That is a really great article, thanks! Longish, but as you said: totes worth a read.
I do wonder what our immediate future will look like though, when the robot SEO engines produce sufficiently coherent gibberish that it rates well under the "Authoritative" ranking, because everything that it says is well-supported by all of these other robot-generated gibberish sites...
Perhaps the internet will devolve into how it was before search engines: you'd accumulate a personal set of "good" links and you'd ask your friends for recommendations...
"booked a plane ticket to the Sunshine State" which made me think for a second "Queensland" but it was Florida but I stand by my misreading.
That is a really great article, thanks! Longish, but as you said: totes worth a read.
I do wonder what our immediate future will look like though, when the robot SEO engines produce sufficiently coherent gibberish that it rates well under the "Authoritative" ranking, because everything that it says is well-supported by all of these other robot-generated gibberish sites...
Perhaps the internet will devolve into how it was before search engines: you'd accumulate a personal set of "good" links and you'd ask your friends for recommendations...
Poor form to follow up to myself, I know, but I just read a much better-written piece that tackles this exact question, in the context of the NYT vs OpenAI suit: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/this-is-how-the-internet-ends/
The "grey goo" end of words and writing awaits...
Apparently some actual longitudinal academic research has verified that search results (not just Google) are getting worse as a result of SEO spam and affiliate marketing links: https://www.404media.co/google-search-really-has-gotten-worse-researchers-find/
"Everything is a con. The good con is where you deliver and make a profit." Yeah, pretty much.