> It's precisely their fault, they've created an environment that incentivizes low quality, irrelevant content and are actively hostile towards users.
I think this is an overly harsh take. I strongly suspect that any algorithm for ranking search results is open to gaming and manipulation by malicious users.
Google changed SEO from a seedy practice to something they actively encourage, promote and support.
Google stopped shitcanning sites that that present different things to Googlebot and regular users, including sites that require a login for normal users but show content to Googlebot.
Google imposed arbitrary ranking criteria that favor long-wided blogspam over concise articles that immediately tell you what you want to know.
I think this is an overly harsh take. I strongly suspect that any algorithm for ranking search results is open to gaming and manipulation by malicious users.