Tag: Google

Update on Google Alerts

A Google search alert on 日英翻訳 (Japanese-to-English translation) results in hits on some websites that actually discuss or mention JA-EN translation, but the search results also include a heavy sprinkling of porn sites that have successfully gamed the Google search engine (making it think they are about other things, JA-EN translation in this case) and ads for translation schools aimed at native Japanese speakers.

Accordingly, I have simply killed that search alert. It was quickly becoming useless, as much of the Internet is turning out to be, with the enshittification of cyberspace progesses unchecked.

The enshittification of the Internet and the successful gaming of Google are progressing smoothly.

I have noticed that on my Google Alert settings for “Japanese-to-English translation,” the hits returned recently have been heavily peppered with links to porn sites. In the list of hits, the titles of the hits look like they are related to Japanese-to-English translation, but that could be faked or, I think, even dynamically generated.

The sites have nothing to do with translation, and many of them ask if I am a minor before proceeding. I am not a minor, but I’ve never “proceeded,” so I am not able to give you a blow-by-blow, so to speak, description of the sites.

It looks like the perps have been able to successfully game the Google search engine. This lowers the value of Google for searching, and there are other reasons why Google value should be considered deprecated, but that’s not the topic of this post.

The Internet continues its move away from what was imagined for it years ago, moving closer and closer to just the real world, with cyberspace imitating life as we know it outside of our computer or mobile display screens.