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Google is burying the web alive

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Re: Google is burying the web alive

#151

Post by coffeefirst »

droidist2 wrote: post #146
anal_reactor wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to limit my online time, but I'm so addicted to the internet, even though it's pure garbage nowadays. Any practical tips? It's not about putting away the phone, it's about... the hope that maybe this time I'll read something funny or informative, as I have absolutely no other sources of information or social interaction. "Go out and talk to people" isn't valid advice. It's never been, but in 2025 finally eve…

> "Go out and talk to people" isn't valid advice. It's never been, but in 2025 finally even the mainstream is slowly admitting that this doesn't work. Why doesn't it work?

It absolutely does work but it’s too vague. A person in this position really needs to go outside and talk to people but doesn’t where to start.

So, join a running club, or go to pub trivia, take an in person class, or volunteer. Pick literally anything you can show up once a week and there will be people doing stuff. It will change your life.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#152

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

Computer owners finance www through Internet Service Provider subscriptions fees. Users of www upload content at their own expense. Google produces zero content at zero expense, stores content of www users, monitors their www use. Google profits, becomes trillion dollar company. What happens next.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#153

Post by aaron695 »

ninth_ant wrote: post #23

Implicit in this article is the idea that you have to use Google, and that Google Search equals “the web”. I’ll be the boring nerd, I guess, who has to be the one to say there are many other search engines out there. If you don’t like Google (I don’t), or don’t like where they are moving their products (I don’t) — please use a competing search engine. I’ve used DuckDuckGo for years and I don’t miss anything about Goo…

[dead]

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#154

Post by p3rls »

nicbou wrote: post #46

I can weigh in on this. I run a small information website ( https://allaboutberlin.com ). My traffic has been growing steadily for 7 years, but now its down 30-ish percent year on year. From what I'm hearing, my competitors (and friends) are having it worse. My main mission is to put new information on the internet. It's harder to do this if AI destroys the economics of it. It's also harder without an audience who pr…

My niche has been dominated by indian slop for a decade now who cares about a few robots getting in on the action?

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#155

Post by p3rls »

sanderjd wrote: post #114
romaaeterna wrote: post #3

As someone who remembers what the web was like 25 years ago, I have a feeling that they're burying a corpse.

Right? I'm sure Google deserves some, maybe a lot, of the blame, but the web has just deteriorated steadily over the past 15 years or so and I really don't think it's all their fault.

Wet streets cause rain-level observations from non-publishers in this thread. The web everyone is nostalgic about was killed by google.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#156

Post by p3rls »

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #94

In my humble opinion, Google is the reason the web withstood as long as it did. At least the open part of the web did. Yes, sure, they monetized, but also they gave back as much as, and if not more than they took. We have so many machine learning frameworks, tensorflow, research, payouts to creators, advertising opportunities, careers, products, a lot of things built and taken down but most importantly built. They we…

it's so funny listening to people who are clearly not publishers give their takes on these things

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#157

Post by mediumsmart »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #43
TonyTrapp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When "to google" has literally become a verb in several languages, you know it's not going to be that easy to convince literally hundreds of millions of people to use something different. For many unsavvy people, Google is and continues to be their window into the web, and they wouldn't even know they can have it another way.

It's a seemingly patronizing joke meme, but I've repeatedly seen many of my relatives type in e.g. "Facebook.com" into Google search box, and then blindly click the first entry (which is completely at the mercy of being hijacked/prioritized based on either who's paying more money to Google, or latest fun extension / glitchy website they've installed). I have not yet found a working approach to alter that behaviour -…

So true and the holy grail of being the first entry fuels the industry of reviews and stars which fuels the industry of bad review removal services etc and so on. This is such a vast ecosystem and so humiliating for the participants that it is only logical to let AI write, read and handle it. This is our chance to get a life. Lets not squander it.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#158

Post by oliwarner »

Shorn wrote: post #134
winterbloom wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bsky just as bad as twitter/x now, they require login to see certain posts

Isn't that a setting the individual publishing user controls? I don't use BlueSky so I'm not sure - just interested. Especially if it's already going the route of Twitter/Facebook, etc. - which I expect it to long-term.

Yeah there's a "learn more" link.

> This user has requested that their content only be shown to signed-in users.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#159

Post by danpalmer »

NewsaHackO wrote: post #4

This is actually a good thing, now we don’t have to sift though a dozen semiautomatically created SEO gaming website that try and make the same point 5-6 said in slightly different ways.

I’m in two minds. On the one hand I want to consume quality original content. On the other hand when I ask a question, the top hit being the literal answer is such a convincing UX.

But then again, I have always found the quality content through social media, links to blog posts, YouTube channels, etc. I’m not putting “quality politics blogs” into a search engine and never have done.

Re: Google is burying the web alive

#160

Post by DougN7 »

water-data-dude wrote: post #45
TonyTrapp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When "to google" has literally become a verb in several languages, you know it's not going to be that easy to convince literally hundreds of millions of people to use something different. For many unsavvy people, Google is and continues to be their window into the web, and they wouldn't even know they can have it another way.

I wish Duck Duck Go was fewer syllables so I could try to force it into conversations as a verb.

Why don’t you “kagi” that? Could work, but it’s not free (but very worth it IMO).
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