I got to thinking about something today, as I read Jeff Bercovici’s post on Google’s recent addition to search, which allows users to permanently block a specific website from appearing in future results. His title asks why Google won’t tell us who their users hate (they’re keeping the data private). It was the word users that caught my attention.
What the hell is an internet user? Somebody who uses the internet, obviously. But that’s too simple. Over the last few months, content farms have been getting attacked as repositories of shit that cripple the efforts of good, honest, hard-searching people in their noble attempts to find what they want on the internet. Let me make this clear- this is not a defense of content farms, spam sites, link bait, etc. They really do tend to fuck up pretty basic queries with the digital equivalent of cow paddies scattered over an otherwise beautiful meadow. And they can certainly throw a wrench into the attempts of somebody to find the information they are seeking.
So what’s the issue? Well, tech bloggers and journalists throw around the word ‘internet users’ in just about every post on the issue of search quality, and how damaging it is for them to be exposed to the horrors of shitty content. But how many people who use the internet pay any attention whatsoever to the wheelings and dealings of the modern tech field? Sure, sites like TechCrunch and SAI and blah blah blah get millions (MILLIONS- THAT MUST BE CLOSE TO EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET EVER) of visitors a month, but what do those millions account for as an overall percentage of people who use the internet, not as part of their job, but as part of their day to day life? Not fucking much.
It’s an argument coming from an Ivory Tower in digital form. The simple fact that tech wankers fail to acknowledge is that they are addressing a particular market, and in no way take into consideration the way an average person (someone who does not work in tech, media, etc., aka a shit ton of people) approaches and uses Google or the internet as a whole. Most people have no clue who Demand Media or Associated Content or Johnny Link Fucker are. And if they’ve heard of them, they probably don’t give two shits about their soiling of the bounties of internet enlightenment.
Why? Because people aren’t nearly as stupid as tech bloggers make them out to be. I’ve seen some beyond useless articles on sites like eHow, like How to Convert a Diesel Truck to Gasoline. It only takes four steps. Tools needed? A well stocked garage. No one is stupid enough to use this information. But doesn’t this just prove these companies are employing shady practices to get to the top and bury the good stuff? Fuck no! Are there any people out there who plan on converting a diesel truck to gas, and expect the fucking internet to tell them how? If there are, they are happy to dick up their truck in any way they see fit.
Tech bloggers, stop pretending like you know what’s best for ‘internet users’. And stop acting like ‘internet users’ are some group of annonymous people with the same basic character, that give a beaver’s ass about search quality. You’ve got no right, qualifications, or balls to state what’s good and helpful for people using Google. You want to block content farms from your seach results? Good for you! Go right ahead. Just stop acting like what’s good for you somehow applies to EVERY PERSON ON THE INTERNET! You douchey, elitist asshats.
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