The web wasn't meant to be like this. We're watching the slow death of independent thoought and expertise, replaced by content farms optimized for ad revenue. When genuine experts who actually test products get buried beneath 64 shopping listings and recycled "best of" posts from mega publishers, we've lost our way.
The tragic irony is that this system actively punishes quality while rewarding mediocrity at scale. This isn't just about traffic or revenue - it's about the fundamental promise of the web as a democratizing force for knowledge sharing.
And this isn't a technology problem. It's a business model problem. When search prioritizes ad revenue over quality, we shouldn't be surprised when quality dies.
The solution isn't complex, but it requires us to rethink our relationship with "free" services.
I am terrified that Google will kill the website I live from the same way. It’s a genuinely useful website that people in my area know and love. Everything is written by hand from original research. It is only a matter of time before my traffic is handed over to Reddit or some other top 50 website that happens to have user generated content on the topic.
Program some bots that use ChatGPT to answer questions by summarizing your website, and maybe 5% (or less to look less spamy) of the responses have a link to the corresponding blog post?
Maybe create a subreddit for your niche location/topic?
It absolutely sucks, but this might be one way to allow people to find your content.
I'm complaining for years that google search is giving less and less relevant answers to the point I almost exclusively add "reddit" to the query, or even started to use AI for getting a first overview of technical questions I may have. It went shit before chatgpt but it's worse and worse now
One thing that's weird is that housefresh specialises in reviewing air purifiers but they have nothing on the Xiaomi series, which is what everyone I know has, at least here in Spain.
[+] [-] freediver|1 year ago|reply
The tragic irony is that this system actively punishes quality while rewarding mediocrity at scale. This isn't just about traffic or revenue - it's about the fundamental promise of the web as a democratizing force for knowledge sharing.
And this isn't a technology problem. It's a business model problem. When search prioritizes ad revenue over quality, we shouldn't be surprised when quality dies.
The solution isn't complex, but it requires us to rethink our relationship with "free" services.
[+] [-] bwb|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] nextworddev|1 year ago|reply
But with AI overviews, that may have been the last nail in the coffin for indie creators
[+] [-] nicbou|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] meowster|1 year ago|reply
Maybe create a subreddit for your niche location/topic?
It absolutely sucks, but this might be one way to allow people to find your content.
[+] [-] poulpy123|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] wkat4242|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] bwb|1 year ago|reply
They are USA based, not Spanish, maybe the brand is local there.
I know them and they are good people trying to help.
[+] [-] evilmusic|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ChrisArchitect|1 year ago|reply
Some discussion about the HouseFresh case at the time:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40239811
[+] [-] wkat4242|1 year ago|reply