~/blog/google-search-enshittification

The expected trajectory of the internet makes me sad

“Is Google Search getting worse?” “No, it’s the internet that is.” Oh, and that’s a bigger problem than the former, IMO.

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The modern internet sucks = Reddit sucks = walled garden platforms suck = it’s not going to get any better.

How much of my search results were AI?

Here I do an investigation into the authenticity of the top result that Google gave me for each query (in bold at the top, before each one).

“is google not profitable”

  1. r/ValueInvesting - I basically stopped clicking Google links months ago. Their quarter just explained why that doesn’t matter.
    • You can obviously tell this POST is AI written and slop because of the shitty LLM prose.
    • Also, just look at the post history.
    • Pasted image 20261003020508
    • Yeah, whatever, man. I don’t fucking care anymore. Fuck you.
  2. “will ai kill off junior swe roles”
    • r/ArtificialInteligence [sic] - Is AI quietly killing the junior developer role?
      • Ok so straight off the bat, the subreddit name is spelt wrong. Let’s look at the post.
      • Pasted image 20261003022620
      • Ok, it already reads like a shitty LLM engagement post:
        • Excess examples as bullet points, a human would just write 1 or 2 of those within the sentence as examples.
        • Bold text being used. This one is kind of debatable but, pre-2023~, almost nobody on Reddit used markdown, unless it was like a mod or meta post. Especially for this post, nobody would bother marking those phrases as bold. Come on, humans are lazy. That is our merit. Fuck, that’s why LLMs are so popular - they made this post for the lazy twat posting.
        • Ends with an open-ended question to farm engagement.
      • To put the nail in the coffin for my suspicions on this post, OP is literally an Indian with awful English, so he can’t have written this post.
        • (I am half-Indian, this is not a racist comment)
        • Pasted image 20261003023311
      • Ok, now on to the comments:
        • Pasted image 20261003023438
          • I think the comment at the bottom says it the most, but, if you can’t tell that an LLM wrote this, I think you’re beyond saving.
        • Pasted image 20261003023523
          • Ok, a nice, somewhat soothing comment. Let’s check their post history!
            • Pasted image 20261003023609
            • Oops! All bot comments for future GEO farming!

Much like my thoughts on politics in my country, I once again feel like:

  • I have a different (probably somewhat misinformed and ignorant) opinion to the majority.
  • There’s no clear direction for me, or us, to go from here.

Some brainless moron reading this right now might be thinking - “ok, and whats wrong with AI answers ROFL?”, to which I don’t have the energy to respond to.

I’m going to miss you, pre-AI internet. You might have been filled with spam, but you were filled with less spam. Can we just hit the undelete button already?