from Hacker News

Searchception

by Sami_Lehtinen on 4/10/25, 5:43 PM with 7 comments

• by janalsncm on 4/10/25, 9:41 PM

  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.

• by esafak on 4/10/25, 7:48 PM

  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.

• by treetalker on 4/10/25, 7:32 PM

  > 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.