Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by jjaksic » Fri, May 30, 2025, 12:26 PM UTC

ipaddr wrote: post #148

wanderingbort wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They literally change the algo to exclude smaller sites. That's active suppression. Promoting would be putting them on top of the "neutral" search results like they do for ads.

By that definition is OpenAI also censoring small websites? What about Washington Post, is it censoring small websites? Because I sure can't see them in any of those places.

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

#172

Post by Ferret7446 » Fri, May 30, 2025, 7:16 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #157

nilirl wrote: post #71

The whole argument hinges on one claim: We were censored not because of content but because of who we are. Strongest evidence in support: Drop in traffic coincided with google algorithm update. Biggest lack of evidence: Nothing that shows it's because of who they are and not their content. Author defended their content by pointing out the cost and labor that goes into making their content. Was the content really auth…

It doesn't hinge entirely on that. There's a lot of ambient background context here too. The idea Google is hostile to long tail indie content isn't exactly a groundbreaking claim, it's been obvious and widely discussed for years. They've been losing the original culture for a long time. Google circa 2000-2010 was very libertarian. It believed in a large decentralized web in which Google helped all users with all que…

> The idea Google is hostile to long tail indie content

It's not Google, it's reality.

Do you really think the 99.99% user would prefer long tail indie content over short form clickbait/drama? The data from every single website proves otherwise.

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

#173

Post by BlueTemplar » Sat, May 31, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #5

> Google plans to use AI to consume and replace the open web. They've been boiling the frog here for a long time. The "open web" is a euphemism for the Google Chrome monoculture walled-garden-in-waiting. Google exert so much influence there that building on the web is in practice barely different than building on say iOS. You can do what you want if you don't want to make money, but if you do then you will have to pl…

Yes, the warnings were there for more than a decade. And yet these websites were still kowtowing to Google !

I doubt that the USA will do anything to rein in their platforms though : they're too convenient as a form of soft power. (Of course, you never know with Trump.)

So it's probably time to cut off the USA from the Internet. Let them stew in the bed they made. The timing is good too, with Trump having even managed to piss of Canada !!

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However, this won't solve an issue with search engines : just yesterday I was using Kagi, and it was still a miserable experience.

Blocking the likes of YouTube and Reddit is easy enough.

It's much harder to deal with all the spam consisting of pseudo-guide websites, each with very specific names, seemingly a lot of them using LLMs to generate them, which I guess make money from either ads and/or referrals ?

And anyone can scrap the web and train LLMs, so even limiting the size of infocoms by law (and banning foreign ones) wouldn't solve this issue.

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

#174

Post by mike_hearn » Sat, May 31, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

Ferret7446 wrote: post #172

mike_hearn wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't hinge entirely on that. There's a lot of ambient background context here too. The idea Google is hostile to long tail indie content isn't exactly a groundbreaking claim, it's been obvious and widely discussed for years. They've been losing the original culture for a long time. Google circa 2000-2010 was very libertarian. It believed in a large decentralized web in which Google helped all users with all que…

> The idea Google is hostile to long tail indie content It's not Google, it's reality. Do you really think the 99.99% user would prefer long tail indie content over short form clickbait/drama? The data from every single website proves otherwise.

Well, yes? Stuff like Instagram and TikTok is nothing but long tail indie content.

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

#175

Post by mulmen » Sat, May 31, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

bgwalter wrote: post #46

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.

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".

How is it stealing if the information was posted on a public website? How do you steal something that is free?

If I read a travel site then make a recommendation to a friend did I steal?