Recommendations without algorithms are doing just fine

They tried to tell us that without the power of algorithms, we wouldn't gain any readers, no one would hear about us, and our sites wouldn't emerge from the depths of the Internet for even half a second. How wrong they were. Or perhaps they knew they were wrong, but were trying to prevent anyone else from finding out?Why do I blog anonymously?If you look at the 'About' page, you'll notice that I've only introduced myself by my first name, and my avatar isn't an actual photo of my face. Am I hiding from someone or something? No. That was a kind of experiment. I didn't want my surname or my photo to be linked in any way to my previous online activity.This is a deliberate move. I wanted to start building a blog from scratch, as it were, completely cutting myself off from any connections to what the Internet already knows about me. I also wanted to completely distance myself from big tech, algorithmic social media, and the giant search engine that has taken over people's minds (you know…