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Web content makers have to realize their days of monetizing are numbered. Free web content is free food for NLP algorithms , which have already become impressiv

Web content makers have to realize their days of monetizing are numbered. Free web content is free food for NLP algorithms , which have already become impressive. In one of the next Google updates, they will eliminate web results compeltely and just give you the predicted answers. We're bound to see original content trying to hide themselves from google in order to remain relevant.

hinkley 6y ago
Given how often I get top results that are clearly machine-generated content, I anticipate a lot of broken overfitting will happen in the near term. If you train NLP on text generated by NLP, you're gonna have a bad time.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Now I’m curious: what would happen if one repeatedly trained GPT-3 on text generated by a “previous generation” GPT-3? (Similar time successive JPEG saves)
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    I'm pretty sure it would drift further and further from something a human would recognize as intelligible.
    - datameta 6y ago
      It would be a kind of DeepDream for NLP
eloff 6y ago
Except nobody wants to click on something produced by an NLP algorithm. I don't doubt people will do that as they have every other shady SEO technique, but Google will continue to fight it as spam. At the end of the day I think quality content is still king and the only viable long-term SEO strategy.
- idoh 6y ago
  The point is that SEO itself is not a long term strategy.
  - paulcole 6y ago
    "SEO" has worked for 20+ years. What SEO is changes but it will always be a viable strategy.
  - eloff 6y ago
    I disagree with that point. People are not going to stop searching for things online, and while Google does try to capture some of that traffic and keep people on Google, it doesn't work, even when they get it right, except for the simplest of queries. Anything more involved and I always click through to read more of the source material. I don't think that will change either.
    - idoh 6y ago
      A - Agree that people will continue to search for things online. B - Google does and will continue to capture that traffic, and it will continue to get better. Case in point, I read earlier this week an article about a site devoted to celebrity net worth and how their business was eaten up by the change. C - Agree that more involved information is safe or safer. But you know, it is obvious that Google will continue to eat up more and more queries. I don't know what percentage they are currently able to eat up and keep to themselves, but they are surely devoted to upping that rate. So as a long term play, do you really want to put yourself in competition with all the Google data scientists?
      - eloff 6y ago
        To the question raised in C, what's the alternative? I think it's the best strategy. If you have a business, like the celebrity net worth one, you're in trouble. It's worth keeping in mind these days if your business has long term staying power based on the trends we know are currently underway.
jermier 6y ago
It's as if the author writes content to /please/ Google. There are other players in town that will spread my message wide, other than Google. Google is a single point of failure too. If most of your traffic relies on a black-box algo developed by Google, at some stage you are going to be butthurt by that algo. Others will celebrate their success at gaming Google's algo and getting good rankings consistently, but these people are mostly blackhat SEOs probably trying to peddle cialis with a cheap discount.
- manquer 6y ago
  > I don't write to please Google. You can afford to do that if the website is not your primary source of income , not everyone has that luxury. Online small and medium biz have to pay for their expenses , it is not for ad driven models either , organic traffic is significant source for people to purchase of your site. if your content is invisible to google for most sites that is a killing blow .

hinkley 6y ago

Given how often I get top results that are clearly machine-generated content, I anticipate a lot of broken overfitting will happen in the near term. If you train NLP on text generated by NLP, you're gonna have a bad time.

colejohnson66 6y ago
Now I’m curious: what would happen if one repeatedly trained GPT-3 on text generated by a “previous generation” GPT-3? (Similar time successive JPEG saves)
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure it would drift further and further from something a human would recognize as intelligible.
  - datameta 6y ago
    It would be a kind of DeepDream for NLP

eloff 6y ago

Except nobody wants to click on something produced by an NLP algorithm. I don't doubt people will do that as they have every other shady SEO technique, but Google will continue to fight it as spam. At the end of the day I think quality content is still king and the only viable long-term SEO strategy.

idoh 6y ago
The point is that SEO itself is not a long term strategy.
- paulcole 6y ago
  "SEO" has worked for 20+ years. What SEO is changes but it will always be a viable strategy.
- eloff 6y ago
  I disagree with that point. People are not going to stop searching for things online, and while Google does try to capture some of that traffic and keep people on Google, it doesn't work, even when they get it right, except for the simplest of queries. Anything more involved and I always click through to read more of the source material. I don't think that will change either.
  - idoh 6y ago
    A - Agree that people will continue to search for things online. B - Google does and will continue to capture that traffic, and it will continue to get better. Case in point, I read earlier this week an article about a site devoted to celebrity net worth and how their business was eaten up by the change. C - Agree that more involved information is safe or safer. But you know, it is obvious that Google will continue to eat up more and more queries. I don't know what percentage they are currently able to eat up and keep to themselves, but they are surely devoted to upping that rate. So as a long term play, do you really want to put yourself in competition with all the Google data scientists?
    - eloff 6y ago
      To the question raised in C, what's the alternative? I think it's the best strategy. If you have a business, like the celebrity net worth one, you're in trouble. It's worth keeping in mind these days if your business has long term staying power based on the trends we know are currently underway.

jermier 6y ago

It's as if the author writes content to /please/ Google. There are other players in town that will spread my message wide, other than Google. Google is a single point of failure too. If most of your traffic relies on a black-box algo developed by Google, at some stage you are going to be butthurt by that algo. Others will celebrate their success at gaming Google's algo and getting good rankings consistently, but these people are mostly blackhat SEOs probably trying to peddle cialis with a cheap discount.

manquer 6y ago
> I don't write to please Google. You can afford to do that if the website is not your primary source of income , not everyone has that luxury. Online small and medium biz have to pay for their expenses , it is not for ad driven models either , organic traffic is significant source for people to purchase of your site. if your content is invisible to google for most sites that is a killing blow .