zlacker

I think it’s interesting to consider why touchscreen mobile phones won out over their predecessors.

Touchscreens are the worst interface option. The feedback of feeling a button, or anything made for the job, is better than typing without specific feedback onto a screen. It won out because of you don’t have a set interface it’s bettor.

Now for search, chat gpt will likely always be less reliable than a list of results you can vet yourself for content and source.

That said… I don’t think people care about truth that much these days so one response that feels correct is could be good enough for most. Terrifying times we live in folks.

>>marric+(OP)
Touchscreen keyboards disappear and free up their real estate. That’s the main advantage on phones.

>>bobthe+K
Yep! And people just want big screens to view content.

>>marric+(OP)
>Touchscreens are worse than buttons

Hottest take I've seen on here for a while. In a very specific, very limited set of mobile usecases, buttons may offer a more pleasant experience than a touchscreen. I only say that because there's usually exceptions to any statement, but I can't actually think of one.

Touchscreens didn't win because of some lazy sheep-like consumerism, they won because the product is superior. If Chat-GPT style models defeat traditional search engines it will be because the product is better, not because people are content with a response that "seems correct."

>>marric+h1
Well what else are we supposed to do with them?

>>humani+x1
Let me rephrase: if you have a set interface touchscreens suck. No one would choose to use a touchscreen over a physical keyboard, or steering wheel, or mouse for an fps game.

It’s a crap interface compared to others but it’s the best to do anything. That’s why it won.

>>marric+(OP)
Agreed, the whole “this is the new search” has perplexed me. Primarily the idea that this AI is supposed to be the single point of truth. A traditional search allows the user to review a variety of contexts and viewpoints. It’s highly concerning that this is something people seem to want (or at least, is being pushed onto them through marketing & hype), despite the huge outcry over algorithms and political agendas over the past few years…

>>humani+x1
I think it's more that touchscreens are superior for certain kinds of activities, like consuming information in the form of feeds, videos, and images. Mostly because the screen is larger for the same device size. Buttons are more accurate for typing, and often (I believe, without citation) faster for typing as well, even compared to swipe systems.

One is not superior to the other over all, but each is better at certain things. The difference is that more people will pay money to maximize their user experience scrolling through feeds and watching videos, compared to typing emails.

>>ESMirr+q2
Fairly often I ask the Siri homepod thing a question. It's good at playing music, doing simple math, translating some things. It can sometimes read me a wikipedia page. Far to often it says "I have some web results for that question, ask again from your ipad". In those cases I wish she could summarize and read me the answer.

I can understand why some times you might just want a chat response to a question rather than a web search.

But I swear that if I even suspect Siri's response is influenced by advertising or endorses a product, I will take the homepod and punt it down the street.

>>humani+x1
To be fair, touchscreens won out because of the Asian, specifically Chinese market. They were too poor to own laptops and wanted big phablets. Hence here we are today.

I still miss my landscape key board phones. The droid 4 still holds a special place in my head.

>>humani+x1
Buttons are much better than touchscreens, if you have a fixed interface that fits in the space available.

Touchscreens win when you need multiple interfaces in the same amount of space.

>>humani+x1
Trivial counterpoint: you cannot correctly operate a touchscreen without looking at it (unless the display is essentially one single interactive object). Trying to use a music player via a touch screen while running or cycling is basically impossible unless you look the screen. For this purpose, buttons are better.

When defining "better" you need to indicate the metrics you are using. LM's might be "better" when measured with certain metrics, but like most things are worse when measured using other metrics.

>>marric+(OP)
> Now for search, chat gbt will probably always be worse than a list of results you can get yourself for authenticity if you cared about truth.

Irony of this article, predicting end of Google, is that articles like this are going to be replaced by these summaries too.