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Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline” (with regard to advertising, kinda-sorta)

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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (7 children)

We got internet thanks to scientists and engineers. No amount of capitalists, politicians, managers or business people can create an internet. They say 'here's some money to make stuff' and that's the limit of their involvement.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (6 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (5 children)

    You could make the argument that nothing can be achieved without being able to dedicate the time required. That was the miracle of the agricultural revolution, we could do something with our time other than gather food. If you said 'we got the internet thanks to farmers' that would be indisputable, everything flowed from that. I don't see why an internet couldn't emerge in other economic contexts because internet technology depends on physics and those laws transcend any and all economic systems. We already know this because almost every jurisdiction has the internet.

    The influence of capitalism on the internet has been a mixed bag. e-commerce: good. App ecosystem: ranging from good to addiction health crisis. Walled gardens and enshitification: bad. Misinformation and radicalisation of political groups: dire, potentially an existential threat.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (4 children)

    If you said ‘we got the internet thanks to farmers’ that would be indisputable, everything flowed from that.

    And why not? Philosophically, a strong argument can be made that the Agricultural Revolution laid the groundwork for everything we know today, including the internet. I don’t see why admitting that would be a problem as it’s simply the truth.

    I don’t see why an internet couldn’t emerge in other economic contexts because internet technology depends on physics and those laws transcend any and all economic systems. We already know this because almost every jurisdiction has the internet.

    I never disputed that it couldn’t be done, but it’s still a hypothetical. The reality is that capitalists stepped in, and the internet spread like wildfire. Could it be done in other scenarios? Maybe. But pointing out reality shouldn’t be inconvenient.

    The influence of capitalism on the internet has been a mixed bag. e-commerce: good. App ecosystem: ranging from good to addiction health crisis. Walled gardens and enshitification: bad. Misinformation and radicalisation of political groups: dire, potentially an existential threat.

    Everything has positives and negatives, everything is a mixed bag. People try to label everything in black and white boxes but reality is mostly gray. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that the internet is in people’s hands because of capitalism.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    You could make the same argument about almost anything that is created under our present economic system, it's void of content. I paid my gas bill so now I can tell my friends that I'm responsible for North Sea gas extraction. People imbibe Joe Rogan's billionaire koolaid and forget where all this stuff we take for granted comes from.

    Capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty and that is a minor miracle. Now it is eating itself like an ouroboros. People are upset and it's not a good time to defend big capital, ask TPUSA and United Health.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Again, you’re missing the point but I guess that’s okay. Let me lay it out simply: I’m not here to defend anything, I’m just here to state the truth. Everything has positives and negatives, and capitalism is no exception. But the fact remains that it’s the reason we have the internet in the hands of ordinary people. Denying this is simply denying reality.

    As for the agricultural revolution example you brought it up, not me. And you have to remember, this isn’t some far-fetched comparison like the agricultural revolution; capitalism has a direct link to the spread of the internet.

    But hey, maybe we can just agree to disagree there.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    Capitalism prevailed during the rise of the internet but correlation is not causation.

    Rockets were sent into space and capitalists would surely love to claim that achievement too, unfortunately it was first fascists followed by communists with the capitalists getting the bronze medal. Should we now decide that space flight is fascist-communist? No. Only scientists and engineers know how to do that. Why didn't Genghis Khan invent the internet? He didn't have enough capitalists, surely that was the problem.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    You can keep the wool over your eyes and defend your claim blindly. It doesn’t really matter. Unbiased historians will record what happened as it is, at the very least. If you can’t distinguish between invention and distribution, that’s your problem, I suppose.

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