But/also: even though this isn't the exact areas where Google is being hit with antitrust actions, I think there's a pretty substantial governor on future both-sides-of-the-transaction work (i.e., I'm much more bullish on there being regulatory warning shots, consent decrees, etc. if Google rolls out clearly anti-competitive products).
THAT SAID - Google *itself* is already a problem, with the authority and reliability of its results badly compromised by years of optimization to its own ad sales model. I think 2023 is a real pivot point for Google - it's not going away but there's a pretty substantial chance it's going to be both a) a less profitable company, with one or multiple ad divisions spun off, and b) under more genuine competition for search results - not just via OpenAI or similar, but via DuckDuckGo and potentially even a revival of expert-indexed directories (yes, I think OG Yahoo actually was on to something).
A really interesting question is whether Google can use the opportunity to, for the first time in a long time, actually make its search results *better* - I'm not optimistic but I am curious.
“Demand Media didn’t need to provide good answers to these queries. It just had to provide relevant answers that match Google's search algorithms and generate ad revenue.”
Uh huh, and we all know how great that “content” was.
So now, the stories are what, a buck a pop, and, as with Demand, material lifted without attribution, so what could go wrong?!
The big diff this time around is instead of slapping it down (eventually) Google wants an in.
Yeah it's not great.
But/also: even though this isn't the exact areas where Google is being hit with antitrust actions, I think there's a pretty substantial governor on future both-sides-of-the-transaction work (i.e., I'm much more bullish on there being regulatory warning shots, consent decrees, etc. if Google rolls out clearly anti-competitive products).
THAT SAID - Google *itself* is already a problem, with the authority and reliability of its results badly compromised by years of optimization to its own ad sales model. I think 2023 is a real pivot point for Google - it's not going away but there's a pretty substantial chance it's going to be both a) a less profitable company, with one or multiple ad divisions spun off, and b) under more genuine competition for search results - not just via OpenAI or similar, but via DuckDuckGo and potentially even a revival of expert-indexed directories (yes, I think OG Yahoo actually was on to something).
A really interesting question is whether Google can use the opportunity to, for the first time in a long time, actually make its search results *better* - I'm not optimistic but I am curious.
Really interesting points, thanks JKD.
“Demand Media didn’t need to provide good answers to these queries. It just had to provide relevant answers that match Google's search algorithms and generate ad revenue.”
Uh huh, and we all know how great that “content” was.
So now, the stories are what, a buck a pop, and, as with Demand, material lifted without attribution, so what could go wrong?!
The big diff this time around is instead of slapping it down (eventually) Google wants an in.