“It was like the Google algorithm was suddenly in our favor”

March 5, 2020 8:27 AM

How the Internet Turned a Living Room Into a Karaoke Lounge (SL NYT)
posted by adrianhon (6 comments total)

This is adorable!!
posted by divabat at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2020

1) Interesting that changes to Google's algorithm in 2012 helped them -- just like what happened with Metafilter, but in reverse.

2) This must be a violation of zoning laws, right?
posted by crazy with stars at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2020

2) Not necessarily, since it’s BYOB and it doesn’t sound like they’re running it very often. But I am definitely not an NY lawyer!
posted by adrianhon at 9:55 AM on March 5, 2020

"It's fine because it is BYOB!" is right next to "cops have to tell you they are cops!" in the High Times Legal Advice Guide.

But yeah, I'm very sure this violates all kinds of zoning and licensing statutes. But, like most things at this level, if your neighbors don't care, generally the city/cops don't care.

A (former) buddy of mine worked Vice at the Olympic Division for the LAPD, and unless you were running girls or selling booze without a liquor license, they would only give a shit about the the smaller stuff (like having burlesque performances at a bar without the required cabaret license) if there was another reason for them to be there, like responding to call about people getting drunk and fighting.
posted by sideshow at 11:30 AM on March 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is very sweet, but this isn't really a story about algorithms and the internet. This is "my phone number was mislisted in the Yellow Pages", it's just that people use Google instead of the Yellow Pages now. The hypey/buzzy framing here is really odd to me.
posted by capricorn at 1:47 PM on March 5, 2020

Is it? The reason people were calling them is because they did (once) have an intentional karaoke business, it just started getting more attention after the algorithmic change.
posted by mosst at 7:42 AM on March 6, 2020