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I do completely agree 100% with this article, but I don't know that I agree with using "Gentrifying" in this context. I even had to go ask Google what "Gentrify

I do completely agree 100% with this article, but I don't know that I agree with using "Gentrifying" in this context. I even had to go ask Google what "Gentrifying" means, because I thought maybe it had some alternate meaning I wasn't aware of. I think this article is using "Gentrifying" as a synonym for "ruining" here? That doesn't seem quite right. I'm really not one to care about semantics usually, but that seems like such a loaded word with a pretty standard definition, and I'm not sure it fits here.

Something1234 6y ago
I could see it's equivalent usage as South Park uses it in the whole SodoSopa arc.
didgeoridoo 6y ago
I think it’s being used in the sense of quirky, unpolished, local stuff getting replaced by big shiny corporate stuff — drawing a parallel to the mom & pop diner (independent if unreliable blogs) getting driven out by Starbucks (official if slightly soulless websites).
- blakesterz 6y ago
  Aha! That does make sense. Though I still feel like it's an odd choice of words, I see what you're meaning is.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  SEO content is largely unreliable, as reliable content wins on regular SE pagerank without the O.
  - dwighttk 6y ago
    Unfortunately sometimes the O is better than reliability (when it comes to pagerank.)
- bartread 6y ago
  It's not even big shiny corporate stuff: in many cases it's being replaced by junk spun content. E.g., just this morning I was looking for advice on how to attach kitchen cabinets to drywall (not that I actually have drywall in my kitchen; I was simply curious). The experience, in common with a lot of other DIY related searches I've done recently as I work on the house, was deeply frustrating. The top result was spun to within an inch of its life, and incredibly repetitive and frustrating to read. Worse, the information was misleading to the point of being potentially hazardous if followed. As GP has observed, the word "ruining" might be better used in place of the word "gentrifying" in this piece.
  - floatboth 6y ago
    With Google's recent-ish push towards reputation and big names, it's both: big name corporate junk spun content.
  - UnFleshedOne 6y ago
    We really need a way to flat out block whole domains from search results. Ad-blockers kinda do that, but only after search engine serves them up...
  - Sander_Marechal 6y ago
    I know the feeling exactly. I'm trying to find out how many Hue spots to place in my new kitchen's ceiling, and how close together they should be. It's been a SEO nightmare and I still don't have an answer :-(
    - rdunham4 6y ago
      Our kitchen remodel put a can above every 4-ish feet of counter space and it works well for us. Sloped ceiling with most of the cans about 9-10' off the floor. YMMV.
      - Sander_Marechal 6y ago
        Thank you!
alisonkisk 6y ago
It's being used loosely to mean "regular folk trying tnliving their simple lives are getting pushed out by moneyed interests, changing a one-person-one-vote culture to a one-dollar-one-vote culture." (Note that in the absence of wealth inequality, these two are equivalent so there's minimal problem with conflating them).
notacoward 6y ago
I agree that it seems like the wrong word. "Feudalization" might be a bit closer to what's clearly meant, but still not as close as I'd like. I'm sure the intent is not malicious, but it still seems ironic that OP kind of promises one thing and then delivers another while complaining about that very same thing.
- cooper12 6y ago
  OED (an older edition): > the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste In this case, it's making the internet conform to Google's taste. Seems to be an appropriate use of the term, even if in the more recent sense we think of it as displacement of people or local businesses.
  - notacoward 6y ago
    But is it middle class taste that's being satisfied? Seems more like the aristocracy's taste/interest that's being served here.
    - camehere3saydis 6y ago
      Usually conforming the world at large to the middle classes' taste is in the aristocracy's interest. The have-mores can afford their own bubble.
ardy42 6y ago
> I think this article is using "Gentrifying" as a synonym for "ruining" here? It sounds like they mean "gentrifying" in the conventional sense: quirky, cool neighborhood changes so only newly-arrived wealthy people can afford to live there, and the previous residents are forced out. The quirky, cool character leaves with them, and what's left is a bunch of Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Yoga studios, just like everywhere else. > Alas, such rejoicing was premature. Instead of delivering us a more useful and trustworthy internet, all the “Your Money or Your Life” update did was homogenize the internet even further—and drive many of its most precarious workers into even more dire financial straits. Once-popular sites like Livestrong, whose articles were mainly written by generalist staff writers and freelancers, had to dramatically cull their lineups. A simple story about how to get rid of blackheads—the kind of quick piece that