Is it just me, or have the quality of Google’s search results declined? These days, whether I’m searching for recommendations for React date-pickers or parenting tips for toddlers, all I seem to get are spammy, SEO-optimised, low signal, click-bait in my results.

These sites only seem to exist to detect that you’re interested in a topic in order to better target you for advertising.

From a design perspective, it makes me think about the long term of consequences of who you think your stakeholders are.

Once, if you had something to say, or a helpful tip, you would publish it on a blog, where it could be picked up by a search engine.

This method of self-publishing was made usable by Google Reader.

By ending support for Google Reader, did Google push real user generated content into the walled gardens of Twitter or Instagram?

By facilitating user-tracking across the web, did Google incubate these click-farms?

Have they poisoned their own well?