
Google Featured Snippets - jacquesm
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9351707?p=featured_snippets
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jacquesm
I posted this because I think it is a very interesting phenomenon that Google
gets away with this. The underlying sites' content is shamelessly ripped and
repurposed as though it is Google's own without so much as a 'by your leave'.
This keeps 100% of the ad revenue for Google, the website does not even see
the impression and has no idea where its traffic went. Effectively this turns
the web into Google's content database from which it can send - or withhold -
traffic at will.

The linked text contains this passage:

"We display featured snippets when our systems determine this format will help
people more easily discover what they’re seeking, both from the description
about the page and when they click on the link to read the page itself.
They’re especially helpful for those on mobile or searching by voice."

That's about as disingenuous as it gets. People that find what they were
looking for in this way will never make that click and with more and more
traffic going to mobile the fraction that gets siphoned off like this is only
getting larger.

This relegates the rest of the web to mere 'data provider' of Google rather
than to see them as independent operators on a level playing field.

