Link: What Can We Learn From the Ruins of Gary, Indiana? | Atlas Obscura
Gary is a city of modern American ruins created by distinctly contemporary problems, with City Methodist as perhaps the most iconic and enduring symbol of its loss and, some might argue, its betrayal.
Link: Testing occidental search engines on site: again: Mojeek, Bing more normal | Jack Yan
#searchengines #google #mojeek #gmx #bing
In recent months, the so-called “dead internet theory” has gained new popularity. It suggests that much of the content online is in fact automatically generated, and that the number of humans on the web is dwindling in comparison with bot accounts.
#indieweb #deadinternet
Link: As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages | The Verge
The Department of Justice and plaintiff states made their last arguments Thursday on Google’s alleged anticompetitive conduct in the general search market, and on Friday focused on its allegedly illegal conduct in search advertising. Google was also under fire (separately) for failing to retain chat messages that the DOJ believes could have been relevant to the case.
Link: The web is not dying | Manuel Moreale
Sure, it’s a lot harder to reach a million people if you have to start from your own little corner of the web. But you know what? Tough shit. Some things in life are hard. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe being able to instantly become viral is not a good thing overall. Maybe we do want some friction in the system.
H/T: Manton Reece
Link: We can have a different web | Molly White
The walled enclosures that crowded out much of that acre of developed land still reside within an infinite expanse of possibility. There are no limits to the web — if it has borders, they are ever expanding. We may feel as though we are trapped in a tiny, crowded, noisy space, but it is only because we don’t see over the walls.
H/T Flamed Fury
Link: TheSmallWay.txt | the library of alexandra
Embracing the Small Web for Connection
Link: Return of the $2 Trillion Secret Trial Against Google | Big Tech On Trial
A good summary of where we left off 6 months ago, because it was so long ago nobody remembers.
Link: The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars | Vox
Dangerous, polluting SUVs and pickups took over America. Lawmakers are partly to blame.
Link: GeoCities’ Afterlife and Web History ⁋ by olia
Since GeoCities—as a stand-in for the past web, a representative for a certain visual style, or simply as a digital artifact and data set—becomes increasingly popular in mass culture and academia, and we at One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age feel partly responsible for it, there are four statements I’d like to make. Some more obvious than others, but all of them made in order to restore historical justice.
Link: US’s power grid continues to lower emissions—everything else, not so much | Ars Technica
Excluding one pandemic year, emissions are lower than they’ve been since the 1980s.