Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

Organic Traffic, “Rights,” and Business Models

• Many argue organic Google traffic is not a right; publishers chose to build on a private platform that can change rules at will.
• Others counter that Google explicitly encouraged “people-first content” and built an ecosystem where traffic substituted for payment; changing the deal after publishers invested is seen as a bait-and-switch.
• Some say this is the classic platform-risk story: if you want a business, you must own your audience (email lists, memberships, direct visits), not depend on Google.

AI vs Human Travel Advice

• Experiences diverge: some find LLMs already excellent for trip brainstorming and “off the beaten path” suggestions; others say they still rely on niche blogs for detailed hikes, GPX files, dynamic local info.
• A common workflow: use AI for fast candidate lists, then use traditional search and known blogs to fact-check and deepen.
• Several highlight serious hallucinations and wrong links from search-integrated AI, saying they no longer trust it for anything critical.

Training Data, Copyright, and Privacy

• Strong disagreement over whether AI training on public web content is “stealing” or a legal/inevitable use of public information.
• Some predict high‑quality open content will move behind paywalls, small magazines, or closed communities as a rational response.
• Others note AI can pivot to alternative streams: YouTube transcripts, social platforms, private communications mediated by AI assistants, raising GDPR and privacy concerns.

Censorship, Shadowbanning, and Fairness

• Heated debate over language: critics call Google’s behaviour “censorship” and “shadowbanning”; opponents say it’s just downranking, not blocking access.
• One side argues consciously tuning algorithms to systematically suppress small sites is effectively censorship; the other insists censorship requires viewpoint-based suppression, not commercial ranking changes.

Google’s Incentives, Power, and Search Quality

• Many see AI overviews as Google “closing the loop”: keeping users on Google, cutting publishers out of traffic and ad revenue.
• Others question the logic of preferring big partners: large sites have leverage; countless indie sites don’t.
• Broad consensus that search quality has degraded: more ads, SEO/LLM slop, weaker long‑tail results. Some report even big sites’ pages are now hard to find.
• Suggestions range from antitrust breakup and treating search like infrastructure to open‑source, federated search projects and a cultural return to link aggregators, bookmarks, and word‑of‑mouth discovery.