Posted on 08/16/2024 9:59:42 AM PDT by dennisw
As the US government weighs its options following a landmark “monopolist” ruling against Google last week, online publications increasingly face a bleak future. (And this time, it’s not just because of severely diminished ad revenue.) Bloomberg reports that their choice now boils down to allowing Google to use their published content to produce inline AI-generated search “answers” or losing visibility in the company’s search engine.
The crux of the problem lies in the Googlebot, the crawler that scours and indexes the live web to produce the results you see when you enter search terms. If publishers block Google from using their content for the AI-produced answers you now see littered at the top of many search results, they also lose the privilege of including their web pages in the standard web results.
The catch-22 has led publications, rival search engines and AI startups to pin their hopes on the Justice Department. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the DOJ is considering asking a federal judge to break up parts of the company (spinning off sections like Chrome or Android). Other options it’s reportedly weighing include forcing Google to share search data with competitors or relinquishing its default search-engine deals, like the $18 billion one it inked with Apple.
Google uses a separate crawler for its Gemini (formerly Bard) chatbot. But its main crawler covers both AI Overviews and standard searches, leaving web publishers with little (if any) leverage.
If you let Google scrape your content for AI Overview answers, readers may consider that the end of the matter without bothering to visit your site (meaning zero revenue from those potential readers). But if you block the Googlebot, you lose search visibility, which likely means significantly less short-term income and a colossal loss of long-term competitive standing.
That sounds like an illegal expectation, for a “search engine.”
Anti Trust is needed here. Google = scum of the galaxy, when it comes anti-competition, monopolization, money grubbing. They have no shame.
Meanwhile, use the best. Perplexity AI search. https://www.perplexity.ai/
On one browser, I am logged into Perplexity. This means they keep a query library I can refer to. HOWEVER, if I forward a Perplexity link to someone, it comes up blank.
So...... on another browser, I am not logged into Perplexity. Then when I send a link to my Perplexity query, it is readable-useable by my friend.
Another monopoly tool, controlled by biased per its imput .
Immediately block it in mass to make them adjust their their attitude “So what? We can live with out you Google.”
Google is not the only the only one crawling the web and there are tons of SEO tools to replace Google tools. And tons of alternative analytic tools
It is way past time for domain owners to mass boycott Google. “You have to have Google” is an absolute ignorant myth. Dump them like a hot rock and do not go back. Their services can be replaced without any problem at all nowdays. They are running a bluff and folks are falling for their scams.
I don't buy a lot of that anymore.
It’s getting hard to tell who the customer is and who the product is.
Google has always viewed YOU the user as their product.
I don't buy a lot of that anymore.
It's still true - when government doesn't put its thumb on the scale. Google has always been so closely integrated with the intelligence community as to be indistinguishable from a Federal agency, itself. There is no way the IC is going to allow its #1 information source to be disrupted by some upstart anti-trust judge.
I agree, but now it appears that the entities that you were present to as the product are also the product. If only the top AI excerpt is read who is their customer?
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