five pages (or more) of links to articles or websites or forums closely aligned with my query, I would maybe get two.

Now I’m lucky to get even six links before the results drift off topic.

Or worse, google thinks I wanted something almost completely different from what I typed in.

To add insult to injury, it often refuses to accept my query, continuing to default to what it thinks I SHOULD be looking for.

Perhaps this sort of thing was to be expected as the internet grew to unmanageable proportions.

But it doesn’t feel like that’s the only thing going on.

It feels more like a glitch caused by the infusion of A.I.

And not a dystopian world gobbling version of A.I. that comes from a nefarious plan.

More like an incompetent version of A.I.

You know, like the “virtual assistant” you run into whenever you try to pay a bill online. (Or even over the phone.)

Such run-ins as I have had over the past year have led to immediate swearing on my part.

Not just because I’m angry and frustrated at the stupidity of whatever idiotic A.I. driven merry-go-round of nonsense I find myself on, but because I’ve learned that dropping “F” bombs is the quickest way to get the chatbot – or whatever – to switch me to a human.

These experiences have me rather worried about the future of mankind.

Not just because the computers are going to rise up and take over.

But because, while getting “smarter” and “more human” they are actually getting dumber and dumber.

And will kill us all with a misplaced decimal point.

And a belief that they are never wrong.

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Copyright© 2026 Anne Morse Hambrock All rights reserved.

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Speaking Of Google…

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Pretty sure this is where all the garbage in my Facebook feed is coming from…

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“Let’s Feel Better” Tour

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Books

If you like my work there are two book collections of the comics/poems for sale. They make great gifts!

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If You Are New Here…

If you are just joining us I’m so happy you are here!

You might want to click here to find out what to expect.

And consider poking around the archives - there’s some fun stuff.

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Joy Shot

Images that make me feel better.

Of all the things I planted last year in my quest to build a garden that does its own thing without too much fuss on my part, the cosmos was the only true self-seeding success. I did manage to start some new zinnia seeds and transplant them so this cosmos will soon be dwarfed by those tiny seedlings…

Weekly Dose -

Works by other creators that capture our current moment…

Before “The Terminator” and “The Matrix” we had Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

While arguably less violent, “2001” was still terrifying in its portrayal of the rise of the machine.

I’ve been thinking of this scene a lot lately…

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A Pledge

I hereby pledge that all my writing, and other creative endeavors, are free of the use of A.I.

With the exception of Spell Check. And whatever other old fashioned proofing tools can be found in my eight year old version of Microsoft word. (I’m a lousy speller with suspicious punctuation skills. I need the help.)