Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How Google is killing independent sites like ours

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I don't really care about review sites (beyond saying that you really should not trust the ones that show up on Google, but I think everyone knows that). What I do care about is the gradual but inexorable compression of the publicly discoverable web to a few commercial services. Sixteen companies dominate Google search results (see more) and they do because they pay for it. That's how Google makes its money. This is a result not unique to Google; as documented by Cory Doctorow the other day, we see the same sort of trend on social media as individual content is replaced with advertorial. Because I rely on mailing lists and RSS and personal connections I am mostly insulated from this (good news for readers! however few of you are left). But most people are not. Via Dan Gillmor.

Today: 0 Total: 85 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 07:00 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes