this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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‘Reddit can survive without search’: company reportedly threatens to block Google (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

you're right, and i think that the thing that is being called out in the screenshot is not the money making per se, but the doom loop that everyone is forced to experience when trying to perform any basic information lookup using the internet in 2023. it goes something like this.

  1. google "enshittification" to find that neat article you read a few months ago to post in a lemmy comment
  2. first three or four results aren't what you wanted, so keep scrolling.
  3. click the result you want (beginning of doom loop)
  4. "we value your privacy - so please click all the individual opt-outs, because GDPR didn't say we can't harass you with opt-outs to beat you into submission"
  5. "subcribe to our newsletter! we definitely won't leak this email to a third party"
  6. "do you want to enable desktop notifications for this site?"
  7. "this page would like to know your location (so we can serve you geo-targeted adverts)"
  8. "get full access to our platform for ~~xxx~~ yyy price!" despite fake discounting being illegal in many countries
  9. scroll down to start reading the first paragraph.
  10. "...this is your 1st of 3 free articles this month. to receive 10 free articles a month, please register today!"
  11. after dismissing all of this, you then scroll 2 paragraphs in, and find out actually, this wasn't the article you needed.
  12. press back on your browser a few times to wade back through all the privacy spam
  13. scroll 2 more results down on google, maybe this next one was it?
  14. goto 3. (you now repeat the doom loop)

this doom loop has to stop. yes, people and businesses need to make money under the current economic system we live in. but it doesn't have to be like this.

but you know something? we all know where this is going.

some ""visionary"" san fran tech bro startup will have the "genius" idea of offering an interface between journo websites and customers, by offering a one-stop subscription shop. pay the tech bros once, they grant you access to all sites.

not unlike how uber operates as an interface between taxi drivers and customers, or how airbnb offers an interface between short term lets and customers, or how amazon offers an interface between cheap plastic vendors and customers, or how netflix operates as an interface between media content and customers, or how...

...the wheel turns.