The best or worst example of a service going down down and deeper down thanks to the profit motive is the original company that has taken over the hosting of this very site. Some ten years ago - I worked for the Royal Academy of NL at the time - I was introduced to this brand spanking new search engine which really was the thing to use for anyone who wanted things worth while to know from the internet. The name reminded me of a John D. Loudermilk number, a song about the pleasures of fishing - not fit for kind-hearted vegetarians.
Ten years later - the search engines it pushed out of habitual use and hence "the market" are forgotten if not gone without a sound. The search engine has become a verb.
Some weeks ago I searched for a place in the French region of Picardie. All results I got were either in English or Dutch. That was not the way to really get into the place I was looking for, but I had to trick the search engine into giving results in French - a language, as Search Engine has decided for me, I cannot read.
The same goes for results I would like to have in Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese or German - or any other language I might even vaguely understand for that matter. Search Engine decides I want English or Dutch. Even when you trick it it will yield mostly results in the language of Empire and the language of my IP-number.
One of the reasons behind this decision must be that there are no interesting advertisements to be shown to my IP with results in any other language.
And there you have it. Big Brother selling effort!
It was the best search engine for the internet, there was money to be made with it and the money is now the most important bit. The search engine is running into the ground before our very eyes. It is becoming more useless by the day.
Some former workers at the well-known Search Engine are running a counter-engine which is emptied from the Results You Want And We Want You To See Because Of Commercial Value.
It might be good as long as it lasts.
Bookmark it!
