Casey Newton

Yeah, they built like the greatest highway system that the internet had ever seen. And then over time, it is just shrunk to the size of a parking lot. And anybody who searches it is just like driving around in a circle in the parking lot. And why did that happen?

Yeah, they built like the greatest highway system that the internet had ever seen. And then over time, it is just shrunk to the size of a parking lot. And anybody who searches it is just like driving around in a circle in the parking lot. And why did that happen?

I mean, I think my answer to that would be that Google just wound up being arguably the biggest economic victor from the internet in terms of certainly the amount of digital advertising revenue that they were able to generate from the internet. And digital advertising revenue is like the single biggest category of revenue, I think. Is that true? Well, I don't know. We should look that up.

I mean, I think my answer to that would be that Google just wound up being arguably the biggest economic victor from the internet in terms of certainly the amount of digital advertising revenue that they were able to generate from the internet. And digital advertising revenue is like the single biggest category of revenue, I think. Is that true? Well, I don't know. We should look that up.

I mean, I think my answer to that would be that Google just wound up being arguably the biggest economic victor from the internet in terms of certainly the amount of digital advertising revenue that they were able to generate from the internet. And digital advertising revenue is like the single biggest category of revenue, I think. Is that true? Well, I don't know. We should look that up.

We'll look that up.

We'll look that up.

We'll look that up.

The publishing industry, it was really amazing when it was just like newspapers, but nobody was making $100 billion a year, right? Like Google was able to just sort of go out and over the years, more and more of the advertising revenue just accrued to Google. Like Google just became like the most powerful thing and publishers just became... disempowered. They laid people off.

The publishing industry, it was really amazing when it was just like newspapers, but nobody was making $100 billion a year, right? Like Google was able to just sort of go out and over the years, more and more of the advertising revenue just accrued to Google. Like Google just became like the most powerful thing and publishers just became... disempowered. They laid people off.

The publishing industry, it was really amazing when it was just like newspapers, but nobody was making $100 billion a year, right? Like Google was able to just sort of go out and over the years, more and more of the advertising revenue just accrued to Google. Like Google just became like the most powerful thing and publishers just became... disempowered. They laid people off.

They scrambled, you know, whatever they could do to like get up high on those search results, they would do. It would work for a time. Then the algorithm would change. Then, you know, more people would be laid off. Like all of this just had like a downward pressure on the quality of things. Like people couldn't afford to take big swings anymore. They couldn't afford to to hire big staffs anymore.

They scrambled, you know, whatever they could do to like get up high on those search results, they would do. It would work for a time. Then the algorithm would change. Then, you know, more people would be laid off. Like all of this just had like a downward pressure on the quality of things. Like people couldn't afford to take big swings anymore. They couldn't afford to to hire big staffs anymore.

They scrambled, you know, whatever they could do to like get up high on those search results, they would do. It would work for a time. Then the algorithm would change. Then, you know, more people would be laid off. Like all of this just had like a downward pressure on the quality of things. Like people couldn't afford to take big swings anymore. They couldn't afford to to hire big staffs anymore.

And so you just get more of these like generic websites telling you about that week's movie trailer. So like basically Google got too much of the money and like the rest of the digital media ecosystem, in my opinion, did not get enough. And there's a very solid narrative that has unfolded over the past few years that Google just isn't as good as it used to be at searching for things.

And so you just get more of these like generic websites telling you about that week's movie trailer. So like basically Google got too much of the money and like the rest of the digital media ecosystem, in my opinion, did not get enough. And there's a very solid narrative that has unfolded over the past few years that Google just isn't as good as it used to be at searching for things.

And so you just get more of these like generic websites telling you about that week's movie trailer. So like basically Google got too much of the money and like the rest of the digital media ecosystem, in my opinion, did not get enough. And there's a very solid narrative that has unfolded over the past few years that Google just isn't as good as it used to be at searching for things.

In part, that is just because there are so many more ads now on the sort of high-value searches that people often do on Google. A predictable way that Google has added revenue over the past couple years when they need to show growth to Wall Street is they'll literally just add one more sponsored link to mobile search results.

In part, that is just because there are so many more ads now on the sort of high-value searches that people often do on Google. A predictable way that Google has added revenue over the past couple years when they need to show growth to Wall Street is they'll literally just add one more sponsored link to mobile search results.

In part, that is just because there are so many more ads now on the sort of high-value searches that people often do on Google. A predictable way that Google has added revenue over the past couple years when they need to show growth to Wall Street is they'll literally just add one more sponsored link to mobile search results.