Blogger and recovering journalist Elizabeth Tai writes about the state of Google Search and how that affects the wider internet in Is the Internet really broken?

She also looks at how the Verge covered its take on this.

It’s a nuanced take. She, rightly, points out there are ways the internet in general and search are broken from both the user and the online writer or publisher’s point of view. Heaven knows it’s hard to get noticed by Google these days if you aren’t selling something and SEOed up to your eyeballs.

For the most part she agrees with the Verge, but doesn’t like the emotive language.

However, I’m less confident than Tai, that Mastodon, Substack and others are “rising to fill the gap”. It’s a nice sentiment, but it feels more and more like a defensive, alternative world for a niche audience.

The one thing we both agree on is that there is no big money in this, except perhaps for Substack which is funded by venture capital and will be under pressure to give investors a huge pay day.