• laurelraven
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Part of that isn’t really the fault of the search engines though, SEO optimization is heavily abused and with AI writing for websites now, identifying what’s worth indexing/returning vs ignoring because it’s garbage is basically a game of whack-a-mole

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, is it important to put the blame on someone, or is it more important that society has access to a functional search engine. The AI thing is very new. The enshittification of Google precedes the generative content boom.

      Similarly working to appoint blame of pollution emissions and lack of alternative transit has not gotten us fast rail or safer cars or much in reducing greenhouse emissions.

      Although the interests of large corporations in retaining their profits and political power exceeds the interests of the public in the current regime.

      • laurelraven
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        The AI part may be new, but the SEO abuse is not. The AI stuff just makes an already bad situation worse and getting worse faster than ever.

        Don’t take what I’m saying as defending Google or anything, they clearly could and should do better, but even if they were doing everything right it’s only part of the problem right now.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well, is it important to put the blame on someone

        It’s important to identify the cause of a problem if you hope to fix it.

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Assuming the intent is to manage problems by rooting out causes (typically plural) and addressing them, yes.

          If the intent is to preserve the status quo my diffusing responsibility to other involved parties then it’s about deflecting blame.

          So if Google is less about providing a quality public service than increasing revenues while providing less service (the latter is to be expected of a publicly owned company following shareholder primacy) then it’s moreninterested in deflecting blame than finding public-serving solutions.