Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract...
by buboard on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:10PM
(#21546555)
> The old web is dead
I don't think so, and that s thanks to people who keep writing blogs, tutorials, make thoughtful videos, posting thoughtful comments etc. The "Old web" had a high technical barrier to entry and that acted as a selection filter. The "new web" is the former TV audience, which moved to facebook/instagram and mobile apps. It's big audience, and marketers are after it, but that didnt make the "old web" disappear. I ve never read anything interesting inside facebook except from Yann Lecun's posts (which he keeps there out of courtesy to his employer).
I just hope people stop thinking the old web should also move inside those because that's where their crowd is. It's not true, that's a different crowd.
Microsoft figured out that this was going to be a problem first -- you may recall that Bing was marketed as providing answers instead of results, which was a nascent threat. Google moved towards providing answers, and found that embedding ads / product placement in those answers was profitable.
Also remember that the users of Google in 2002 or whenever were a different audience. The "win-win" for you is confusion to the average punter.
I don't want to come off as a defender of Google -- but search is an incredibly complex business that means something different to many cohorts of users. I think the surveillance stuff is approaching or crossing a line nowadays, but I think it's fair to say they have done a pretty good job considering how the online and offline world has evolved.