If you don’t use Google as your search engine, then you won’t see Reddit posts in your search results – or at least not recent content from Reddit, anyway.
This is the state of play in the search world now, following a fresh move by Reddit, as explained by spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt in a statement provided to The Verge.
Ratchschmidt said: “We have been in discussions with multiple search engines. We have been unable to reach agreements with all of them, since some are unable or unwilling to make enforceable promises regarding their use of Reddit content, including their use for AI.”
So, only Google will be able to surface recent Reddit posts, according to the report – though rival search engines like Bing will still show results for older content on the site.
Like many people, I often use ‘site:reddit.com’ in searches when I want more personal, human answers, for example when I’m looking for help navigating a tough spot in a videogame or skincare recommendations – or I even just add the word ‘Reddit’ at the end of my search query to bring up the best results. Right now, however, if you try this on any other search engine than Google you’re probably going to wind up pretty disappointed and staring at outdated Reddit posts.
Earlier in the year Google struck a deal with Reddit worth $60million to allow its hungry AI bots to feast on Reddit’s sweet, sweet content. Said deal followed a Reddit blackout last year (a protest against API changes) that left Google seriously in the lurch without access to a swathe of subreddits.
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours…
So, it seems like Reddit is playing a strong hand here, in this game of data scraping – and blocking AIs from hoovering up its posts and presenting them as results for queries. As The Verge further observes, last month, Reddit updated its robots.txt file to stop web crawlers from doing exactly this – hammering home the fact that Reddit data is not for free.
A spokesperson for Microsoft, Caitlin Roulston, previously acknowledged that: “Microsoft respects the robots.txt standard, and we honor the directions provided by websites that do not want content on their pages to be used with our generative AI models.”
Overall, these are gutsy moves on Reddit’s part, attempting to draw firm lines regarding AI being ‘entitled’ to data for free.
Right now, if you try to use the handy Reddit tag on search engines like Bing, you’ll still get Reddit posts related to your query – but they’ll be several years old. If you need more recent advice, you’ll have to be searching with Google, at least for the time being – until other search engines are ready to stump up some cash for the privilege.