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Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

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Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#51

Post by throwaway539324 »

I was thinking about this recently, because at my business we're working on improving our SEO.

The big problem is that Google is the major way people discover goods and services. If you have a site that sells garden hoses, the best way to get eyeballs is to write blog posts that a potential user of garden hoses might search for. "How to install a garden hose." "What is the best garden hose."

This kind of content marketing can drive huge traffic and thus huge sales.

But only results on the first page of Google matter, and the farther down the first page you are, the less traffic you get.

Now, the 15 companies that produce garden hoses are fighting against each other to get the 10 slots in Google's first page for any given keyword.

With AI-generated articles, it's become a race to the bottom. Google rewards AI-generated, keyword-optimized blog spam. If you want to be one of the 15 companies that makes it into those 10 slots, you better believe you need to write AI-generated blogspam too. And when everyone has to do that in order to compete, all that's left is the AI-generated blogspam that has infested the modern web.

You almost have no choice as a business. Either write AI-generated blogspam that Google loves, or your competition will, and bury you in the search results.

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#52

Post by will_walker »

Be careful what you wish for. AI capable of writing weird garbage nonsense content that looks truthful is coming down the pipeline, with a reward function built in for user engagement. In a world of effortless surreal content, authoritatively truthful answer will become more valuable. We're going to need encyclopedias again!

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#53

Post by marginalia_nu »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #33
marginalia_nu wrote: post #24

> What I dream of is Google circa 2006. A time where a search engine searched what you asked for. A time before aggressive SEO. A time before social media, when the only people on the internet had a reason to be there. A time before sticky headers and full-screen modal pop-ups asking you to subscribe to a newsletter before reading the article. A time before click-bait and subscription-only websites which tease you wi…

> Well, I built sort of exactly this: https://search.marginalia.nu/ What's the elevator pitch? What do you actually do that is special? From the about section: > This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. > The software for this search engine is all custom-…

The point is to surface human websites and discriminate against content mills, click funnels and e-commerce.

For one I have a sort of budget for how much javascript I will tolerate. Some is fine, like your standard wordpress config probably will fly, but not much more. I also do a personalized pagerank biased toward the blogosphere. The likelihood your website shows up in the results is directly determined by whether real humans link to the website.

It's not a Google replacement by any measure, it's meant as a complement, but if you are looking for more in-depth content on a topic than you can find elsewhere, it's often a good starting point.

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#54

Post by dredmorbius »

RajT88 wrote: post #30

Google is not the front page of my internet. I recently decided to create my own landing page, stored locally on disk, with a funny gif and favicon.ico, and a shortlist of my most used work and personal links (including this site!). No ads, no tracking. Shockingly - I had to install browser extensions to override the new tab page in both Edge and Chrome. This used to be a built in setting! Shady guys. Very shady. Alt…

I'd like to set something like this up on an Android tablet.

I have Termux installed and there are a few options for running a simple webserver (e.g., via Python). I've yet to look into hosting my own homepage and directory there, though ... it would be nice and useful to do this.

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#55

Post by tigerlily »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #33
marginalia_nu wrote: post #24

> What I dream of is Google circa 2006. A time where a search engine searched what you asked for. A time before aggressive SEO. A time before social media, when the only people on the internet had a reason to be there. A time before sticky headers and full-screen modal pop-ups asking you to subscribe to a newsletter before reading the article. A time before click-bait and subscription-only websites which tease you wi…

> Well, I built sort of exactly this: https://search.marginalia.nu/ What's the elevator pitch? What do you actually do that is special? From the about section: > This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. > The software for this search engine is all custom-…

I know it’s of low value to ask, but who really gives a shit?

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#56

Post by krapp »

HeyItsMatt wrote: post #43
drivebycomment wrote: post #4

This is a clear demonstration of the user's expectation of search having exceeded what's possible today. From the article: > Lets look at some examples. One of my favorite places in the world is Koh Lanta, Thailand. When traveling, I’m always on the lookout for places that give off the Koh Lanta vibe. What does that mean? Hard to say, exactly, but having tourist amenities without being touristy. Charming, slow, cheap…

Quoted post unavailable.

>The correct result is to return pages containing "Croatia" AND "Koh Lanta".

But that isn't the correct result. "Koh Lanta" is being used by the OP to describe the vibe of a place "having tourist amenities without being touristy." It isn't a common English idiom, but one they made up based on their personal experiences as a tourist in Thailand. Results which simply contain the text "Croatia" and "Koh Lanta" aren't going to reflect what they want.

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#57

Post by ck_one »

spitfire wrote: post #36
drivebycomment wrote: post #4

This is a clear demonstration of the user's expectation of search having exceeded what's possible today. From the article: > Lets look at some examples. One of my favorite places in the world is Koh Lanta, Thailand. When traveling, I’m always on the lookout for places that give off the Koh Lanta vibe. What does that mean? Hard to say, exactly, but having tourist amenities without being touristy. Charming, slow, cheap…

I actually built this exact thing for myself when I was looking for property to buy. I built a VAE DNN to identify sandy white beaches, added in a bunch of data about economics and such, built a custom McPain index (Inverse of the distance to the nearest chain restaurant (McDonalds, Burger king, Starbucks, etc)*1000000)[1]. Fed a bunch of countries coastline into it, and popped out ranked beachfronts to investigate m…

Sounds super useful!

Where did you get the data from? Do you still have the code somewhere?

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#58

Post by sebastianconcpt »

It's not technology. It's about culture (which is linked to the social imaginary, a kind of group consciousness operative system, hence a kind of immaterial technology itself).

Psychologically, at the core of the problem, this is what happens:

Cancel culture fear => Peer pressure hypersensibility => Monotonicity

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#59

Post by [deleted] »

krapp wrote: post #56
HeyItsMatt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

>The correct result is to return pages containing "Croatia" AND "Koh Lanta". But that isn't the correct result. "Koh Lanta" is being used by the OP to describe the vibe of a place "having tourist amenities without being touristy." It isn't a common English idiom, but one they made up based on their personal experiences as a tourist in Thailand. Results which simply contain the text "Croatia" and "Koh Lanta" aren't go…

[deleted]

Re: Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google

#60

Post by outworlder »

redavni wrote: post #32

I have resorted to using Russian (Yandex) and Chinese (Baidu) search engines in the last few years. It is interesting that non commercial sources have more of a voice on these search engines than on Google today. Google is good at many things, but their leadership is questionable now, unlike in the past. I would pay a subscription fee for a service that provided partity with Google and customer service that answers t…

Aren't those heavily censored?
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