Nothing Stays the Same

I enjoyed the few years where we could trust at least some web search results.

I spent a brief stint as a website content writer in the early 10's. It was for several of the thousands of click-through sites designed both to be helpful and to generate revenue for the site owner. I researched and wrote about technical topics assigned me by the developer.

While the over-arching purpose of the sites was to generate money from reader clicks on the links, both the developer and I truly intended for the content to be useful and accurate. He and I both valued the trustworthiness of our product. Fortunately for me I finally found work in my chosen field of pursuit and bid content writing adeiu.

Without Trust, There is Nothing

Lately I've noticed the returns from my web searches are dominated by new websites with a repetitive and recognizable format. The sites usually have domain names with a general relationship to the topic I searched. The content is written to answer the who, what, where, when and how, but always stops short of actually providing any real detail.

I'm not at all surprised to find these sorts of sites. What surprises me is the frequency at which they are showing up in my search results. It feels like I'm suddenly sifting through exponentially more 'junk sites' in my search for genuine information from a principal source.

My immediate level of trust in search results has plummeted in recent weeks.

Blame It On AI

Every morning I read a bit more about how Generative AI is being used to further the aims of fraudsters. It seems no stretch to think somewhere someone is using the machine to create vast quantities of 'junk sites' with the intent of monetizing them. I'm sure it probably goes deeper than that.

The end result is that I can no longer trust anything I read on the web. That saddens me. What was very useful for quick access to real data from real authorities on a topic has been turned into a stew of garbage.

Even user forums are slowly being filled with machine generated content as users use ChatGPT and other such services to create responses for them. Now anyone who can type into a computer can present themselves as an authority on any given topic, regardless of their age or experience level.

(Dis)Trust But Verify

With no way to know the "andrauthenticity"¹ of anything we find on the web, our first reaction might be to distrust everything. That is not satisfactory. We will always be looking to the resource of the Internet for answers to questions. It's just part of our DNA at this point. So then we are left with distrust and verify as our modus operandi. This unfairly burdens us with the task of comparing the conclusions of even more web content to find out in which direction the patterns of agreement are pointing.

So, in the end, the 'wonderful tool of AI' may likely add to the inefficiency of human productivity by requiring the humans to spend more time verifying the veracity of any information found on the web.

Adapting to Change

It's a bit depressing watching a favorite thing deteriorate into a pile of crap. That's how I feel about this latest development in the world of the Internet. And I know there is no going back. The box has been opened and cannot be shut. I wish I had a brilliant idea on how to fix it, but I don't.

I guess I am relegated to the category of "old guy reminiscing about the good old days".

I do miss the days when the World-Wide Web was somewhat trust-worthy.

Maybe the future will bring something that will once again make it a thing that works.