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Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

travellemming.com

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Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#101

Post by FinnLobsien »

jorvi wrote: post #79
FinnLobsien wrote: post #56

Welcome to the era of massively mediocre online content. It started with mediocre SEO content that just amalgamated 5 other page 1 results until Google results became basically inbred content that meant nothing to anyone. Now we have LLMs which amalgamate that type of content and spit out a personalized, but still mediocre response. On the visual side, TikTok and Reels are doing their part to make everyone run to the…

You should read 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' by Neal Postman. It's painful how apt it is for current times. For what it's worth, I've started to reintroduce friction in my life where it makes sense. My phone defaults to a "dumbphone" profile that only has messaging, music, maps, etc. and specifically no browser or YouTube. I only turn on my smart lights with wall buttons and use the smart function purely to tune the…

> You should read 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' by Neal Stephenson. It's painful how apt it is for current times.

Assuming you mean Neil Postman?

And yeah, I am also wanting to get print magazine subscriptions. Luckily I already live in a neighborhood with a very 1950s vibe where I know the baker, the coffee guy, the butcher, sandwich shop guy etc.

I just want to remove my compulsive internet usage. Even if I'm reading The New Yorker, it's still because I've defaulted to consuming media on the internet in an empty moment.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#102

Post by maeil »

gorjusborg wrote: post #39

I can't get past the sloppy and inflammatory use of English here. This is not 'censorship'. It probably isn't banning, nor is it 'shadowbanning'. Google tunes its algorithms and lets the chips fall. Some win, some lose. While I understand how Google's dominance in search can have outsized effects on Internet commerce, the writer has near-zero credibility with me based on their writing. Honest people making honest sta…

And I'm tired of this sort of sloppy and inflammatory discrediting.

It fits 'shadowbanning' to an absolute tee. Without any kind of notification, or any recourse, a switch is flicked to "off" in a single moment, putting a domain on the shitlist. This is now very well documented, including by this post, and incredibly obvious from the graph.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#103

Post by wanderingbort »

nialv7 wrote: post #48
gorjusborg wrote: post #39

I can't get past the sloppy and inflammatory use of English here. This is not 'censorship'. It probably isn't banning, nor is it 'shadowbanning'. Google tunes its algorithms and lets the chips fall. Some win, some lose. While I understand how Google's dominance in search can have outsized effects on Internet commerce, the writer has near-zero credibility with me based on their writing. Honest people making honest sta…

if using algorithm to promote some information and suppress some other isn't censorship to you, then honestly your definition of censorship is narrow to the point of being useless.

Not promoting something is different than suppressing it.

Censorship is active suppression.

If Google was using AI to prevent independent people from accessing independent websites that would be censorship.

Censorship is something that is done not simply the lack of something being done.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#104

Post by 0x000xca0xfe »

Is it just me or has search become even worse in the past couple months?

I've used Google and Bing to look up my Geocaches because the Geocaching interface is clunky. Except I can't find them anymore. Exact ASCII matches in the tag, even with a unique identifier, but now it's become impossible to find them via search.

Just blank results, ads or SEO spam no matter what I try. site:xxx, inurl:, exact quotes, similar words, repetition, nothing works anymore. What is going on?!

And geocaching.com is a pretty big site. I wonder what is happening to small blogs...

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#105

Post by maeil »

JimDabell wrote: post #60
gorjusborg wrote: post #39

I can't get past the sloppy and inflammatory use of English here. This is not 'censorship'. It probably isn't banning, nor is it 'shadowbanning'. Google tunes its algorithms and lets the chips fall. Some win, some lose. While I understand how Google's dominance in search can have outsized effects on Internet commerce, the writer has near-zero credibility with me based on their writing. Honest people making honest sta…

It’s appallingly bad faith. Google have a page where they give advice on “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content” : https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creat... Things like “Provide a great page experience” , “Focus on people-first content” , and “Avoid creating search engine-first content” . This article reframes it as an unfulfilled obligation and betrayal because ‘Google Promised to Re…

Advice, which, as evidenced by this post, is at this point utter nonsense which may at some point in the past have been true.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#106

Post by Aldipower »

jasode wrote: post #98
Aldipower wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, that wants me to use AI even less. Both examples has nothing to do with an open and free internet. Meaning I cannot trust AI at all. All those examples of data source here, also in the other replies, using mainly highly biased sources. Wikipedia (biased by a small group of mods), YouTube filtered by Google itself, pasting customer travel advice email heavily violates GDPR, social forums also funneled. If we l…

>, pasting customer travel advice email heavily violates GDPR Not seeing how pasting text with no personal identity information would violate GDPR. E.g. someone sends an email saying "For your career prospects, I think you should learn Rust instead of COBOL." Copy&pasting that into AI or an AI scanning that sentence with no identity information isn't going to violate GDPR. There's no personal data to violate. (If the…

> or the AI autoscans the customer's email inbox

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#107

Post by PGenes »

blinding-streak wrote: post #25

> As one Google executive recently explained: “Organizing information is clearly a trillion-dollar opportunity, but a trillion dollars is not cool anymore. What’s cool is a quadrillion dollars.” This uncited, anonymous quote sounds very made up. Cursory search couldn't find anything like this. Regardless, while the article makes some good points, it is also dripping with entitlement. Google gave you incredible moneti…

[dead]

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#108

Post by bgwalter »

thedevilslawyer wrote: post #76
bgwalter wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stealing other people's output and then cutting them off from discovery isn't a right either. Since politicians do not protect us from these criminals, we are fortunate that no one except for CEOs under the influence of cocaine wants "AI".

You (and others) keep using "stealing" and "robbing". I get emotions are high because of the impact of AI, but in no meaningful/legal sense is this true. Is there space for nuanced/critical discussion?

I do have a reply, but I'll save it for an article that stays on the front page so people will see it. This interesting article has dropped to page 3 within minutes.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#109

Post by ezst »

thedevilslawyer wrote: post #3

The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Most people don't want to read an article on travel advice when AI gives us much better and specific advice, with references, when we want it.

Reading this comment is depressing.

How can you be so naive as to think that Google has your best interests in mind (and not their pockets')? They will absolutely serve you the content that has you stick on their walled garden for the longest, misdirecting you along the way, and serving you nonsense and fake content if that's what it takes. And you don't have to take my word for it, that's what Google search has been doing for the best part of a decade: deteriorating search results and placing partner's/own links/SEO slop more and more prominently on their first results page. Monopolies encourage that.

Also you seem to be believing that LLMs are somehow a source of truth. Here I've got bad news for you: LLMs are political machines "aligned" (biased by design) by slave labourers who are in no way competent nor neutral. They are opinion producing/repeating pieces that you shouldn't take at face value, with a knowledge cutoff in the past and no ability to adapt to real world events. How do you expect LLMs to fare (and the state of the world to be bettered) once all your travel recommendations are AI generated, subsequently digested and repeated by other AIs? Depressing.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#110

Post by Aldipower »

eviks wrote: post #93
Aldipower wrote: post #9

I see it in a positive light. For me it means back to the roots. People will visit your website by typing in your URL directly into the address bar. Direct marketing and mouth-to-mouth will be a thing again.

How can living in a dark cave be seen in a positive light?

I depends on the angle you are looking from. The current situation with Google _search_ is looking very dark too me, so looking away from Google makes the world a little bit brighter.
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