@ichderfisch
"How can you help?"

I use DDG as much as possible.

@ichderfisch Ive see a lot of bloggers posting about this lately. It sucks being locked into Google's business model.

I believe RSS feeds might be the web's only way around all of this, also for those getting blacklisted by google, they should promote their feeds. Retro Dodo has one as well but unless I missed it they didn't promote their feed. https://retrododo.com/feed/

Not using google search wouldn't hurt but that seems unlikely to become a wide spread trend sadly.

@ichderfisch

Couple of replies which will make you angry:

1. Being dependent on Google Ads is a nice way how to be a share-cropper with the Web application, https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace
2. If they are truly lying, the class action lawsuit will hopefully follow.

@ichderfisch

I quit using Google Search around that time due to their search results becoming ad ridden garbage.

@ichderfisch Everybody should just start promoting RSS like hell.

Every profiteer hates RSS.

@ichderfisch

This was a well written article, though very sad.

I no longer use Chrome, but now I need to strip out google search from all my browsers.

#degoogle

@ichderfisch i haven't heared from this website before, but that's a devistating article 😞 I'd think dropping 3rd party cookies would be a good thing, but websites like these also rely on them..
It's like placing your bets on a single horse, and the horse takes on a new race, completely ignoring you. Heavy stuff..

Will there come a change, brought fourth by opensource projects such as #fediverse ? I sure hope so.

@ichderfisch This is familiar, and even if it wasn't you'd still have my sympathy.

I wonder though, are you finding that your reduction in raw numbers of users from organic search also accompanied by an increase in the quality of those users, i.e. better dwell times and other conversion metrics?

@ichderfisch been a happy Kagi customer for half a year now. It works really well and fast, and unlike everyone I know who uses ddg, I have never once found myself doing the "gotta add !g if you actually want to search" thing.

And the killer feature, you can have an exclude list of websites. Never wanna see Pinterest again - boom it's done.

Absolutely worth the money for me. If searching the web is an important tool in your life, I tell everyone to consider paying for the upgrade!

@ichderfisch
It is not only websites but YouTube channels face similar things in regards to recommendations.

Here is an example of it
https://youtu.be/z39dFnUCjRs

@ichderfisch

TL;DR _ google paying Reddit an up front fee for scraping... meant that they're now penalizing content creators (in search results) to lower their ad payouts

"Thirdly, and this is the biggest change I have ever seen in the search results over the last 5 years, is the fact that you will likely now see Reddit results upon searching for something. Reddit has its place on the internet, but certainly not for search terms where you seek expert and professional advice (what Google’s guidelines state).

Reddit is the single biggest winner in recent algorithm changes, seeing millions of more clicks every single day thanks to recent updates. But my understanding of the guidelines was that Google said they want to show results written by experts."

https://ruhr.social/@ichderfisch/112211682321654979

@ichderfisch I've added a link to it on the Links page of my personal site, hoping to keep the site afloat.

Together, we'll show independent site owners like Brandon we're on their side.