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De-Googleify Internet

degooglisons-internet.org

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Re: De-Googleify Internet

#131

Post by cortesoft »

brilliantcode wrote: post #85

It's unlikely to happen as the vast majority of the public simply does not care . There is a deep technological disconnect. The only way to de-google-ify is to bring about mesh network that runs on our mobile devices or volunteer run nodes. Maybe you need to take the Skytrain to a remote part of the city to access specific information because there are no nodes there yet. The centralized infrastructure created betwee…

I think the public doesn't care for a good reason; no one has articulated a realistic, tangible cost to quality of life caused by letting Google track you. Lots of people talk about it being 'creepy' and dreaming up possible scenarios where it WOUDLD be costly, but for most people, the costs simply aren't actually felt.

I am trying to think about it for me personally, and I can't come up with a single time that Google tracking me has had a negative impact on my life. I know people have examples for themselves, but none resonate with me as being something I am at risk for.

Seriously, though; how is my life negatively impacted (in actuality, not hypothetically), in a way that I can notice the difference, by letting Google track me?

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#132

Post by dpark »

takeda wrote: post #72
StevePerkins wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wat? It's been years since I created my "real" Google account, so I just created "fakeasdlkvjasklfvjasdkljfgasdf@gmail.com" out of curiosity. It literally took 20 seconds, with a fake name and birthday. There are form fields for your phone number and alternate email address, but you can leave them blank.

Can you create a new account on every visit? If not you essentially volunteered to uniquely identify yourself.

Whether you want to opt out of tracking is irrelevant to the BS claim that it's difficult to create a google account. StevePerkins was specifically responding to the difficulty claim.

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#133

Post by ivan_gammel »

syphilis2 wrote: post #49
Ajedi32 wrote: post #27

> These services track us everywhere, while claiming to give us a better “user experience”. That's kind of the problem though; they usually _do_ offer a better user experience. If we want users to start using open source software rather than walled garden solutions from large companies, we're going to have to start building open source solutions which offer a comparable user experience to proprietary ones from large…

I believe this is true. But I also have found that sometimes the user experience is diminished when not "logged in" to encourage people to create accounts. Pinterest has a box that slowly covers up more of the screen as you scroll drown. Facebook has a login prompt box that stays at the bottom of the screen and occasionally expands as a reminder. Quora prevents internal redirects to new pages. With enough know-how th…

UX is usually worse for non-customers because the main product offering of many online services simply cannot exist without strong relationship with customer (probably Quora is not the case). Because of that, experience of registered users receives much more attention. Most of the world is happy with it and is not going to deprive themselves from cool stuff on privacy grounds. I'd say it's counterproductive to fight against collecting personal data by corporations, because corps do need it to make service better. Instead, it should be better regulated, possibly, similarly to financial organizations by requiring independent privacy audit etc.

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#134

Post by [deleted] »

__jal wrote: post #75
Ajedi32 wrote: post #27

> These services track us everywhere, while claiming to give us a better “user experience”. That's kind of the problem though; they usually _do_ offer a better user experience. If we want users to start using open source software rather than walled garden solutions from large companies, we're going to have to start building open source solutions which offer a comparable user experience to proprietary ones from large…

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder. It creeps me the hell out, which is why I block the data flows that feed them.

[deleted]

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#135

Post by BeingIncubated »

__jal wrote: post #75
Ajedi32 wrote: post #27

> These services track us everywhere, while claiming to give us a better “user experience”. That's kind of the problem though; they usually _do_ offer a better user experience. If we want users to start using open source software rather than walled garden solutions from large companies, we're going to have to start building open source solutions which offer a comparable user experience to proprietary ones from large…

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder. It creeps me the hell out, which is why I block the data flows that feed them.

This. I'm not sure if the other user means better experience with the services Google et al. offers or if he directly means how Google/Facebook/etc. cater ads/search results/friend suggestions to your web behavior. If it is the latter, then I personally want none of it and I get creeped out in much the same way as meeting a stranger who knows a little too much about me.

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#136

Post by Freak_NL »

anthony_romeo wrote: post #118
dispose13432 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Generally yes. I default to DDG, but I when I don't find what I want I often just add the '!g' to the search. What's the advantage of that over just going to google.com?

Well, most of the time I don't need to go to Google. But with '!g' the search defaults to encrypted mode (which you can do anyway at encrypted.google.com). Honestly, I mostly use ddg because the bang syntax is extremely helpful. Like if I want to search hacker news posts, I just add !hn or !hackernews to the search. They also have bang searches for documentation of many languages, like !java

You can also make DuckDuckGo the default search engine in Firefox' location bar. That way anything that is not a URL is treated as a search query. I particularly like !wen for Wikipedia and !wikt for Wiktionary.

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#138

Post by emsy »

codedokode wrote: post #111
syphilis2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this is true. But I also have found that sometimes the user experience is diminished when not "logged in" to encourage people to create accounts. Pinterest has a box that slowly covers up more of the screen as you scroll drown. Facebook has a login prompt box that stays at the bottom of the screen and occasionally expands as a reminder. Quora prevents internal redirects to new pages. With enough know-how th…

Does it even work? I interpret such behaviour as "you are not welcome here" and close the page.

For me too. Whenever I do need something from Quora I disable their register coercion with a ?share=fuckyou query param.

However, most non tech-users I know will simply enter their email and a password because it's so simple and they don't see the problem with this dark pattern.

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#139

Post by Fnoord »

mwfunk wrote: post #37
mi100hael wrote: post #12

I like the idea of this project, but I have several nits/concerns: - De-Google-ify is a poor way of marketing these ideas. Your average web user loves Google because they are trendy and make everything so convenient. - The site enumerates the pitfalls of cloud-hosted solutions and then proceeds to link to their own cloud-hosted solutions with no explanation of why they're any safer, better, etc. And not limited to th…

I've long felt that RMS/FSF's very specific and nonintuitive usage of "free" was intended to be misleading. If someone says "free" (which has many, many different meanings, all positive) when they really mean "copyleft" (which has one very complicated meaning), they're not trying to clarify anything, rather they're trying to muddy the waters so that people who don't understand copyleft or the FSF's political philosop…

> very specific and nonintuitive usage of "free"

Supposedly it is because the word libre isn't recognized well enough in English.

Quoting: "To emphasize that “free software” refers to freedom and not to price, we sometimes write or say “free (libre) software,” adding the French or Spanish word that means free in the sense of freedom. In some contexts, it works to use just “libre software.”"

And: "We stand for freedom, and we show it every time—by saying “free” and “libre”— or “free (libre)”."

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.en.html

Perhaps liberty software or liberal software would work...

Re: De-Googleify Internet

#140

Post by dpark »

divbit wrote: post #122
divbit wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You "can" sign up for gmail without a phone number (iirc it's fairly difficult, and you need to do something like use a fresh install of an android device or something to trigger the right sequence of dialogues). However if you try to use that account outside of the device, they will soon (within a couple of logins) ask you for a phone number for "security purposes," - the dialogue says something like "there is somet…

(For those who are saying it is possible, they might already know who you are based on browser cache, ip etc. Try it in incognito on a vpn. I get this: http://imgur.com/a/Y5Cxq

That's probably the result of using a VPN. Google undoubtedly knows that lots of accounts registered through VPNs are spammy.

I just registered billyjiminy123@gmail in a private browsing session and didn't get prompted. I even sent an email without being prompted for verification.

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