5 ms·

Surely there is just a different algo that could bring about better communities?

marcosdumay 5y ago
Only if implemented by the monopolist. People's best chance is stopping using Google and pushing for it to be broken-up.
- ajmurmann 5y ago
  I wonder if punishing presence of advertisements would filter out most pages that are SEO'd to the max and instead promote "labors of love" type pages.
  - AlexandrB 5y ago
    This is an interesting idea because it would create a type of non- or anti-commercial SEO that could counteract the commercial one. However, Google would never do it because they sell most of the ads that would be (not) hosted on these sites.
  - naravara 5y ago
    Google owns the largest online advertising network though, so that’s definitely not where their bread is buttered.
jonathankoren 5y ago
Different, but not better. The incentives to game the algo remain. People adapt to the environment.
- kilburn 5y ago
  That's why mechanism design [1] exists as a field of study. The whole idea of that field is to provide the proper incentives to steer the participants towards your objective. Yes, considering they will try to "game" the system however they can. I'm pretty sure google could do strictly better (i.e.: better in all reasonable accounts) than they do now if they focused on the users' experience instead of revenue for a couple terms. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_design
- amelius 5y ago
  > The incentives to game the algo remain. People adapt to the environment. Perhaps it could work if the algorithm changed its algorithm all the time.
  - jonathankoren 5y ago
    You don’t think Google does this already?
    - wyclif 5y ago
      Paul Graham says Google doesn't want to follow anybody down that road (human intervention in search). But ISTM the problem is that even though they don't, they can just throw a giant pile of money at it if they needed to crush a competitor. Also, VC will refuse to invest in anybody doing it because Google.
      - jonathankoren 5y ago
        PaulG doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
        vintermann 5y ago
        I disagree, he's a pretty good guide to how VCs think, though not always in the ways he wants.

Only if implemented by the monopolist. People's best chance is stopping using Google and pushing for it to be broken-up.

ajmurmann 5y ago
I wonder if punishing presence of advertisements would filter out most pages that are SEO'd to the max and instead promote "labors of love" type pages.
- AlexandrB 5y ago
  This is an interesting idea because it would create a type of non- or anti-commercial SEO that could counteract the commercial one. However, Google would never do it because they sell most of the ads that would be (not) hosted on these sites.
- naravara 5y ago
  Google owns the largest online advertising network though, so that’s definitely not where their bread is buttered.

jonathankoren 5y ago

Different, but not better. The incentives to game the algo remain. People adapt to the environment.

kilburn 5y ago
That's why mechanism design [1] exists as a field of study. The whole idea of that field is to provide the proper incentives to steer the participants towards your objective. Yes, considering they will try to "game" the system however they can. I'm pretty sure google could do strictly better (i.e.: better in all reasonable accounts) than they do now if they focused on the users' experience instead of revenue for a couple terms. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_design
amelius 5y ago
> The incentives to game the algo remain. People adapt to the environment. Perhaps it could work if the algorithm changed its algorithm all the time.
- jonathankoren 5y ago
  You don’t think Google does this already?
  - wyclif 5y ago
    Paul Graham says Google doesn't want to follow anybody down that road (human intervention in search). But ISTM the problem is that even though they don't, they can just throw a giant pile of money at it if they needed to crush a competitor. Also, VC will refuse to invest in anybody doing it because Google.
    - jonathankoren 5y ago
      PaulG doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
      - vintermann 5y ago
        I disagree, he's a pretty good guide to how VCs think, though not always in the ways he wants.