I’ll put an offender on blast: Max.
A couple of months ago I subscribed to the highest tier, ad-free plan. Around a week into it, we started getting ads for different kinds of sports shows, interrupting the shows and movies at random spots just like traditional ads on television.
First thing first: Back in the days when we rode our Dimetrodons to school both ways uphill in fallen volcanic ash, we called it Cinemax and HBO was separate. And neither one of them had ads show up in the middle of their content because they were premium channels.
Second thing second: When I contacted customer service about it, they actually had the audacity to tell me that those aren’t ads, they are previews for other content offered in their service.
So to me, whether it is a bug in their system or the definition of ad has changed in the ensuing millennia since I first learned its meaning, the fact that there are even ads in premium media services like these is a prime example of enshittification to me.
About the PDF chapter: you (and the publishers) use it wrong. PDF was never intended for processing, only for representation; think of it as a digital print. Scientific stuff should be published in an e-book format instead.
this list is more concepts then actual enshittification. No YouTube, no reference to Google searches less helpful results. No reference to ad overload plaguing more services. No reference to crappy TOS’s with artibution clauses. It’s just using an excuse to say AI bad and rehash concepts learned back in 2015 with the drive to drop cable.
Bad article. Weak, had a chance to put actual offenders on blast with their platform but just softballs it with “general concepts” they feel are shitty. Aside from google stuff like search that is the most softball answer. And more likely google isn’t one of their advertisers
Ars itself has become pretty enshittified. It doesn’t hold a candle when compared to itself 10 years ago. Also, they mentioned Doctorow several times but apparently they couldn’t be arsed to put even a single link to his blog… why?
Even the part about Google Search only highlights the AI crap and skips over the real problem of increasingly worse search results. The whole article is more of a rant from a user’s perspective and there aren’t any real insights.
Another space where they avoid offending advertisers, who are the real thing that ruined google search (along with seo bullshit).
Like if the only change to google search was the ai blurb I don’t think people would care nearly as much. They care because the actual results are heavily weighted to be sponsored results above all else for the entire first page, and the second page is designed to redirect you to images or other things that push you to start a new search (thus seeing new sponsored results). What you wanted to find is meaningless, it’s solely about shoveling products and services down your fucking throat
AT enshittified themselves over the last couple of years. Used to be great source.
