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Re:The Fall of Stack Overflow by bad_alloc on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @06:16AM (#36860255)
Conspiracy theory: Bad initial search results forces people to search more often, hence allowing google to show more ads. Since few people switch away as a result, they continue doing this.
Re:The Fall of Stack Overflow by permo-w on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @06:37AM (#36860383)
this is a bit like the cosmetics industry. there are very clearly probiotic solutions to body odour that could be developed with the coins down the back of P&G's sofa cushions, but if you fix everyone's body odour, then how are you gonna sell them anti-perspirant from now till the rapture?

now, in an ideal world competition would solve this problem, but the cosmetics companies heavily collude and anti-compete to prevent this