time to abandon google and go back to web rings.
People buy brands because they don't want to figure out what's good or bad. Brands tend to gain a reputation by being good.
The same is true for websites. People will trust specific websites when they seek information, and those websites will get passed around.
People pick convenience above almost everything else unfortunately, a few may prefer the old world but a vast majority of people will use Google and whatever its successor is.
Google was a breath of fresh air.
Now Google is used for strategic shots - you are interested in one piece of information, you find it, and you quickly retreat to your safe havens.
And there were services like Hotline!
And bookmarks. You bookmarked everything!
Well….
Before modems, we used to drive to peoples houses and literally swap floppy disks of software and files!
There would be meetups.
I was just a kid, but my Dad used to network with other computer owning parents and friends!
So Sneaker Net essentially.
We’d go to computer shows too!
Ad blockers are one such tool.
AI powered answer extraction tools are the next one. That can filter out all the product placement noise for you while you are browsing.
Algorithm feed aggregators that can consume algorithm feeds and filter them to get rid of garbage and things that trigger you in negative ways to invoke engagement.