I propose we change the term enshitification to engoogleification in regards to the internet.
Blame Reddit, not Google.
Is Google's contract with Reddit exclusive, so that other search engines aren't given the opportunity to also pay?
I highly doubt that, especially since the DOJ would go after that immediately because of antitrust.
So no, pretty sure the blame here is 100% on Reddit unless you have evidence otherwise.
> so that other search engines aren't given the opportunity to also pay?
this makes it harder for new engines if google has exclusive deals with some of the most popular sites
My comment said, show me that the Google deal with Reddit is exclusive.
You haven't done that.
And there's no reason to think it would be, because of antitrust. The DOJ doesn't have to act "immediately", the point is that obvious antitrust violations come with fines that make it unprofitable to attempt in the first place. And this would be black-and-white obvious antitrust violation, given Google's monopoly status in search. This isn't a gray area where it might be worth it for Google to roll the dice.
whether or not the deal is exclusive OR companies have to pay to index reddit it's still bad for competition. money has a barrier to entry preventing newcomers.
I can blame reddit for creating the deal and I can blame google for accepting the deal if the effect is bing, ddg and others cannot display reddit results without reaching some deal.
I'm saying the blame is 100% with Reddit.
Blaming Google for accepting it makes no sense. That's like if a shopper goes to grocery store and buys an expensive $20 piece of cheese, and other shoppers can't afford cheese that pricey, and you're blaming that one shopper for buying it because it means other shoppers can't also get the cheese without paying for it. That doesn't make any sense. The store set the price, and they're the one to blame if other shoppers can't afford it.
If Bing, DDG and others can't reach a deal with Reddit, that has nothing to do with Google.
Again, blame here is 100% on Reddit, and 0% on Google. To assign blame to a purchaser in a case like this doesn't make any sense.
i don't think google is blameless like you propose.
Reddit can charge smaller companies less money. So if there's a problem, again, the problem is 100% with Reddit.
Google is absolutely blameless here. You may not like Google, and you can certainly blame them for plenty of other things. But in this situation, literally all of the blame is with Reddit for deciding to remove their content from all search engines unless they pay. Reddit didn't have to do that. Google didn't make them do that.
Reddit did this. Not Google.