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> - "There’s a fun conspiracy theory that popped up recently called the Dead Internet Theory..." > I hadn't heard of this. Now that's some sci-fi level of consp
by littlecranky67 5y ago
> - "There’s a fun conspiracy theory that popped up recently called the Dead Internet Theory..."
> I hadn't heard of this. Now that's some sci-fi level of conspiracy but in today's world it seems totally plausible.
I never believed in conspiracy theories, and after I read "Media Control" by Noam Chomsky I understood there is no need for conspiracy theories once you understand how individual incentives are aligned and how individuals always act to maximise profits.
Someone on HN phrased this and I am not taking credit for it but it explains beautifully whats going on: "Google is not making money by showing you the best search result they can, they make money by keeping you searching."
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThat does not make sense. If searches did not result in satisfactory results, then people would stop searching. Which they are, evidenced by restricting searches to HN or Reddit. This is a problem for google, maybe not right this minute as growth might offset dissuaded users, but nevertheless, it does not behoove them in the long run to provide garbage search results to people.
- littlecranky67 5y ago> Which they are, evidenced by restricting searches to HN or Reddit. You are right but overestimate the number of people doing these restrictive searches. They should be in the <0.1% range. I personally switched (to duck and latly kagi.com) and know quite some people in tech that did so too, but the non tech-savy person (which are the majority of overall users) doesn't even know other search engines.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoEventually, though, even non technical users will stop Google searching if it wastes their time. If they do not find what they want, then they can go back to asking people in person or instagram or whatever, but I would not expect people to keep aimlessly searching.