every low level content jockey has written a dozen times—now must bear the name of a Real Live Doctor to have any chance of ranking. That doctor has to have a Googleable work history, preferably an extensive one. Once the article is done, it has to be updated on a regular basis, regardless of whether there’s been a massive breakthrough in anti-blackhead technology. Above all, the article has to be “great content,” in the words of Google. What they mean by this is not exactly clear, though the company has provided 175 pages’ worth of vague hints. > For the average internet user, this SEO arms race has made the internet both less interesting and less usable. When we want to discover whether blueberries are poisonous for cats, we have to sort through hundreds of words answering irrelevant questions like “what are the health benefits of blueberries” and “can cats eat vegetables.” When we get frustrated and try the next result down, we’re greeted by a story that looks and reads much the same as the one we just abandoned (the standard formula now is LARGE HEADER – a few paragraphs of text and a bulleted list – LARGE HEADER – a few paragraphs of text and a numbered list, ad infinitum). Here’s a quote from a doctor that feels like it was cut-and-pasted from a different interview; there are some citations from scientific studies presented largely bereft of context. Hooray for the illusion of clarity. Hooray for the death of creativity.
justaman 6y ago
"Gentrifying" was used to stoke images of class warfare and racial divides. They used the term to get you angry. Using that word is nothing short of propaganda.
- efdee 6y ago
  So pretty much like your use of the term "propaganda"?
jacurtis 6y ago
I actually agree with the use of the word "Gentrifying" here. The way I understood it, the author is implying that the internet land grab is being gentrified in the same way that many neighborhoods have been. The rich roll-in on land that was once considered worthless and take-over, displacing the original inhabitants, generally the poor. Now In the context of SEO, when the web first started, the big scary corporations that had tens of thousands or even millions of dollars a month to spend on site optimization, only focused on specific areas of the internet. Insurance, Lawyers, general e-commerce, etc. There was a war for attention and land value in these sectors of the internet, and SEO were the soldiers of that war. But for the most part, that war stayed "over there". People that wanted to share recipes, hackers that wanted to share code snippets, families that wanted to share photos, and sites dedicated to niche hobbies all continued to live in the original frontier of the internet. Largely free and uncorrupted by the big corporations. While SEO was competitive in main industries like law, insurance, travel, etc, it was still very easy for an enthusiast to throw up a informative website for fun in a niche of the internet and gain traction organically. They didn't need to dedicate funds towards SEO. But over time, the "corporations" have now encroached nearly every corner of the internet. If you want to rank on a search engine for a website you made this weekend to share a fun idea to other people that might be interested, you really can't do it without leveraging one of the many platforms (ie Hackernews, Reddit, Medium, Pinterest, Facebook, eBay, Thingiverse, etc) which subsequently own your content and use it to further spread the gap between the corporations and "everyone else". This is like rich property developers that roll into a community to tear down old houses and then subsequently rent back apartments to the very people they robbed of their land. I think there is a serious gentrification that is going on here. The only people that might not see it are those of you that are too young to remember the original internet. The original internet was magical. You could have an interest in HAM radios and build a website for fun that could gain SEO traction organically and be discovered simply because it was good and valuable content. That rarely happens anymore. There are very few, if any, corners of the internet that are that "free" anymore. Now, if you are seriously interested in sharing knowledge you either need to turn to the platforms or you need to turn your simple hobby into a sprawling business so you can dedicate funds to competing against the big guys. Note: I use the term "corporations" here very broadly. But the truth is that 95%+ of the people reading this blog make their sole income thanks to these "evil/scary/bad corporations", so take it in stride. I am just demonstrating the idea of gentrification, which requires separating the "haves" from the "have-nots". But it isn't necessarily good or bad to be on either side of that battle. I think everyone reading this has feet on both sides of the war.
raiyu 6y ago
I agree with you on this. Read the article and though Gentrifying isn't the right word to explain what the author is referencing. But on the other hand I was click-baited into clicking specifically because of the title so it definitely drove my curiosity. Probably getting this under a more appropriate title would result in fewer clicks.
rchaud 6y ago
They use the word 'homogenized' later in the article, and that's the right adjective.

