Algorithmic optimization degraded search and information quality online

Evidence

AI slop further established a growing feeling that the internet was getting worse with every passing day. Google Search, once synonymous with precision, was “broken,” partly because search optimization strategies pushed content away from actual human needs. Every online recipe featured thousands of extra words to satisfy Google’s algorithm before listing the ingredients and instructions. Once-reliable hubs of information like Quora were inundated with nonsensical queries (“Is Japan owned by China?”) and overconfident amateur responses. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 701