Some really good thoughts here. I'll summarize the ones that hit me:
- "Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust."
This is it for me exactly. I search for the following kinds of things on Reddit exactly because results on other sites aren't trustworthy: Reviews are secretly paid ads. The "best" recipe for pancakes is only what's trending on instagram right now. The latest conditions on mountain bike and hiking trails are being shared inside communities like Reddit but not on the web. The same for trending programmer tools.
- "It is obvious that serving ads creates misaligned incentives for search engines..."
What I'm shocked by is that Google somehow maintained a balance on this for so long. Well, at least a good enough balance that people still use it primarily.
- "Google increasingly does not give you the results for what you typed in. It tries to be “smart” and figure out what you “really meant" ..."
This is the most annoying behavior because I really mean what I write.
- "There’s a fun conspiracy theory that popped up recently called the Dead Internet Theory..."
I hadn't heard of this. Now that's some sci-fi level of conspiracy but in today's world it seems totally plausible.
- "Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust."
This is it for me exactly. I search for the following kinds of things on Reddit exactly because results on other sites aren't trustworthy: Reviews are secretly paid ads. The "best" recipe for pancakes is only what's trending on instagram right now. The latest conditions on mountain bike and hiking trails are being shared inside communities like Reddit but not on the web. The same for trending programmer tools.
- "It is obvious that serving ads creates misaligned incentives for search engines..."
What I'm shocked by is that Google somehow maintained a balance on this for so long. Well, at least a good enough balance that people still use it primarily.
- "Google increasingly does not give you the results for what you typed in. It tries to be “smart” and figure out what you “really meant" ..."
This is the most annoying behavior because I really mean what I write.
- "There’s a fun conspiracy theory that popped up recently called the Dead Internet Theory..."
I hadn't heard of this. Now that's some sci-fi level of conspiracy but in today's world it seems totally plausible.