PageRank is really the beginning of popularity as proxy for authentic/truthful/accurate/etc. Then we move on to upvotes, retweets, likes, listens, views, pleas

PageRank is really the beginning of popularity as proxy for authentic/truthful/accurate/etc. Then we move on to upvotes, retweets, likes, listens, views, please-please-please-subscribe-to-my-channel, reviews etc. Thus the continuum of the "social" internet. We tried really hard to make truth into a capitalist endeavor.