Dana

Showing affiliate articles in Google Discover and then extracting the products mentioned + linking to Google Shopping’s own links to the products is, in my opinion, one of the worst examples of abusive monopoly behavior by Google… in my humble opinion.

“Because Google’s AI is trained on the web, its answers are a kind of remixed version of the web itself, while also distorting the economy that gave rise to the modern internet by potentially cutting the sites out of the equation entirely.” ~ @daveyalba 🔗 bloom.bg/41W2wwl

@natejhake Low key considering blocking all google bots. 🤣 it's not like they give me any traffic. 😁

"Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil." -Google 😲Wow. At least Google's "Don't be evil" motto makes more sense now ...

It has been 339 days since a Google photographer came to our house for a photoshoot. The very next day, our 12-year-old business began to unravel. A story about how Google uses small businesses for PR, then discards them. 🧵

The 80th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation by Soviet troops is being observed at the site of the former Nazi death camp, a ceremony that is widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend. apnews.com/article/auschw…

@natejhake There are ways (@asrg/113867412641585520" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tldr.nettime.org/@asrg/11386741…), the downside is that they might affect search engine crawlers too. Well, and you either need to be a tech person or hire someone to do it for you. Dunno how effective they are against the Operator yet, tho

Is there a way for website owners to block Open AI's Operator AI browser agent? I hate constantly playing cat and mouse just to keep Big Tech's AI scrapers off our site 😾🐭

@TylerBishop I'm not saying that, it's just that a machine can't replicate my experience and tone I want to convey in certain parts. Besides, I'm not going to contribute to water shortage and other environmental consequences. I would consider AI if it was ethically sourced and env. friendly

@WebdesignDana You must a great writer and even faster typer. Personally, my fingers have done enough typing. I also think people spend too much time computing in front of computers; I’ll let the machines do it now.

🧐 Would you rather: A.) Use an LLM to write your content B.) Do a worse job making it yourself in quadruple the time? Curious if others feel how I do about it?

@natejhake Are they so short-sighted that they're not seeing how this can all be (and already is, I bet) used for nefarious purposes? Their little influencer videos are nothing. At least these threads work wonderfully as a block list. :D

@WebdesignDana Tep. And, sadly, the honest answer is "because we think we can get away with it, and it's cheaper than paying humans"

Google in 2022: We value E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authority & trust. We want helpful, reliable content "by people, for people in search" Google in 2025: Hey spammers, use our cheap generative AI models to fake experience with product reviews, game walk-throughs -- just about anything!

@TripsWithTykes @Pinterest I wish blocking an account would hide it from feed and search, but it doesn't.

I share a lot about Google's dysfunction, but AI is really ruining @Pinterest too. Home feed just served me multiple pins from this junk site: fake erroneous castle, "Fask Pass," terrifying mutant mashup of Mickey's gloves & ears, & Mickey getting slapped in the face by a churro

@ejtravelwriter @TripsWithTykes @Pinterest This site just appeared on my radar a few days ago: pdimagearchive.org might want to give it a go! :)

@NicheSiteLady I'm almost at your level! Almost! 😅🤏

I just deleted 11,120 email subscribers! 🫣 Here's why...

This is the direct result of Google’s war on small business that kicked off in full force last April. And the numbers are actually even worse for Google because they’re cooking the data to make it look like they’re getting more search volume than they really are. That’s why many of the links in the search results simply lead to new sets of search results. And kudos to @MrDannyGoodwin for breaking this story! Link in the replies.

@SavannahFeder You can dress it up with fancy words, but this is just a regular spam bot. 😂

Announcing Astral - an AI marketer that works 24/7 to grow your startup. Astral navigates websites, creates content, and runs marketing across socials. Watch Astral automate Reddit in real-time:

@NicheSiteLady What are your thoughts on Meta adding AI profiles for faking engagement and your FB ad strategy?

@darth_na @JohnMu When google says something, do the opposite. 😁

🩱 🔥:: And the 2025 Bullshit starts... ::🔥 Sorry @JohnMu - but doing a bit of a disservice to people here! *) Not a bloody "blog", it's "articles" and other content (few people actually "web log" these days) 1) If you don't produce content, then you are going to rank for fewer terms 2) If you don't cover certain terms, you won't get the traffic, nor subsequent leads or conversions 3) Links are links - including Internal Links. Even half-assed SEOs managed to realise the value of internal links (PR flow and Relevance/Topicality) 4) Inbound Links are important (despite what G likes to imply). Most customers/clients don't link, but Peers and Media do - so you need content for P/M to earn those links. At the end of the day, SEO is about being found via Search. That requires content, covering whatever terms people search for. What you shouldn't be doing, is producing content for the sake of content/SE Rankings. Content should serve the business and the audience, not primarily to chase rankings and traffic. So either your articles, guides, interviews, cheat sheets, behind the scenes, jokes, memes, round-ups, analyses, brags, explainers, best practices, perspective pieces, spotlights, updates, checklists, comparisons, recommendations, prompt lists (+200 other types of content!) ... ... are there to benefit your users, and aid in building awareness, appeal, trust and conversions, or ... are there to engage professionals, and rack up authority, earn links, garner respect etc. Nothing you produce should be to "get rankings", or simply because it has a "high search volume". And no, you shouldn't be "building out your topical map", or "improving your topical mesh", or "reinforcing your silos" etc., just so you can have a higher number of internal links (that's still chasing SEs, not focusing on Users!!!). Content should serve 2 purposes: 1) The businesses 2) The audiences If it doesn't do those 2 things - it shouldn't be published! . So why is G saying you don't need a blog? Because it's 2025. There's over 15 years worth of crap content, stolen content (often crap), (re)spun and paraphrased content; manual and programmatic and "AI". G do Not need more of the same. Do a search for "Negative SEO", and look at how many sites have 1 article about NSEO, and list 5 out of 8 types ... when there's over 25! That is what G doesn't want anymore! If all you are doing is producing the same stuff as everyone else, there's no value in it for G. They don't want to crawl it, let alone index or rank it. (And they don't need it, they already stole copies for their LLM and AIO.) . This raises a problem, as certain content is kind of expected. In which case - simply set it as noindex. Or - better yet (for how things are, and what's coming), get used to putting some content behind a gate, so bots (be they SE or thieving AIs) cannot access them. It means the content is still there for users. #SEO #Blog #ContentStrategy

@natejhake Why don't they, I don't know, make their platforms usable for real people in the first place? What a concept!

AI slop on Facebook was never a bug. It was always a feature. Now Meta has announced the next step: AI characters will replace Facebook's dying user base Facebook "expect(s) these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do"

Google tells bloggers to "build a brand" and write for your own audiences BUT if you do that and your audience tries to find you via brand search, Google will try its best to stop your audience from finding you in the SERPs Google will: -re-format and re-mix your blog post (replacing your editorial judgment with its AI's preferred ordering) -steal your photos and present them right in the SERPs -hallucinate a few entries that aren't actually on your post at all -then present it all on right on the SERPs as if Google made it Seriously -- what on Earth is the point of this EXCEPT for Google to compete directly against the same publishers its AI is stealing from?