this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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It's really sort of amazing how few years it took to go from "Do no evil" to "Don't even bother pretending not to."
I get this is the go-to response now, for good reason, but there isn't really anything too shady going on with this particular case at least not from Google. This is more about them trying to keep SEOs from figuring out how they rank things so they can't pollute the search results even more.
Every comment is shitting on Google but here is the what the SEO expert said about the leak when it was presented to them:
https://sparktoro.com/blog/an-anonymous-source-shared-thousands-of-leaked-google-search-api-documents-with-me-everyone-in-seo-should-see-them/
Just read through that blog. Look at the absolute indignity these SEO assholes have at the idea that the search engine wouldn't tell them exactly how to fuck it up with their garbage.
This is entirely about advertising. Hell, the leaker revealed their identity, and it's the guy that runs this company:
https://eaeagledigital.com/
Companies like this and the assholes behind them are a cancer on the internet and they have been for a very long time. You cannot point the finger at Google and not also point the finger at them, they are the other half of the shit equation.
Next to upvoting, I'm just writing this to potentially get your comment ranked higher for this post.
Stuffing this comment with keywords in order to rank his comment higher. Upvoting, writing, ranking.
Oh FFS. Hadn't realized that implication yet. I fucking hate SEO internet polluters.
I suppose on the bright side maybe, between this and the garbage showing from their AI search, they'll actually dedicate the necessary resources to make their search usable.
As I just noted on another response, mostly it was that I came up with a delicious turn of phrase and couldn't not post it. And yes, while broadly I think that Google deserves every bit of shit that's thrown their way and more - that they could vanish from the face of the Earth tomorrow and the internet could only benefit - this particular incident really isn't a good example.
Forgive me for not reading all 2500 documents, but I haven't heard anything to suggest there was a bunch of sinister stuff in there -- and there's nothing implicitly evil about having docs leaked.
The main takeaway is that Google uses Chrome to collect data on what search results people click on and how long they spend on those pages. They then use that data to rank search results.
Ah, I see. That makes sense, but to be fair I think that was expected. I suspect they also pull the same data from every page where adsense is embedded regardless of browser, e.g., and every other company out there is aggregating the same sort of data every possible place they can get it from (shared sign ins, etc etc)
Edit: It's definitely a particularly bad look when there are several things in there that representatives for Google have apparently lied about over the years.
I have to admit that I was so pleased with that turn of phrase when it came to me that I went ahead and posted it in spite of the fact that this specific incident doesn't appear to be a good example.
That feels remarkably intellectually honest. I doubt if I would have replied again in that case, so I don't know why anyone was downvoting this