LLMs and Google could destroy the internet

Leigh Harrison sent me this blog post by Evan Boehs, which reflects my earlier ones about the web being rendered useless by Google et al. I never intended this blog to be about tech, but there’s so much to chart, and so much dishonesty to get on the record, lest someone else finds themselves in […]

Read More… from LLMs and Google could destroy the internet



You can post misinformation on Linkedin, and there are no consequences

It’s official: unlike Medium, Linkedin has confirmed that it will not remove posts that misuse my name under the grounds of misinformation. After the initial report, and a request for a review, Linkedin determined ‘After reviewing the content, we didn’t find any violations of our policies.’ Summary: I reported the misinformation as misinformation to Linkedin. […]

Read More… from You can post misinformation on Linkedin, and there are no consequences



The three parties that did right among a whole lot of fraud

This whole Semrush-created junk about me being a Google SEO expert has one silver lining: if anyone has posted about it falsely, they are a fraud, and you know never to hire them. There are only a few people who have got it right: Shahid Jafar Khan in Pakistan (who removed his piece immediately upon […]

Read More… from The three parties that did right among a whole lot of fraud



A rejected PSA for the de-Googling community on Reddit

Pity, this was just removed from the De-Google subreddit. Oh well, you try to do a public duty as a netizen … Here it is, as I’m not about to let it go to waste—I was hoping to share the love a bit more so legitimate websites had the full story. We all probably know […]

Read More… from A rejected PSA for the de-Googling community on Reddit



My real expert opinion on Google, SEO, and the mess that’s to come (not the LLM junk)

Skry being right on the money:     Still those web pages about me being a Google SEO expert or having an algorithm named for me are being indexed and prioritized by Google, all because Semrush hallucinated (or was there a malicious hand in this?), told a bunch of people (in south Asia, predominantly) about […]

Read More… from My real expert opinion on Google, SEO, and the mess that’s to come (not the LLM junk)



Is Google hiding content critical of itself—while losing the spam battle?

For a while I enjoyed getting some of the hits from the unwary searching for my name in association with the misinformation that Semrush allegedly generated. After all, it’s my name, and I should enjoy the hits for Google SEO jackyan in order to set the record straight, rather than have the unscrupulous among SEO […]

Read More… from Is Google hiding content critical of itself—while losing the spam battle?



Pirate sites, content mills and splogs exist because of Google

In chatting to Alexandra Wolfe on Mastodon about the previous post, I had to draw a sombre conclusion. If it weren’t for Google, there’d be no incentive to do content mills or splogs. I replied: ‘People really are that stupid, and itʼs all thanks to Google. Google doesn’t care about ad fraud, and anyone can […]

Read More… from Pirate sites, content mills and splogs exist because of Google



The “next Google” has to save the web

Spotted on Tumblr yesterday, via Dave Sparks: ‘Why Facebook Browsing Annihilates Web Browsing’, on the Fast Company blogs. The intro pretty much summarizes the whole piece:   Recent research suggests that Facebook is overtaking search engines in terms of “time spent” on the web. Want to see where the trendline is heading? Take a look […]

Read More… from The “next Google” has to save the web



Vox cars’ group crosses 100

Even though I am no longer blogging on Vox, I have some good news there: the cars’ group that I founded got its 100th member today.    It’s actually the third time we’ve crossed 100, but on those previous occasions, it was sploggers that got us over that number. And each time I’ve had to […]

Read More… from Vox cars’ group crosses 100