Don’t worry, Discord isn’t going to put your spicy e-kitten chats on Google Search

It’s harder than ever to find human information through search engines–so, to mitigate the LLMification, millions of people have been attaching “Reddit” to the ends of their search queries. Doing so pulls up subreddits and specific threads filled with posts and comments from real human beings sharing their experiences.

Now Discord wants people to utilize its servers in the same way.

The chat platform–best known for peer-to-peer DMs and community gathering places–just announced that Discoverable Servers, which have at least 1,000 members and are publicly viewable/joinable, will all have a bigger presence on the web and start appearing in search engine results.

On Nov. 16, each of Discord’s ~63,000 Discoverable Servers will get their own Server Web Page, which Discord describes as “a public page on the open web that helps people discover and learn about your Discoverable Server.”

“Anyone can see it, including people without a Discord account, and search engines like Google can show it in their results,” Discord added in a support page explaining the new pages.

But Server Web Pages will not only include server descriptions. Beginning in mid-December, these pages will start including current word-for-word discussions happening in the server.

So, for example, someone chatting about Robert Pattinson’s haute couture look in Dune: Part Three in a server for cinephiles might see their take pop in Google Search as a response to someone looking for reviews of the film. (It won’t be attributed, though: Discord says chats will go out to search engines “without usernames and avatars.” Also, no messages sent before Nov. 16 will go to search engines.)

Discord says it’s been testing chat-to-search-engine ports with official servers for games like NBA 2K, Rust, and Dead by Daylight. Makes sense, since all three of these games have complicated mechanics and a lot of onboarding, resulting in a lot of search queries that can be answered by other players.

Basically, Discord wants its public servers to be indexed and searched the same way subreddits are. And sure, doing that might help more people find and join servers, maybe even becoming Discord users for the first time. But considering Discord is ramping up its ad efforts, we’re betting the ultimate goal here is more traffic (aka more eyeballs on display ads).

The issue here is that Reddit and Discord have fundamentally different uses.

On Reddit, users have to take the time to collect their thoughts and compose them into a response. It’s built for tightly moderated, forum-style discussions, and users know their responses will be archived for future access. That’s why so many people go there to ask and answer questions about their various areas of experience and expertise, from household DIY projects to toxic mushroom identification, farrier advice, and legal issues.

Discord started as a casual DM platform for gamers, and though it’s gotten some QOL upgrades, it hasn’t expanded too far beyond that purpose. It’s a hub for friends, friend groups, and fandoms to hold rapid-fire conversations. We’re not saying Discorders don’t pass useful information back and forth, but c’mon: there will be a heinous amount of memes and lols for search engines to sift out before they get to Reddit-value advice.

That being said, it’s important for people to understand that only Discoverable Servers are part of this rollout. Google’s not going to start showing people your spicy e-kitten chats.

Mods of Discoverable Servers can also opt out of being added to search results before things kick in Nov. 16. Or they can go full-throttle on embracing this and start urging people to post longer, Reddit-style responses. We’ll see!

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