Something1234 6y ago

I could see it's equivalent usage as South Park uses it in the whole SodoSopa arc.

didgeoridoo 6y ago

I think it’s being used in the sense of quirky, unpolished, local stuff getting replaced by big shiny corporate stuff — drawing a parallel to the mom & pop diner (independent if unreliable blogs) getting driven out by Starbucks (official if slightly soulless websites).

blakesterz 6y ago
Aha! That does make sense. Though I still feel like it's an odd choice of words, I see what you're meaning is.
alisonkisk 6y ago
SEO content is largely unreliable, as reliable content wins on regular SE pagerank without the O.
- dwighttk 6y ago
  Unfortunately sometimes the O is better than reliability (when it comes to pagerank.)
bartread 6y ago
It's not even big shiny corporate stuff: in many cases it's being replaced by junk spun content. E.g., just this morning I was looking for advice on how to attach kitchen cabinets to drywall (not that I actually have drywall in my kitchen; I was simply curious). The experience, in common with a lot of other DIY related searches I've done recently as I work on the house, was deeply frustrating. The top result was spun to within an inch of its life, and incredibly repetitive and frustrating to read. Worse, the information was misleading to the point of being potentially hazardous if followed. As GP has observed, the word "ruining" might be better used in place of the word "gentrifying" in this piece.
- floatboth 6y ago
  With Google's recent-ish push towards reputation and big names, it's both: big name corporate junk spun content.
- UnFleshedOne 6y ago
  We really need a way to flat out block whole domains from search results. Ad-blockers kinda do that, but only after search engine serves them up...
- Sander_Marechal 6y ago
  I know the feeling exactly. I'm trying to find out how many Hue spots to place in my new kitchen's ceiling, and how close together they should be. It's been a SEO nightmare and I still don't have an answer :-(
  - rdunham4 6y ago
    Our kitchen remodel put a can above every 4-ish feet of counter space and it works well for us. Sloped ceiling with most of the cans about 9-10' off the floor. YMMV.
    - Sander_Marechal 6y ago
      Thank you!

alisonkisk 6y ago

It's being used loosely to mean "regular folk trying tnliving their simple lives are getting pushed out by moneyed interests, changing a one-person-one-vote culture to a one-dollar-one-vote culture." (Note that in the absence of wealth inequality, these two are equivalent so there's minimal problem with conflating them).

notacoward 6y ago

I agree that it seems like the wrong word. "Feudalization" might be a bit closer to what's clearly meant, but still not as close as I'd like. I'm sure the intent is not malicious, but it still seems ironic that OP kind of promises one thing and then delivers another while complaining about that very same thing.

cooper12 6y ago
OED (an older edition): > the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste In this case, it's making the internet conform to Google's taste. Seems to be an appropriate use of the term, even if in the more recent sense we think of it as displacement of people or local businesses.
- notacoward 6y ago
  But is it middle class taste that's being satisfied? Seems more like the aristocracy's taste/interest that's being served here.
  - camehere3saydis 6y ago
    Usually conforming the world at large to the middle classes' taste is in the aristocracy's interest. The have-mores can afford their own bubble.

