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Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

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Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#91

Post by dvngnt_ »

crazygringo wrote: post #80
dvngnt_ wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the DOJ acts immediately. > so that other search engines aren't given the opportunity to also pay? this makes it harder for new engines if google has exclusive deals with some of the most popular sites

> if google has exclusive deals My comment said, show me that the Google deal with Reddit is exclusive. You haven't done that. And there's no reason to think it would be, because of antitrust. The DOJ doesn't have to act "immediately", the point is that obvious antitrust violations come with fines that make it unprofitable to attempt in the first place. And this would be black-and-white obvious antitrust violation, g…

clearly some deal was reach between the two parties or we wouldn't be here.

whether or not the deal is exclusive OR companies have to pay to index reddit it's still bad for competition. money has a barrier to entry preventing newcomers.

I can blame reddit for creating the deal and I can blame google for accepting the deal if the effect is bing, ddg and others cannot display reddit results without reaching some deal.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#92

Post by Closi »

jedberg wrote: post #29

They changed robots.txt a month or so ago. For the first 19 years of life, reddit had a very permissive robots.txt. We allowed all by default and then only restricted certain poorly behaved agents (and Bender's Shiny Metal Ass(tm)) But I can understand why they made the change they did. The data was being abused. My guess is that this was an oversight -- that they will do an audit and reopen it for search engines aft…

> But I can understand why they made the change they did. The data was being abused.

Depends how you see it - if you see it as 'their' data (legally true) or if you see it as user content (how their users would likely see it).

If you see it as 'user content', they are actually selling the data to be abused by one company, rather than stopping it being abused at all.

From a commercial 'lets sell user data and make a profit' perspective I get it, although does seem short-sighted to decide to effectively de-list yourself from alternative search engines (guess they just got enough cash to make it worth their while).

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#93

Post by BeetleB »

JohnMakin wrote: post #32
jedberg wrote: post #29

They changed robots.txt a month or so ago. For the first 19 years of life, reddit had a very permissive robots.txt. We allowed all by default and then only restricted certain poorly behaved agents (and Bender's Shiny Metal Ass(tm)) But I can understand why they made the change they did. The data was being abused. My guess is that this was an oversight -- that they will do an audit and reopen it for search engines aft…

One (in this case, 2) company's incentive for profit should not take priority over the usability/well being of the internet as a whole, ever, and is exactly why we are where we are now. This is an absolutely terrible precedent.

I know people will hate to hear this, but Reddit it's not important to the A well being of the Internet.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#94

Post by ks2048 »

bdw5204 wrote: post #41
debacle wrote: post #13

Reddit has been ripe for disruption for years. It's just waiting on an inflection point and someone to take it behind the barn.

The strange thing to me is how everybody keeps trying to make distributed Twitter happen when distributed Reddit is the low hanging fruit for federated social media. You don't want to end up banned from a movies forum because you also participate in a political forum. Federation solves that problem because you can use separate accounts without either forum knowing that you also use the other.

I like it principle, but after watching the situation with Twitter clones, I'm not too optimistic on federated services taking off.

I would like to see a wikipedia-style system for Twitter/Reddit: open access data, non-profit.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#95

Post by jsnell »

meiraleal wrote: post #72
jedberg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you in theory, but in practice someone has to pay for all this magic.

how can we keep paying the ever-growing profits of multi-trillion dollar companies? This is insane.

Reddit is 100x from being a trillion-dollar company, and is not profitable.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#96

Post by isoprophlex »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #84
kjkjadksj wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the issue is that it isn’t just the web, but the inevitable american corporate shareholder model. Even businesses could be mom and pop ified and made way more popular overnight: quit raising prices and cutting corners and it would actually stand for itself like a massive $7 burrito. However the expectation is that shareholders get returns. Costs must be cut. Prices must be raised. Margins must be improved. It…

My rant above and your response reminded me of all those tons of MMO games out there that are ancient, with a tiny playerbase, that remain profitable nonetheless simply because if you have a product that people like using, putting it into maintenance mode and doing the bare minimum to keep it running is a perfectly valid business strategy. The companies that buy these service games and run them effectively just buy c…

In biology, you'd call that a cancer. But to people praising the gospel of VC money, it's something desirable...

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#97

Post by kevincox »

kingnothing wrote: post #58
PaulRobinson wrote: post #31

This is great. It means I won't see Reddit content popping up all over search results in other engines. Can Medium do the same? And perhaps Quora?

What use do you get out of a search engine if not searching for reddit and other forums? The rest of the internet has become a cesspool of useless AI generated crap.

To be fair Reddit threads are more and more often getting filled with useless AI generated crap as well.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#98

Post by sunaookami »

popcalc wrote: post #5

# Welcome to Reddit's robots.txt # Reddit believes in an open internet, but not the misuse of public content. # See https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/26410290525844-Public-Content-Policy Reddit's Public Content Policy for access and use restrictions to Reddit content. # See https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit4researchers/ for details on how Reddit continues to support research and non-commercial use. # pol…

They serve a different robots.txt to Google: https://merj.com/blog/investigating-reddits-robots-txt-cloak...

You can see it here: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results/result?id=_mYogl... (click on "View Tested Page")

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#99

Post by jjulius »

kingnothing wrote: post #58
PaulRobinson wrote: post #31

This is great. It means I won't see Reddit content popping up all over search results in other engines. Can Medium do the same? And perhaps Quora?

What use do you get out of a search engine if not searching for reddit and other forums? The rest of the internet has become a cesspool of useless AI generated crap.

To be fair, Reddit has plenty of astroturfing, too.

Re: Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

#100

Post by ekidd »

jedberg wrote: post #29

They changed robots.txt a month or so ago. For the first 19 years of life, reddit had a very permissive robots.txt. We allowed all by default and then only restricted certain poorly behaved agents (and Bender's Shiny Metal Ass(tm)) But I can understand why they made the change they did. The data was being abused. My guess is that this was an oversight -- that they will do an audit and reopen it for search engines aft…

I personally feel that this kind of "exclusive search only by Google deal" should result in an anti-trust case against Google. This is the kind of abuse of monopoly power that caused anti-trust laws to be passed in the 1890s.
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