a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by goobster
goobster  ·  1981 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Internet was a mistake

Ya know, now that I think of it, Google just multiplied the problem.

Prior to Google, all of the lists of web sites were curated by people. Bookmark lists. Yahoo.

People would find a site, and add it to the list in the proper section/category, like putting away VHS tapes in a video rental store. "Ah. This site is for fans of the Dallas Cowboys. I'll file it under Sports > Football > Teams > Dallas Cowboys > Fans"

Once these lists were programmatically generated by Google, you could then influence where you appeared on the list, by showing more traffic, or more keywords, or other stunts. It was no longer a person looking at a page, thinking "Yeah, this is good. I'll link to it." It became Google saying, "This word exists on this page, and more sites link to this page than that page, so this page will show up at the top of the list."

As with most things, software only made the internet worse! :-)