Is it the end of ‘Google it’?

Daily dose, , ,

For more than a decade of being online, I’ve always been a Google fan. Gmail, Chrome, Docs, I even still have a couple of the free Legacy G Suite accounts for side projects. Just like every tech nerd that’s been the “IT guy” for their friends, family and co-workers, “Google it” has been part of my vocabulary for years.

Now it seems that I’d be using or saying it less because Google Search has morphed and swallowed up by the tech giant’s push to put AI into all of its products and services.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to AI nor am I one of its evangelists. For me, It’s just another tool to get things done, if necessary. As I’ve declared in an earlier post, I only use AI in doing research and parsing the materials I’ve gathered for what I’m working on. The output, the text, all of it are my original work.

Googling for something has been annoying, not because the AI Overview is totally useless, it forces me to exert extra effort in getting to the sources, I have to scroll down a lot more to get to the links and see what other sources are available. Even before Google came out with AI Overview, its search results already needed some improvement but instead of doing that, it made AI Overview into a core feature of search which has ruined the experience of Googling for something.

A lot of users are saying the same thing, and this backlash has led to the rise of competitors like DuckDuckGo whose browser and search engine saw a 30% increase in installs over the past week. Even a Bing search is becoming more useful than the same query on Google.

Will Google pause and re-think its aggressive push for AI? Doubtful.

Will this fundamental change to Google search lead to the death of “Google it”? Let’s wait and see.

Rodrigo Duterte will go to trial for crimes against humanity

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It’s a historic day for human rights and justice in the Philippines. The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court has ruled to confirm the charges of crimes against humanity against former President Rodrigo Duterte:

Confirmed charges of war crimes against Duterte

It effectively denies his request to be released and returned the Philippines and sets the stage for the trial to follow. After years of living in anguish, suffering and fear, the victims of Duterte’s brutal war on drugs will finally have their day in court.

Improved PhilHealth services

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After three days, my youngest was finally discharged from the hospital yesterday. This wasn’t his first hospital admission so we were more familiar with the discharge procedures. So after completing the paperwork and settling the part of the hospital bill that wasn’t covered by our HMO and PhilHealth, it was a pleasant surprise when an actual PhilHealth employee came to see us for a quick interview/survey.

The PhilHealth employee courteously introduced herself as someone directly assigned to monitor the state insurer’s services at the hospital we stayed at. She wen through our bill, clearly explaining how the PhilHealth coverage was like that and the amount it covered, which was significantly larger compared to the last time my youngest, or any of us, was admitted for hospital treatment.

She then went on to ask us if the hospital asked us to make a cash deposit prior to admission, as this was against PhilHealth’s ‘zero balance billing’ program. I replied in the negative. Then her next was question was whether or not there were any difficulties availing of PhilHealth services, again I replied in the negative. Come to think of it, we’ve never had any difficulties availing services from PhilHealth. It seems that this is advantage of having up to date records and continuous contributions since I joined the formal labor sector a little more than a decade ago.

Still, it’s a wonderful experience to see first hand some good customer service from a government agency such as PhilHealth. Hopefully it continues to improve, especially the coverage it provides as for other Filipinos, PhilHealth is the only means they are able to get some form of healthcare services in this country known for crushing poverty amidst healthcare services that are not only woefully inadequate, but also criminally expensive and unaffordable.

A far-right group of Filipinos have been recently gaining traction on social media. They organized an online webinar purportedly to teach the art of debate, riding on the popularity of late Christian nationalist celebrity, Charlie Kirk. They made a claim that “truth varies according to respective ideologies” then say that only conservatives guard “timeless truths” is a laughable self-contradiction.

Then again, it’s not much of a surprise since their group worships someone whose style of “debate” is built on rapid-fire fallacies, selective use of facts and bad-faith framing.

On being more tolerant towards theists

Opinion, , , ,

Around a decade or so ago, I’ve decided not to engage in debates about religion – the interpretation of the Bible, which religion is THE religion or trying to win over believers that there is no such thing as a divine being, etc as I’ve come to accept that it is anyone’s right whether they would believe in it or not, whether they would join one religion or another.

However, when one’s religion or their own interpretation of what ever text they consider holy, is used to abuse and mistreat, to oppress, marginalize, and limit the agency of members of certain communities including the LGBTQIA+ communities, then I would spare some time to address it, expose it and call it out for what it is. I may not have all the answers, but someone has to make a stand and speak up.