Google & friends no longer passing traffic through to the sites (AI summary style) feels like it may genuinely kill the internet.
Doesn't work for blogs, doesn't work for news sites, doesn't work for wikipedia(s), doesn't work for personal sites, doesn't work for info sites. It sucks the oxygen out of the room.
Only thing that'll remain standing is walled gardens the scrape bots can't get into. And that's no longer "the internet".
In order to be exposed to news nowadays the average person needs to sell their soul to a social network (X/Reddit/Meta) to enable discoverability AND pay the source a subscription to be able to read it. It's no wonder readership is down.
Google & friends no longer passing traffic through to the sites (AI summary style) feels like it may genuinely kill the internet.
Doesn't work for blogs, doesn't work for news sites, doesn't work for wikipedia(s), doesn't work for personal sites, doesn't work for info sites. It sucks the oxygen out of the room.
Only thing that'll remain standing is walled gardens the scrape bots can't get into. And that's no longer "the internet".
In order to be exposed to news nowadays the average person needs to sell their soul to a social network (X/Reddit/Meta) to enable discoverability AND pay the source a subscription to be able to read it. It's no wonder readership is down.
I think more people have figured out that it’s not news anymore anyway, it’s emotional manipulation and propaganda for profits and power.
I'd argue that if they're still active on social media, they haven't figured out anything