I noticed google not being able to find smaller blogs a few years ago. The sort of blogs I used to like and read a lot - small irregular blog of an expert in something like cryptography, sociology etc kind of disappeared from the search. Then they disappeared for real.
Even when I knew the exact name of article I was looking for google was unable to find it. And yes it still existed,
Marginalia search is good for this. But generally it’s becoming a real problem due to Google’s dominance. Blog authors ought to look into web rings and crosslinks again to help each other out with discovery.
I have noticed the same thing. And the blogs are still there, I checked, and marginalia returns them as top results when I search the relevant keywords. Google just really doesn't care.
Even when I knew the exact name of article I was looking for google was unable to find it. And yes it still existed,