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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

#51

Post by tndibona »

My personal opinion. Google sees the writing on the wall with the rise of perplexity. People want trustable summaries of long winding content to make decisions. It’s business of sending people to the relevant content and serving ads has to change to compete. It is simply redefining how it serves up information. The fact that small information servers like us get wiped out is the unfortunate consequence.

I’m not saying we all have to innovate or perish but how did our rules based order allow Google to get to this point.

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

#52

Post by thedevilslawyer »

arp242 wrote: post #38
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.

It is impossible for any intelligence, artificial or otherwise, to deduce travel advice based on any prior knowledge. You need to actually go to these places and see what it's like. I don't know of any more clear and obvious example of "AI uses your content, robs you of your income, and gives nothing in return" than this. Whether AI (currently) gives "better" answers or not is rather besides the point.

We will disagree on whether content on travel on the internet is such richly experiential.

We will also disagree if displacement of work due to new technology qualifies as "robbing", as any advancement is then "robbing".

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

#54

Post by itchyjunk »

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…

Noam Shazeer says it at some point in the Dwarkesh Patel podcast.

Edit : Saw multiple people comment by the time I hit sent. Was it also memorable for you guys? I think it was just the way he said it or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0gjI__RyCY

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

#55

Post by palmfacehn »

camillomiller wrote: post #7
moresea wrote: post #4

.

I am finding it really hard to not reply with expletives to people that suck it up the way you do to trillion dollar corporations.

Google's growth is directly attributable to the opportunities they created for consumers and entrepreneurs/publishers. Recognizing that the landscape has changed and needs to be adapted to isn't excusing the opportunities which have been taken off the table.

It is a tall order, but these changes create new opportunities for other publishers to capitalize on.

If you're seething over the valuation of Google rather than the content of their actions, that's something to reflect upon. Most of us here would find issues with their policies and evolution over the past two decades. I would love to see a better search experience. I hope the company that delivers it earns as much as they can, by serving consumers and creating opportunities for publishers.

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

#56

Post by FinnLobsien »

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 same picture spot, go to the same mediocre (but cool-looking) restaurants and so on.

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

#57

Post by blinding-streak »

SecretDreams wrote: post #20
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…

> My hunch is Google never psychologically recovered from Facebook absolutely wiping out G+, and they have been on a mission to ensure nothing like that ever happens again. Same for Microsoft with phones. That's why Google and Microsoft are trying to use AI to crush us while Apple is like "I'm pretty content with how much money I make".

> Apple is like "I'm pretty content with how much money I make".

What a laughably silly depiction of a multi-trillion dollar company.

Their predatory app store policies, defended (and lost) in court, paint a completely different picture. Just one of dozens of examples.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-executive-outright-lied...

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

#58

Post by pmontra »

thedevilslawyer wrote: post #29
Aldipower wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And where the training data for your AI advice comes from?

Factual data mostly came from sources like wikipedia, news and social forums. I see these as continuing. Opinion data - from all other SEO sites. These were low signal mostly, and AI seems to have got the general gist of how to structure content for consumption. So rather information reaching our mind through a SEO writer, it's now being AI written, which is atleast more standardized, and can be grounded more easily,…

But if nobody write SEO content anymore because questions to AI remove all human traffic to those sites, where will AI find up to date opinions? Facebook ? Instagram? Meta will block Google from scraping them or ask money. Booking? Same for Microsoft. Tripadvisor? They better have to buy it soon.

Or AI will invent opinions based on the better bid. That would be an extension of the ad business and sponsored contents too.

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

#60

Post by JimDabell »

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 Reward Publishers Who Invest Resources Into Content Created “By People, For People”’

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