I remember watching the news back in the 90s when Walmart was spreading across the country and there was the lament of small-town stores shutting down. We are way past that time for retail stores. Now, Walmart is just assumed since they are in every part of the country and will pretty much always have the lowest prices on the general items you may go looking for.
However, no one looks to Walmart to bring fresh ideas or character to a city. Walmart’s job is to provide cheap prices for the basics.
There can be debate on whether Walmart is a good thing, but that isn’t what this is about. This article is just about how the internet accessed through google is Walmart. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) started this process. Websites constantly battle for the optimizing content that Google will align with which drives writing to target key words and to connect with the established norms on a certain topic.
There are definitely those who have not loved this direction for the internet.
How SEO consolidates influence
The simplest way that the Google algorithm consolidates influence is that is starts with the domain authority of the biggest websites. Larger websites with more clout and links are now massively ahead of anyone starting out in a particular space. Similar to Walmart, this isn’t necessarily wrong, but it is a power dynamic that pushes the little guy out to the edge.
For any entrepreneur or writer, this is a pretty incredible hill to climb. There are businesses that help smaller operations get links to build influence, but it needs to be a pretty focused target to break through. The weight of the huge sites vastly outweighs the ability of smaller sites to be gain influence.
Additionally, many large sites have staff devoted to churning out content to target key words and continue to hold the grip on the top search spots.
Insert AI at the top of the Search Results
Now Google provides its own AI generated results at the top of the page for the vast majority of searches. This just further consolidates the eyeballs on the internet to a limited source. Anything sourced by AI is obviously going to be based on an algorithmic search of the internet, which once again, similar to Walmart, may not be a bad thing, but it does give a certain type of result every time.
The result will be encyclopedic in nature and not have any new insight for the reader. This is perfect for finding a local Thai restaurant or determining if a book store is open.
Where this needs to be thought through is for someone trying to find some fresh insight on a given topic. Starting with Google may not be the best place and probably hasn’t been for quite some time. New and different ideas are simply buried.
Learning to explore differently
Cool coffee shops and interesting stores have survived and honestly thrived in the era of Walmart. People will always want to find spaces with character and originality. This is true whether it is in the physical world or in digital spaces.
That is a big reason I took over Personal Finance Blogs late last year. I thought it was a great space to give access to original thoughts from people who have enough interest in helping others figure out the challenges of growing wealth that they generate content for the world to read. I would hope to see other sites like this on other niche topics. The goal is to provide a space for people to come to where they know there will be original thoughts.
In the news space, a site like Ground News is a cool option. It provides some independent filtering of the articles out there, but at least lets you see where things are coming from different perspectives. This is different from Google, which is still filtering, but doesn’t tell you anything.
Another thing I gained from taking over the site was an account on X. For a long time, I thought Twitter was just a noisy place where people yelled at each other, and this is probably still very true. However, as I spent some time on the account and found other voices that I liked to follow I realized that it was a pretty great place to find new voices. I have to be the filter, but maybe that is the whole point.
Also, if you challenge yourself to follow some folks that don’t quite align with you politically, it can be a great place to gain understanding of the differing perspectives in the world. We need to challenge ourselves to be a good filter and not only allow in ideas that make us feel good.
Being Intentional Online
The big thing that I’ve learned as I’ve entered a deeper understanding of how the internet functions is that it simply takes more intentionality to really find good, original content online. It takes a bit of digging to discover new voices, but it is very much worth it.
Despite all the junk, there is always amazing content flowing onto the internet. It just takes a little effort to find it and then enjoy the fresh perspectives that are available from all over the world.
You wouldn’t shop at Walmart for everything and so it’s good to think of the internet the same way.
By: Chris Bemis