So I'm normally skeptical of the anecodata you see on HN and elsewhere ("Google is now useless, I switched to DuckDuckGo 23 years ago") but it seems like Google

So I'm normally skeptical of the anecodata you see on HN and elsewhere ("Google is now useless, I switched to DuckDuckGo 23 years ago") but it seems like Google has done rather big things here: 1. Greatly increased the weight of doamin authority. This... seems desperate; 2. Increased the weight of reddit. Google have probably noticed how many people add "reddit" or "site:reddit.com" to search terms. I do this too. It's true for a lot of topics with all the AI-bot and affiliate astroturfing out there, Reddit can often be the only source for genuine commentary. But Reddit has a dirty little secret: it's really easy to complete change the content and character of a subreddit. You see this on controversial topics. It only takes 100-200 people (or less with bots) to completely transform a subreddit. User generated content sites have techniques to find socket puppets, brigading and the like but it's an arms race. 80% of my Tiktok follows come from crypto scam and p0rn bots. I imagine Twitter is the same way. The bots continue to get better too. Those same algorithms can be used to keep bot activity below the threshold for detecting voting rings. So Google's increased reliance on Reddit will probably escalate the astroturfing and botting on Reddit and honestly, I don't think Reddit is up to the job of defending against this.