[lmkg]

PageRank relies on pages from one domain linking to pages on another domain as the main signal of quality. But no one does that anymore, because of PageRank. Most cross-domain links are from "partnerships" made under the explicit premise of boosting PageRank score. The metric became the goal, invalidating the metric.

Another factor is that since 2006, social media has displaced blogs. Blogs were a rich source of "authentic" cross-domain links, and the movement of online discussions to consolidated and closed platforms has dried up that well. Some even go so far as to pin the downturn of blogging on the demise of Google Reader.

[account42]

I wonder if you could solve the PageRank problem by backpropagating negative scores for known bad sites. Then if someone sells out all they end up doing is ruining their own reputation.

[baq]

The problem with openness has been turned on its head two years ago. Nowadays it’s the only way to not have your thoughts eaten and transformed in inexplicable ways by a myriad of LLMs.

[robryan]

Social media still has a lot of links. They are probably all have "nofollow" on them. Assuming google honors that.

[account42]

Ironic, isn't it?