The content is too big for 300 words. This Essay was posted on 7/30/2026.
Cory Doctorow’s book Enshittification tells how a few very large companies have taken over the internet with the express goal of making a lot of money by providing poorer service to all of the internet users. Doctorow describes how companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and many others killed off their competition and then implemented what should be illegal schemes to make money by providing poorer service. Because there is no competition, and therefore no real choice for internet users, the only people suffering consequences are the users.
The book reminded my own experience with Google Search, and my story is a good example of how Google and other companies have ‘enshittified’ the internet.
In the late 1990’s I was writing computer code to enable web pages for online filing of State tax forms. Web programming was new to all of the programmers in the office, so we used web search programs to help us get the detailed information we needed for our work. One day a fellow programmer suggested that I use Google for web searches, because it did a better job of getting the technical information we needed. The older, more established search engines often cluttered the search list with companies that were more interested in selling us something.
Google’s search engine was based on a simple idea. Rather than feature companies that would pay to be listed first, Google favored companies that had a reputation of providing good information. Google’s simple idea made me a more efficient programmer.
Over time, Google forced out its competition by providing a better product. Now, even most of Google’s competition pays Google to use its search engine under the covers. When Google controlled the search-market, it began to evolve into a search engine that favored the companies that paid for more exposure.
Currently, I am writing short articles mostly for a web-based audience. I used the Google search engine to obtain sources for the more important facts. Finding the right source and then reading the details was taking too much time. The now degraded search engine provided inefficient lists filled with sales-oriented sources. So, I switched to Google Gemini, the AI alternative. Instead of inefficient lists, I get a list of facts. I can now get feedback from Gemini to determine if my ideas are on target.
Google is not the only company quietly making money off of internet users like me. A big revenue producer is advertising while we enjoy a less efficient but free service. Meanwhile these companies jack up the cost of their goods that we buy.
In the end, there is no free lunch and no free internet. And the book’s narrative of Joe Biden’s executive actions was, in my opinion, the most likely reason for forcing Biden to drop out of the 2024 campaign.
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