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Search is the problem. If you don’t rank in google you don’t exist on the internet. There is an entire economy built on manipulating search that is pay to play

Search is the problem. If you don’t rank in google you don’t exist on the internet. There is an entire economy built on manipulating search that is pay to play in addition to google continually focusing on paid search of natural SERPs. Controlling search right now is controlling the internet.

Fjolsvith 7y ago
If your target audience isn't on Google, then you don't have to rank there. Almost all of my customers find me through classified advertising websites. Organic and paid search visitors to my site tend to be window shoppers.
codeulike 7y ago
Whatever you replace Search with would be gamed in the same way.
- supernovae 7y ago
  true, but when it was lycos, hotbot, altavista, google, webcrawler, aol, gopher, archy, usenet and so many other sources it was much easier to exist in many ways (harder to dominate) - people used to ‘surf the web’, join “webrings” and share stuff.. now they consume and post memes. so i blame behavior as much as monopoly
  - codeulike 7y ago
    A lot of other things have changed since then, so the difference in tone you are noticing might not have much to do with search engines. In 1996 there were only about 16 million people on the internet, and usage obviously skewed towards the more technical nerdy crowd. Now there are 4,383 million people on the internet. Which is about 57% of everyone.
    - Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
      I see this a lot on HN. People forget that a lot of things in the early days of the Internet only worked because there were so few people on the Internet. If you were rich and had a T1 in your home in the days everyone was on dialup, sure you could host a website yourself. But these days, even if you're one of the lucky residents on a gigabit symmetrical connection, there's a limit to how much you can serve. Self-hosting isn't an option unless your website is a niche.
    - supernovae 7y ago
      More people and fewer companies dominating how everything is found... i don't think that change is for the better.
bduerst 7y ago
>If you don’t rank in google you don’t exist on the internet. Maybe in 2009. Today there are businesses today that exist solely on Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, etc.

Fjolsvith 7y ago

If your target audience isn't on Google, then you don't have to rank there. Almost all of my customers find me through classified advertising websites. Organic and paid search visitors to my site tend to be window shoppers.

codeulike 7y ago

Whatever you replace Search with would be gamed in the same way.

supernovae 7y ago
true, but when it was lycos, hotbot, altavista, google, webcrawler, aol, gopher, archy, usenet and so many other sources it was much easier to exist in many ways (harder to dominate) - people used to ‘surf the web’, join “webrings” and share stuff.. now they consume and post memes. so i blame behavior as much as monopoly
- codeulike 7y ago
  A lot of other things have changed since then, so the difference in tone you are noticing might not have much to do with search engines. In 1996 there were only about 16 million people on the internet, and usage obviously skewed towards the more technical nerdy crowd. Now there are 4,383 million people on the internet. Which is about 57% of everyone.
  - Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
    I see this a lot on HN. People forget that a lot of things in the early days of the Internet only worked because there were so few people on the Internet. If you were rich and had a T1 in your home in the days everyone was on dialup, sure you could host a website yourself. But these days, even if you're one of the lucky residents on a gigabit symmetrical connection, there's a limit to how much you can serve. Self-hosting isn't an option unless your website is a niche.
  - supernovae 7y ago
    More people and fewer companies dominating how everything is found... i don't think that change is for the better.

bduerst 7y ago

>If you don’t rank in google you don’t exist on the internet. Maybe in 2009. Today there are businesses today that exist solely on Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, etc.