The phenomenon they describe for health information is, IMHO, absolutely rife across many different domains. Try looking up information about gardening, plant management, home improvement, etc - you'll find the same thing. Search results dominated by sites that have mastered the art of producing SEO-optimised "content" that is not authoritative, full of waffle, and not especially helpful.
For whatever reason, the business model of "draw a huge amount of traffic" outcompetes the business model of "provide a really good source of information".
It's interesting to ponder why in very specific domains, that's not the case: for instance, StackOverflow dominates in programming queries, and provides very useful content.
Someone much smarter than me should write a really good blog post about this.
For whatever reason, the business model of "draw a huge amount of traffic" outcompetes the business model of "provide a really good source of information".
It's interesting to ponder why in very specific domains, that's not the case: for instance, StackOverflow dominates in programming queries, and provides very useful content.
Someone much smarter than me should write a really good blog post about this.