4 ms·

I still find it amazing how we've normalized the idea that Google can have 3BN and 20BN contracts with Samsung and Apple respectively to make Google the default

I still find it amazing how we've normalized the idea that Google can have 3BN and 20BN contracts with Samsung and Apple respectively to make Google the default search engine. This isn't free market or competition, it's buying the market. On point, the path from search engine to AI chatbot, in case it does succeed, is quite dramatic in any case: It might be economically challenging. My understanding is that an AI query is much more expensive to run whilst ad potential is lower. They can place an ad next to an AI answer, but Microsoft might not and subsidize it. But that's not even the biggest threat. If the AI chat is as good as to give a direct answer, it means you won't hit the source website. Which currently runs ads. This might mean websites getting a fraction of their original traffic in the long run and ad impressions decimate. Not to mention that even having a website becomes relatively pointless. Almost nobody would ever visit it, you're just a content slave for the big AI machine. You do all the work but get none of the rewards. The machine does no (human) work and gets all the rewards. This breaks the content "contract" of the internet. The incentives were already bad, but its going to get a whole lot worse.

disqard 4y ago
Your closing sentence made me realize that there are "social contracts" on the Internet, and we're suddenly in a new regime. Our notions of how to operate (and how to monetize) will have to recalibrate to this drastically altered milieu.
- dahwolf 4y ago
  I think the situation was already dire for the open web. Most people are on social networks and consume content there directly or snippets/screenshots of open web content. Engagement on individual websites has been tanking for over a decade, it's truly starving, a few exceptions aside. The open web might as well cease to exist mostly, which might be compensated for with private spaces. That trend was already ongoing.

disqard 4y ago

Your closing sentence made me realize that there are "social contracts" on the Internet, and we're suddenly in a new regime. Our notions of how to operate (and how to monetize) will have to recalibrate to this drastically altered milieu.

dahwolf 4y ago
I think the situation was already dire for the open web. Most people are on social networks and consume content there directly or snippets/screenshots of open web content. Engagement on individual websites has been tanking for over a decade, it's truly starving, a few exceptions aside. The open web might as well cease to exist mostly, which might be compensated for with private spaces. That trend was already ongoing.