Just had a little blast from the future. With books being digitised and searchable on Google, will authors start writing books with their Google search ranking in mind? You know how these days there’s Search Engine Optimisation, where people try to design their blogs or websites so that they appear at the top of a Google search? Well, perhaps in the future there will be companies trying to sell SEO services to authors. Get your book on the first page of results! Just figure out what people are searching for, and drop in a mention of it. Can you imagine it? Novels with gratuitous references to Britney Spears or Barack Obama, metaphors stretched to the limit just to grab traffic. Literature optimised for the search engines. I hope that never happens!
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There are 2 comments
ugh, I hope not, Andrew, but I would not be entirely surprised. As the old aphorism goes, Money talks… True artists will not need to stoop to such levels, of course, and those that do will have to live with their own shame.
Oh, heaven for bid, I HOPE NOT!
I can see it happening, though, sadly enough, especially in young adult fiction and product placement. Very sad.