Regardless of your thoughts on Reddit, it is undeniably one of the better sources for answers on the internet when you’re looking for answers to something specific. We had a taste of what the internet would be like without the platform back in June, when multiple subreddits went private to protest its API pricing changes. And some time in the future, we may experience this all over again.
The Washington Post reports that Reddit may cut off access by search engine crawlers, with Google and Bing being named specifically. Which is a technical way of saying that content on the platform won’t show up in search results when you use those search engines. The report cites an anonymous source who claims that “Reddit can survive without search”.
If you’re wondering why the popular forum platform is making this decision, the reason is the same as its API pricing changes – AI. Back in June, the company announced its API pricing changes to profit from generative AI companies going through its vast amounts of data. It looks like the company is still talking to generative AI companies about getting paid for such data, failing which it will consider blocking internet search crawlers.
Worth noting though that an earlier version of the report noted that it may be necessary for users to log into Reddit to access content on the platform. While this has been amended, and company spokesperson Courtney Geesey-Dorr said that “nothing is changing” on that front in a statement sent to The Verge. That being said, it remains unclear what this change will ultimately mean to the average user if they can’t see posts via internet search.
(Source: The Washington Post, The Verge)
