Search engines think I plagiarized my own content! My Hacker News Case Study
Search engines think I plagiarized my own content. Being the author, the plagiarist and the victim is a strange experience, especially when you are a senior organic growth strategist!
It all started on December 18, 2024 after I shared one of my articles entitled Google, the search engine that’s forgotten how to search on Hacker News. This was my first time on HN. My article got 100+ comments in a few hours and the upvotes reached 80 points.
Sure, that’s not much but I was happy because I discovered an intellectually curious community, clearly more technically proficient than most! And then, my critical article about Google Search got shadow-banned by… Google. Yes, many use this expression carelessly. I don’t. I’ll focus on Google because it is the leading search engine in terms of market share but this goes beyond Google. Together, we’ll try to understand what happened.
Along the way, I’ll share contrarian and hopefully insightful observations. I wrote some takeaways for you, your blog, your brand at the end. I hope you will disagree with me and explain why I’m wrong because I believe friction and open debate are among the fastest ways to grow.
