Blog status update (June 2024): The blogroll returns, plus blogging vs. AI and social media
Since it’s been awhile (and I needed a topic to write about), here’s another blog status update.
Bringing back… a blogroll?
Years ago, my blog used to have a blogroll, as was the norm. However, I ditched it since it seemed having one was dated, plus I wanted to free up space in my sidebars.
After all this time, however, I’ve decided to bring it back, along with some slight rearranging of a few things layout-wise. Basically, the sidebar’s back, as well as a popular posts list, since sticking everything in the footer would’ve been too crowded. As for why?
Google’s made news recently for numerous reasons, all related to the decline in quality of its search engine. Among recent events:
Google’s aggressive AI push is clogging search results with useless and erroneous advice, suggesting things like eating rocks or putting glue on pizza.
Google’s AI push is also at the expense of traffic to actual sites, who still rely on Google (thanks to its near-monopoly over online search).
A recent leak of papers about Google’s search engine suggests that trying to keep up with ever-changing and often vague SEO advice to appease Google is a waste of time. (Especially if Google plans on pushing AI over sending traffic to actual sites, anyway.)
Along with Google’s problems, there are also problems with the state of traditional social networks like Facebook or (what’s left of) Twitter. At this point, all the major social networks either: throttle post visibility and/or bury posts in algorithms, even if you pay to “boost” visibility (Facebook, Instagram); place an emphasis on pivoting to video over text or photos (Instagram, TikTok, etc.); or allow misinformation and bigoted trolls to run unchecked (Twitter, now the idiotically named “X”). Oh, and they’re also doubling down on AI, too. Meta is planning to opt-in all posted material into its AI engine, while making it very difficult to opt-out.
Why blogging still matters
It’s clear that nothing I do with my blog can possibly fit in with or appease any of the above outlets… who’ll just grind everything up for AI or whatever, anyway. It’s a plain text and photo based blog; I refuse to use AI; I’m not interested in tolerating or fighting off a stream of racists, homophobes, and trolls; and the “pivot to video” push ignores not everyone’s telegenic, or interested in the amount of work producing/editing video involves.
At this point, it feels like my best approach is my old-school one: running my own blog, offering a newsletter/receiving blog posts by email option, and trying to use user-centered/open standard based alternatives like federated social networks (Mastodon, Bluesky, etc.). Adding a blogroll that lists my favorite media/tech sites might not be “modern,” but it’s a way of supporting other outlets online, outside AI-clogged search engines.
My blog will also still be here once the AI craze eventually crashes and Silicon Valley/Wall Street move onto the next shiny (and hopefully less ecologically destructive) fad. I also don’t have to worry about being on a platform clogged by racist trolls, or knock myself out second-guessing how to appease Google’s SEO rules or Instagram algorithms. (Though I still use Yoast SEO as a WordPress plugin, since it also offers other useful features.) I also get to determine what happens with my blog in terms of content, appearance, moderating comments, etc.
An open web is now more important than ever. Even if my blog isn’t exactly a massive draw, I’d like to think it’s contributing something useful that I own outright.