The Existential Threat for Search Engines

Asthe internet picked up steam into the early 21st century, consumers shifted from newspapers as a primary source of information to the internet. Search engines filled the searching gap and sometimes the knowledge gap. Unless they can adapt, search engines may be facing similar challenges as newspapers did. As newspapers struggled for relevance in the opening decades of the internet, they increased the number of ads. They also began (and still do) to sell more advertorial content. Often called today branded or custom content. Sometimes, it became harder to tell the difference between real journalism and sponsored content. We are seeing a similar pattern with search engines today. There are two main factors influencing this change in search engine use. Both are driven by human behaviour, not technology. This is also a great example of how culture changes technology after technology changes a culture. it is human cultural adaptation of technology at its finest. Today, just look at the first page results of a Google or Bing search. Ads are increasing before you get to non-ad results. But consumers today, know that those “organic” results are anything but. They’re there because brands have spent a lot of money to get SEO experts either contracted or in-house to get them to that placement. Google is also plagued by <a href="https://9to5google.com/2023/02/07/google-seo-spam-ai/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">SEO spam</a>. <a href="https://gilescrouch.medium.com/the-existential-threat-for-search-engines-196da34cb7f4">Read More</a>