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Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

retrododo.com

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Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#21

Post by edude03 »

beejiu wrote: post #19
edude03 wrote: post #9

I'll start by saying, I'm sorry this is happening to the retrododo team, I hadn't heard of them before this article (I'm not really intro retro games) but it seems like they make genuinely good and useful content for the community. On the other hand, more and more these days I see articles & videos that I (possibly unfairly) summarize as "My content deserves to be prioritized by 'the algorithm' and $BIG_CORP is again…

> I would actually be looking to either reddit, or gaming YouTubers or gaming sites I already use In my mind, this is actually the problem. Over the past 15 years, the "web" has become increasingly platformized, and it's getting more platformized every year. The web is, for all intents and purposes, at the control and direction of Google, Meta, YouTube and a few other players. When you do finally get into the "indepe…

So, I agree with you, but as a counter anecdote - I was subscribed to Nebula for ~2 years, and I barely used it because there was no algorithm telling me what things it thought I'd like. Even when I had a topic in mind that I was interested in (mega projects as a random example) I'd get low 100s of results, many from creators I had never heard of, and the ones I chose to watch would typically be from creators I knew from YouTube which of course, were presented to me by "the algorithm".

While I agree it's harmful to the web to be essentially under control of a very small number of mega corporations, even when you actively avoid them like I did in my nebula example, it's not clear what the solution to content discovery is (and of course, google et al don't really stop you from consuming content you already know about which is my problem with the original article)

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#22

Post by peddling-brink »

smrtinsert wrote: post #5

It's time to relaunch curated content in any form, directories, tagging etc. 2023 and 2024 has demonstrated handily that the entire web is at risk if we trust large corporations with everything.

The monetized web perhaps.

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#23

Post by edude03 »

ricardobeat wrote: post #12
edude03 wrote: post #9

I'll start by saying, I'm sorry this is happening to the retrododo team, I hadn't heard of them before this article (I'm not really intro retro games) but it seems like they make genuinely good and useful content for the community. On the other hand, more and more these days I see articles & videos that I (possibly unfairly) summarize as "My content deserves to be prioritized by 'the algorithm' and $BIG_CORP is again…

> I honestly don't understand why so many people seem to believe that their content not doing well by some arbitrary standard means some force is against them How long have you been using the internet for? You don't have to be a content creator to have noticed the huge shift in the past decade, that is basically killing the internet. Google's algorithm played a huge ,role in that, it has become nearly impossible to f…

~20 years to directly answer your question.

I said this in a child comment - but to put it a different way - Imagine google didn't exist, how would you go about discovering content? When I first got on the internet there used to be directories, which was literally just a list of links sorted by topic. Although there was no "algorithm" I imagine (based on my own usage) that items listed closer to the top were more often clicked and thus grew faster than items lower on the list.

In fact, even before the internet, this phenomenon existed in the Yellow Pages which is why you have things like "aaa local plumbers" so they'd appear before their competitors.

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#25

Post by madsbuch »

miohtama wrote: post #8

The problem is not Google tweaking their algorithm causing large sites getting more traffic. The problem is Google having 90% dominance on the search, without credible competition. The problem is that Microsoft Bing never became a viable search engine. With more diverse Internet, like it was 15 years ago, issues caused by one provider were inconvenience, not a death blow.

at this point you can not claim that there is no credible competition.

from my perspective the "issue" is that none of the competitors get traction. why would they? you either have to pay or change your habits.

Regardless, DMA, Gdpr, and friends will slowly level the playing field.

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#26

Post by ChrisArchitect »

Who are these guys? Oh they wrote a book for example, ok let's search for that topic: handheld history.

15 results of book stores (including the publisher they released on), reviews, other news sites, all covering their book, and then near bottom, their own page on the book. That doesn't seem off really, their product is still reachable. Whether they should be considered the authority, or the store selling it should be, is up for debate.

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#27

Post by hgs3 »

miohtama wrote: post #8

The problem is not Google tweaking their algorithm causing large sites getting more traffic. The problem is Google having 90% dominance on the search, without credible competition. The problem is that Microsoft Bing never became a viable search engine. With more diverse Internet, like it was 15 years ago, issues caused by one provider were inconvenience, not a death blow.

Absolutely. Anyone who doubts Google killed web surfing should try the Marginalia search engine [1]. Unlike Google, Marginalia presents novel and interesting results.

[1] https://search.marginalia.nu/

Re: Google Is Killing Retro Dodo and Other Independent Sites

#30

Post by nomemory »

hgs3 wrote: post #27
miohtama wrote: post #8

The problem is not Google tweaking their algorithm causing large sites getting more traffic. The problem is Google having 90% dominance on the search, without credible competition. The problem is that Microsoft Bing never became a viable search engine. With more diverse Internet, like it was 15 years ago, issues caused by one provider were inconvenience, not a death blow.

Absolutely. Anyone who doubts Google killed web surfing should try the Marginalia search engine [1]. Unlike Google, Marginalia presents novel and interesting results. [1] https://search.marginalia.nu/

I use marginalia more to find blogs and explore personal sites. I think I visit the site daily.

Have you tried kagi?

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