@jupiter_rowland Yes. This will happen. There’s nothing stopping Google from indexing the Fediverse. And that’s a good thing. If it brings more people here, and if those people are still free to Federate however they want, then it’s something to celebrate.
@jupiter_rowland Yes. Men in pinstripes suits are already working out how they can take over the Fediverse. I have no doubt. And they’ll be creative and sneaky about it, too. At the same time, search WILL happen somehow, because it’s good for the end users. So, I think the best defense is to manage HOW search happens, and to make *user-centric* standards for how external services can integrate with Fediverse apps
@jupiter_rowland Yes and yes. (Thanks for this cool chat, by the way) A fully decentralized search service seems infeasible, but perhaps there’s a hub-and-spoke approach that might work. We won’t solve all the worlds I’ll here in this chat, but I think open protocols and open APIs are the key, so that any add-on service can be user-swappable.
@benpate @jupiter_rowland If it’s just men in pinstripe suits, I don’t think we have that much to worry about as I’ve never seen an engineer in one except maybe their wedding and even then their partner picked it out for them.
@aethervision @jupiter_rowland I was hinting at CEOs and Venture Capitalists. I had deleted several other colorful descriptions for those types because they weren’t very family friendly.
@benpate @jupiter_rowland Oh crap. If you throw in people wearing American Giant hoodies, we’re doomed.