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by PaulHoule 2738 days ago
"Perceived" benefit is the key.

It used to be the "World Wide Web" but now it is the "Google Platform" and we just live in it. After Google established that useful web search was possible the realized that the #1 competitor for their ads was organic rankings, and if you could really get a #1 ranking by investing in the best content then why would you spend money on ads?

So since then it is has been about deliberately degrading the search results so you learn to look at the ads instead, giving people bad S.E.O. advice, etc.
2 comments
izacus 2738 days ago
Your conspirancy theory completely ignores the whole shitshow of 15MB+ textual websites we've had to endure in those last years.
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tyingq 2738 days ago
"Conspiracy theory" is an interesting take. Are you suggesting Google's motives here are purely altruistic...solely to improve the web?
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shaki-dora 2738 days ago
The conspiracy here seems to refer to the accusation that Google is trying to actively make their search results worse, in order to force people to buy ads.

That post does seem to be paying lip service to actual benefits for users (such as speed), but then ... suddenly ignore them in favour of a Trojan horse metaphor that doesn't make much sense to me.

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tyingq 2738 days ago
It would be hard to prove Google is purposefully making the organics lower quality. On the other hand, it's obvious they are shifting them down the page over time, which has a similar effect.

As for the Trojan horse metaphor, it is my opinion that's what AMP is. It's tricking publishers into ceding control of their websites. I suspect Google will, over time, leverage AMP to further march towards a walled garden. It is, though, an opinion. Hard for me to "prove" something I'm not privy to.

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izacus 2738 days ago
No, I'm not implying they're purely anything. As most of these things go, they're a mix of both business convenience and someone pushing to fix a problem they perceive on the web. Your post took into account only one dimension of an issue.
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tyingq 2738 days ago
"Your post took into account only one dimension of an issue"

No, pretty sure I covered both. Maybe you're thinking of one of the replies to my post?

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manigandham 2738 days ago
80% of the ads you see on the web come from Doubleclick adserver - owned by Google. Perhaps you should ask why they do not optimize that system and use site speed in search rankings instead?
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travisoneill1 2738 days ago
Last time I checked the url bar still works
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