I'm coming around to the idea that Google (and Facebook etc) need to be called out and held accountable for the "negative externalities" that come with their business model, the same as if a company was polluting the physical environment.
Google has turned much of the internet into a wasteland (there are examples as it related to news in the article but this is true for most content). They don't have to pay for this pollution, but it literally affects everyone in the world. The internet at this point is a vital part of people's lives, and when we see companies doing the equivalent of dumping chemical waste into it, we should more actively rebuke them.
I really hate the long videos. Facebook tells you that you'll get better results if you make them long (seriously?). So people make these unnaturally long videos with lots of vapid footage, generating needless entropy.
There's a magic point on YouTube at 10 minutes that lets creators insert ads in the middle of their videos, so they all stretch out the content for that purpose. It's very obnoxious.
Yeah and most of our families were into usenet. Usenet also pioneered tailoring what to show to maximize "engagement" so the number of people taken in by conspiracies has actually decreased now. Thanks google. Thanks facebook. You always know what's best for us!
Don't forget the extortion racket Google runs by advertising competitors on navigational queries. If you are a small business you are familiar with their mafiosa sales practices. They give new employees "google supremacy" training so their employees can engage in abusive practices without thinking twice. I have never met people as brainwashed as an Adwords account manager.
I have one friend who started calling her husband a Gouche after he got a job at google. Much better term than Noogler.
Google has turned much of the internet into a wasteland (there are examples as it related to news in the article but this is true for most content). They don't have to pay for this pollution, but it literally affects everyone in the world. The internet at this point is a vital part of people's lives, and when we see companies doing the equivalent of dumping chemical waste into it, we should more actively rebuke them.