David Revoy | Mastodon | Bonus Timelapse
Transcript
The Degraded Search Engine
A comic in four panels:
Panel 1. Cepper, the gothic sorceress, walks toward a large steampunk machine in the center of the library written “Gooblin” on it, colored letters. The machine resembles a rusty block, with a threadmill on one side, a seat and a typewriter-style keyboard.
Cepper: “A good old ‘search engine’, this is what I need for my research!”
Panel 2. Close up, Cepper types on the typewriter keyboard, looking at the screen.
Cepper: “R.I.N.G. O.F. F.I.R.E S.P.E.L.L.S. enter”
Cepper: “…And voilà.”
Panel 3. The machine spits out dozens of scrolls and books. Cepper reads them.
Cepper: “Wait… Why are these results so bad?..”
Book 1: “(Ad) Ten Fire Spells That Will Change Your Life (You Won’t Believe the 7th!)”
Book 2: “(Sponsored) 15 Spicy Onion Ring Recipes”
Book 3: “(For you) Top 5 Best Engagement Rings”
Book 4: “(ad) How to Start a Campfire: A Comprehensive Guide”
Book 5: “Is Your Fire Spell Not Working? (Try This One Simple Trick!)”
Book 6: “(Sponsored) Cheap Fire-Resistant Panties! (50% Off Today Only!)”
Panel 4. A librarian approaches, their AI Parrot perched on their shoulder, pointing it. Cepper looks defeated, her eyes blasé.
Librarian: “Yeah, they tuned it this way so everyone just uses their Avian Intelligence for searching now…” Cepper: “…How unsurprising.”


I don’t think that is true. For example, when it comes to cooking, I know a few hand-made non-seo pages that I frequent that have a nice selection and presentation of recipes. Those never come up in the search results, only the shit sites.
Would you need ok to share the links ?
As you said all the cooking results in search engines are awful and mostly AI generated.