ardy42 6y ago

> I think this article is using "Gentrifying" as a synonym for "ruining" here? It sounds like they mean "gentrifying" in the conventional sense: quirky, cool neighborhood changes so only newly-arrived wealthy people can afford to live there, and the previous residents are forced out. The quirky, cool character leaves with them, and what's left is a bunch of Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Yoga studios, just like everywhere else. > Alas, such rejoicing was premature. Instead of delivering us a more useful and trustworthy internet, all the “Your Money or Your Life” update did was homogenize the internet even further—and drive many of its most precarious workers into even more dire financial straits. Once-popular sites like Livestrong, whose articles were mainly written by generalist staff writers and freelancers, had to dramatically cull their lineups. A simple story about how to get rid of blackheads—the kind of quick piece that every low level content jockey has written a dozen times—now must bear the name of a Real Live Doctor to have any chance of ranking. That doctor has to have a Googleable work history, preferably an extensive one. Once the article is done, it has to be updated on a regular basis, regardless of whether there’s been a massive breakthrough in anti-blackhead technology. Above all, the article has to be “great content,” in the words of Google. What they mean by this is not exactly clear, though the company has provided 175 pages’ worth of vague hints. > For the average internet user, this SEO arms race has made the internet both less interesting and less usable. When we want to discover whether blueberries are poisonous for cats, we have to sort through hundreds of words answering irrelevant questions like “what are the health benefits of blueberries” and “can cats eat vegetables.” When we get frustrated and try the next result down, we’re greeted by a story that looks and reads much the same as the one we just abandoned (the standard formula now is LARGE HEADER – a few paragraphs of text and a bulleted list – LARGE HEADER – a few paragraphs of text and a numbered list, ad infinitum). Here’s a quote from a doctor that feels like it was cut-and-pasted from a different interview; there are some citations from scientific studies presented largely bereft of context. Hooray for the illusion of clarity. Hooray for the death of creativity.

justaman 6y ago

"Gentrifying" was used to stoke images of class warfare and racial divides. They used the term to get you angry. Using that word is nothing short of propaganda.

efdee 6y ago
So pretty much like your use of the term "propaganda"?

jacurtis 6y ago

I actually agree with the use of the word "Gentrifying" here. The way I understood it, the author is implying that the internet land grab is being gentrified in the same way that many neighborhoods have been. The rich roll-in on land that was once considered worthless and take-over, displacing the original inhabitants, generally the poor. Now In the context of SEO, when the web first started, the big scary corporations that had tens of thousands or even millions of dollars a month to spend on site optimization, only focused on specific areas of the internet. Insurance, Lawyers, general e-commerce, etc. There was a war for attention and land value in these sectors of the internet, and SEO were the soldiers of that war. But for the most part, that war stayed "over there". People that wanted to share recipes, hackers that wanted to share code snippets, families that wanted to share photos, and sites dedicated to niche hobbies all continued to live in the original frontier of the internet. Largely free and uncorrupted by the big corporations. While SEO was competitive in main industries like law, insurance, travel, etc, it was still very easy for an enthusiast to throw up a informative website for fun in a niche of the internet and gain traction organically. They didn't need to dedicate funds towards SEO. But over time, the "corporations" have now encroached nearly every corner of the internet. If you want to rank on a search engine for a website you made this weekend to share a fun idea to other people that might be interested, you really can't do it without leveraging one of the many platforms (ie Hackernews, Reddit, Medium, Pinterest, Facebook, eBay, Thingiverse, etc) which subsequently own your content and use it to further spread the gap between the corporations and "everyone else". This is like rich property developers that roll into a community to tear down old houses and then subsequently rent back apartments to the very people they robbed of their land. I think there is a serious gentrification that is going on here. The only people that might not see it are those of you that are too young to remember the original internet. The original internet was magical. You could have an interest in HAM radios and build a website for fun that could gain SEO traction organically and be discovered simply because it was good and valuable content. That rarely happens anymore. There are very few, if any, corners of the internet that are that "free" anymore. Now, if you are seriously interested in sharing knowledge you either need to turn to the platforms or you need to turn your simple hobby into a sprawling business so you can dedicate funds to competing against the big guys. Note: I use the term "corporations" here very broadly. But the truth is that 95%+ of the people reading this blog make their sole income thanks to these "evil/scary/bad corporations", so take it in stride. I am just demonstrating the idea of gentrification, which requires separating the "haves" from the "have-nots". But it isn't necessarily good or bad to be on either side of that battle. I think everyone reading this has feet on both sides of the war.

raiyu 6y ago

I agree with you on this. Read the article and though Gentrifying isn't the right word to explain what the author is referencing. But on the other hand I was click-baited into clicking specifically because of the title so it definitely drove my curiosity. Probably getting this under a more appropriate title would result in fewer clicks.

rchaud 6y ago

They use the word 'homogenized' later in the article, and that's the right adjective.