Why is the Internet no longer the same and what awaits us next?

Today I want to reflect on how the Internet has changed in recent years. And what the future of the internet holds for us... Remember the days when we spent hours playing Counter-Strike, hanging out on forums and jerking off to the sounds of dial-up. At that time, the Internet was something special, a closed club for insiders.

Сегодня интернет – это уже не просто место для развлечений, а неотъемлемая часть нашей жизни. We work online, order food, pay bills – all online. And while it's certainly convenient, there's a downside to the coin.

One of the main problems of the modern Internet is search engine optimization (SEO). Sites are forced to adapt to the algorithms of search engines in order to get to the top of search results. As a result, we get a bunch of articles that are optimized for robots, but do not contain useful information for humans.

Remember how many times you tried to find something interesting on social networks, but the search engine stubbornly gave you a bunch of popular accounts instead of what you really need? Social media algorithms are designed to show you content from popular creators, not what you're looking for.

С поисковиками вроде Google ситуация немного лучше, но ненамного. Google, конечно, старается бороться с некачественным контентом. Они постоянно обновляют алгоритмы, чтобы отсеять сайты, созданные исключительно для манипуляции поисковой выдачей. В 2022 году Google выпустил “Обновление полезного контента”, а в 2023 и 2024 годах вышли его апдейты. Google утверждает, что эти обновления помогли уменьшить количество “мусорного” контента в результатах поиска на 45%.

It would seem that everything is fine! But it wasn't like that. Google, on the one hand, fights against manipulation in SEO, and on the other hand, it provides tools for SEO optimization. It turns out to be a vicious circle.

As a result, large platforms such as Reddit win. Reddit – it is a platform where users create content themselves. Google's algorithms consider such content to be more relevant, which is why Reddit is getting more and more traffic. Analytics tool Semrush showed that Reddit's traffic has grown significantly after Google's latest algorithm updates. Moreover, Reddit announced a quarterly profit of $243 million for the first time since going public in March 2024, up 48% from a year earlier.

В то же время, сайты с уникальным авторским контентом теряют трафик. Например, сайт New York Magazine потерял 32% трафика из Google Search за последние шесть месяцев, а GQ.com – 26%. Получается, что Google, сам того не желая, способствует монополизации интернета.

Еще одна проблема – это “некликабельный интернет”. Google tries to provide answers right on the search page so that users don't have to go to other sites. This, of course, is convenient, but it can lead to the fact that we will receive information only from a limited number of sources.

And finally, we can't forget about AI content. Google uses artificial intelligence to generate search results. In theory, this should improve the quality of the results, but in practice, everything is not so simple.

Google claims that AI helps websites get more traffic. But many website owners fear that AI may, on the contrary, negatively affect their traffic.

The biggest problem with AI content is that it can displace authored content. Google uses the AI Overviews tool to create concise answers to users' questions. These responses are based on information from multiple sites.

The problem is that site owners can't stop Google from using their content in AI Overviews. They can use the nosnippet meta tag to hide their content from AI Overviews, but it will also hide it from organic search results as well.

Where are we going? The internet is constantly evolving. Artificial intelligence, social networks, new technologies - all this will affect our future. Most likely, the Internet will become more controlled and focused on large platforms. This cannot be avoided. The struggle for the quality of content and for unique visitors will continue to continue, but the trend towards simplification and optimization for algorithms will continue (which will primarily affect users). However, there is a chance that new technologies and approaches will emerge that will improve access to reliable information and create conditions for fairer competition between sites.

FAQ

Because of SEO, websites optimize content for search engine algorithms rather than user needs. Sites optimize content not for the benefit of users, but to please Google's algorithms. This leads to keyword overload, low-quality articles, and clickbait. People get a lot of the same results, which often don't respond to their query. It is more difficult for users to find honest, in-depth information, because the first in the search results are commercial sites or blogs with superficial answers.

“Некликабельный интернет” — это ситуация, когда поисковые системы, особенно Google, предоставляют ответы прямо в результатах поиска. Пользователь видит краткий ответ или подсказку и не переходит на сайты. Это удобно, но снижает трафик для авторов контента. Сайты, которые тратят ресурсы на создание материалов, теряют доходы, а пользователи получают упрощенные ответы, которые иногда бывают неточными.

ИИ-контент может ухудшить качество информации. Авторы стремятся к массовой генерации текстов, часто жертвуя точностью и глубиной. Алгоритмы создают тексты, которые “похожи” на правду, но могут содержать ошибки или быть банальными. Это усложняет поиск достоверных источников, особенно когда различить, где пишет человек, а где машина, становится труднее. Переизбыток такого контента может затруднить доступ к проверенной информации.

The internet is likely to become more controlled and focused on large platforms. The struggle for the quality of content will continue, but the trend towards simplification and optimization for algorithms will continue. Search personalization and data filtering may increase. However, there is a chance that new technologies and approaches will emerge that will improve access to reliable information and create conditions for fairer competition between sites. But this is not for sure...