Today’s links The specific process by which Google enshittified its search: Ed Zitron has Prabhakar Raghavan bang to rights. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. The specific process by which Google enshittified its search (permalink) All digital businesses have the technical capacity to enshittify: the ability to change the underlying functions of the business from moment to moment and user to user, allowing for the rapid transfer of value between business customers, end users and shareholders: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/ If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan Which raises an important question: why do companies enshittify at a specific moment, after refraining from enshittifying before? After all, a company always has the potential to benefit by treating its business customers and end users worse, by giving them a worse deal. If you charge more for your product and pay your suppliers less, that leaves more money on the table for your investors. Of course, it’s not that simple. While cheating, price-gouging, and degrading your product can produce gains, these tactics also threaten losses. You might lose customers to a rival, or get punished by a regulator, or face mass resignations from…Pluralistic: The specific process by which Google enshittified its search (24 Apr 2024)