They are paths to discovery, but are they actual drivers of traffic?
My impression is that if you aren’t listed on google, your site is pretty close to dead. In any case, if you somehow managed to drive traffic via other social media, you are one underpaid moderator’s hasty decision from ruin.
The point isn’t about deranking spammers it is about concentrating a huge majority of traffic (and therefore power) in the hands of a single entity which is unaccountable to anyone.
I think traffic/discovery patterns are a really good distinction. Something like Hacker News, Reddit etc will drive a lot of traffic in a short burst. People are sharing "cool stuff" and visiting it in one go.
Ideally, we need a fix as well for more regular discory of problems people have. If I want "Norwegian cooking blogs" google will probably return me mostly spam, and waiting for someone on reddit to maybe post something in that category obviously isn't an option.
Another thing to consider is that those sites would rather you did you click those links. They don't benefit when you leave the platform and they down rank things they think will cause users to leave the walled garden regardless of the content.
My impression is that if you aren’t listed on google, your site is pretty close to dead. In any case, if you somehow managed to drive traffic via other social media, you are one underpaid moderator’s hasty decision from ruin.
The point isn’t about deranking spammers it is about concentrating a huge majority of traffic (and therefore power) in the hands of a single entity which is unaccountable to anyone.