Podcast Summary: "Introducing 'Understood: Who Broke Internet'"

Podcast Information

• Title: Click Here
• Host/Author: Recorded Future News
• Episode: Introducing "Understood: Who Broke Internet"
• Release Date: July 15, 2025
• Description: Click Here delves into true stories about the people shaping our digital landscape. Hosted by former NPR investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston, the podcast explores topics like ransomware, hackers, and cybersecurity without heavy technical jargon.

Introduction to the Episode

In this special episode, Dina Temple-Raston introduces a collaboration with the CBC podcast "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" The episode nostalgically reflects on the early, more innocent days of the internet, contrasting it with today’s complex and often problematic digital environment filled with misinformation, deepfakes, and persistent cyber threats.

The Google Code Yellow Incident

The episode begins by recounting an incident from February 5, 2019, at Google's headquarters where a "Code Yellow" was declared—a crisis signaling moderate severity requiring immediate attention.

• Key Figures:

  • Ben Gomes (00:02): Head of Search at Google, faced with the Code Yellow.
  • Prabhagar Raghavan (02:19): Google's Head of Ads, driving the crisis due to declining search queries impacting ad revenue.
  • Jerry Dishler (28:16): Vice President of Advertising, pushing for changes to increase queries and, consequently, ad revenue.

• Notable Quote:

  "Fix this. Get more queries happening." — Prabhagar Raghavan (02:19)

Despite Google's dominance with a 90% market share, the company struggled to maintain and grow search queries, directly affecting its primary revenue stream from advertisements. Internal tensions surfaced as Ben Gomes and his team resisted measures that would degrade the search experience to boost ad views.

Inshittification of the Internet

Cory Doctorow introduces the term "inshittification," a neologism describing the gradual decline in the quality of digital platforms driven by business interests.

• Notable Quotes:

  "It's not just Google search, it's happening to the entire Internet." — Cory Doctorow (05:58)

  "Every big tech company is changing in front of our very eyes. Amazon sucks right now. Uber sucks right now. Netflix sucks. Facebook sucks." — Ed Zitron (06:12)

The conversation highlights how platforms initially designed to empower users have become profit-driven entities that compromise user experience. This transformation involves three stages:

1. Good to Bad: Platforms become user-friendly but find ways to lock users in.
2. Benefitting Business: Platforms prioritize the interests of business customers over users.
3. Value Shift: Ultimate focus shifts to benefiting investors and executives, leaving users and businesses disadvantaged.

Historical Perspective on the Internet’s Evolution

The episode provides a historical overview of the internet's early days, emphasizing its initial promise of democratization and open communication.

• Key Points:

  • Early Internet (1950s-1990s): Visionaries saw computers as tools for communication, leading to the creation of interconnected networks like Usenet.
  • Google’s Emergence: Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google revolutionized search with the PageRank algorithm, offering vastly improved search results compared to predecessors.

• Notable Quote:

  "When I first saw the Google search engine, my mind was blown." — Emmanuel Goldstein (18:25)

Google initially thrived on the motto "Don't be evil," focusing on delivering quality search results without heavy reliance on advertisements. However, the introduction of AdWords in 2000 marked a pivotal shift towards monetization through ads, altering the fundamental nature of search results.

The Shift to Ad-Driven Search

The introduction of AdWords transformed Google’s business model by integrating advertisements directly into search results.

• Impact:

  • Early AdWords (26:12): Ads appeared in a prominent colored bar alongside organic search results, benefiting users, advertisers, and Google alike.
  • Post-Code Yellow Changes (27:19): Subsequent modifications blurred the distinction between ads and organic results, leading to a decline in search quality and user trust.

• Notable Quote:

  "They had to make money. So then they figured, well, maybe there's a way to do ads that would be terrible." — Emmanuel Goldstein (25:23)

Despite initial success, these changes prioritized ad revenue over user experience, resulting in poorer search quality and increased frustration among users.

Consequences of Inshittification

By 2025, the cumulative effect of these shifts has severely degraded the functionality and reliability of Google Search.

• Real-World Implications:

  • Users experience irrelevant and spammy search results.
  • Authentic queries yield predominantly ads or broken links instead of useful information.
  • Trust in Google's search capabilities has significantly diminished.

• Notable Quote:

  "What is the point of a search engine that can't retrieve pages on major websites containing the exact phrase you searched for?" — Cory Doctorow (31:22)

Defining and Understanding Inshittification

The episode delves deeper into the concept of inshittification, explaining its three-stage process and its pervasive impact on digital platforms.

• Stages of Inshittification:

  1. Lock-In: Platforms become indispensable, making it difficult for users to leave.
  2. Business Prioritization: User experience is compromised to satisfy business clients.
  3. Value Extraction: Platforms extract maximum value for investors and executives, often at the expense of users and businesses.

• Notable Quote:

  "Enshitification describes the widespread decay of the platforms we all rely on for so much. It's a three-stage process..." — Cory Doctorow (36:29)

Final Reflections and Accountability

The episode concludes by questioning the broader systemic issues that allow such degradation to occur, emphasizing the role of policymakers and business decisions in shaping the internet's trajectory.

• Key Insights:

  • The decline is not solely due to malicious intent by tech CEOs but also stems from policy choices that prioritize profit over user welfare.
  • Replacing leadership alone won’t reverse the trend; comprehensive policy reforms are necessary to reclaim the internet’s democratic ideals.

• Notable Quote:

  "The people inshitting our tech are downstream of other people, policymakers whose choices created the fecund and shitagenic environment..." — Cory Doctorow (38:36)

Conclusion "Introducing 'Understood: Who Broke Internet'" offers a critical examination of how business imperatives and policy decisions have systematically eroded the quality and integrity of the internet. Through the lens of Google’s transformation, the episode highlights the broader phenomenon of inshittification, urging listeners to consider the need for collective action to restore the internet’s foundational principles.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Prabhagar Raghavan: "Fix this. Get more queries happening." (02:19)
• Cory Doctorow: "It's not just Google search, it's happening to the entire Internet." (05:58)
• Ed Zitron: "Every big tech company is changing in front of our very eyes." (06:12)
• Emmanuel Goldstein: "When I first saw the Google search engine, my mind was blown." (18:25)
• Emmanuel Goldstein: "They had to make money. So then they figured, well, maybe there's a way to do ads that would be terrible." (25:23)
• Cory Doctorow: "What is the point of a search engine that can't retrieve pages on major websites containing the exact phrase you searched for?" (31:22)
• Cory Doctorow: "Enshitification describes the widespread decay of the platforms we all rely on for so much. It's a three-stage process..." (36:29)
• Cory Doctorow: "The people inshitting our tech are downstream of other people, policymakers whose choices created the fecund and shitagenic environment..." (38:36)