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Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

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Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#61

Post by ssl-3 »

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #8
spudlyo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Franky, good riddance. The websites that had SEO optimized their way to the top of Google's search results for queries like "how to change DNS settings", "best free VPN", or "best wireless earbuds under $300" were generally terrible, and I can't say I'm sad that that creating that kind of "content" is no longer economically viable. There were large categories of information had become extremely difficult to search fo…

You'll just see it within AI responses instead.

Certainly so.

But we aren't there quite yet; that's tomorrow's problem. And I still have things that I need to do today.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#62

Post by cj »

xrd wrote: post #5

I recently replaced a power supply to upgrade a GPU. I bought the power supply on Cragslist, so it had a jumble of cables and no manual. In the past I would have read an article that I would have found on one of those sites. This time I conversed entirely with Gemini, sending pictures of the cables and of the components and the motherboard. I'll not soon forget when I plugged in a cable incorrectly and sent an image…

Same experience here: someone at our company had a bricked Macbook Pro. It was previously MDM-managed with JamF, and it wouldn't boot up. Asked ChatGPT to give me steps to fix it.

The first set of steps didn't work, so we iteratively sent pictures of the screen until the steps eventually did work and the issue was fixed.

This saved us from having to call Apple support.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#63

Post by camillomiller »

Aboutplants wrote: post #48

If you’ve visited any of these sites recently it’s obvious that part of the issue is that you’re bombarded with pops, ads everywhere, autoplaying video, etc. It’s nauseating and a horrible user experience. If all I’m looking for is straightforward content/info then I’m naturally using the most efficient way to get that content/information and visiting a website is not the most efficient way anymore

So, Google promotes the enshittification you decry by monopolizing the way you make money on the internet. Then also Google cripples everyone’s ad-dependent business by sucking out the info these websites provide and have paid people to research and publish. Nonetheless, Google good, websites bad.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#64

Post by wildrhythms »

Aboutplants wrote: post #48

If you’ve visited any of these sites recently it’s obvious that part of the issue is that you’re bombarded with pops, ads everywhere, autoplaying video, etc. It’s nauseating and a horrible user experience. If all I’m looking for is straightforward content/info then I’m naturally using the most efficient way to get that content/information and visiting a website is not the most efficient way anymore

These news sites run ads that are borderline gore, disturbing images promoting snake oil weight loss or skin care treatments, and wonder why nobody wants to click into their site.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#65

Post by stego-tech »

That animated graph at the top is awful; does not render well on macOS Safari.

That being said, I am morbidly curious about traffic from RSS subscribers: has that gone up, gone down, or remained roughly the same in the same time period?

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#66

Post by Latty »

xrd wrote: post #5

I recently replaced a power supply to upgrade a GPU. I bought the power supply on Cragslist, so it had a jumble of cables and no manual. In the past I would have read an article that I would have found on one of those sites. This time I conversed entirely with Gemini, sending pictures of the cables and of the components and the motherboard. I'll not soon forget when I plugged in a cable incorrectly and sent an image…

It's crazy to me that you'd trust the output of an LLM for that. It's something where if you do it wrong it could cause major damage, and LLMs are literally famous for creating plausbile-sounding but wrong output.

If you wanted to use an LLM to identify it, sure, you can validate that, and then find the manufacturer instructions and use those. Just following what it says about the cables without any validation it's correct is just wild to me. These are products with instruction manuals made for them specifically designed for this.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#67

Post by hypeatei »

Aboutplants wrote: post #48

If you’ve visited any of these sites recently it’s obvious that part of the issue is that you’re bombarded with pops, ads everywhere, autoplaying video, etc. It’s nauseating and a horrible user experience. If all I’m looking for is straightforward content/info then I’m naturally using the most efficient way to get that content/information and visiting a website is not the most efficient way anymore

Weren't those ads always there, though? The most obvious change is that a little AI popup appears on Google search providing a brief (even if hallucinated) overview of what the user queried.

Unrelated, but I wouldn't expect this take on HN where I assumed everyone knew what an ad-blocker was.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#68

Post by nancyminusone »

xrd wrote: post #5

I recently replaced a power supply to upgrade a GPU. I bought the power supply on Cragslist, so it had a jumble of cables and no manual. In the past I would have read an article that I would have found on one of those sites. This time I conversed entirely with Gemini, sending pictures of the cables and of the components and the motherboard. I'll not soon forget when I plugged in a cable incorrectly and sent an image…

That's more than a little concerning you would put full faith in AI to connect expensive hardware without verifying.

I'd at least ask for a citation to the product manual (even though half the time it cites another fucking AI generated site instead)

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#69

Post by NoLinkToMe »

Three things are probably true:

  1. in the short term this development is great for users. LLMs trained for free on a universe of high-quality human stolen content, and returns relevant parts of it to resolve specific customer questions, without ads, an operation funded by VC.

  2. with LLMs redirecting search from knowledge producers (webpages) to knowledge aggregators (LLMs) the incentive to create knowledge is gone, and future knowledge (including that fed into LLMs) will degrade compared to a universe that kept this incentive alive

  3. AI is hardware, energy and R&D intensive and VCs will need a business model to recuperate their investments and costs, a key-player has already announced an ad model re-creating part of the issue noted previously that we temporarily resolved
How this is great in the long-run, I don't see.
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