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Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

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Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#121
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we have any recourse against this monopoly, other than voicing our concerns repeatedly while they ignore us? Can we launch a class action lawsuit against Google if they harm people by limiting consumer choice, and force us to be tracked everywhere using reCAPTCHA v3 and various other methods? Keep in mind that not sending your data to Google is not a real option, there are several government services, health care…

> Do we have any recourse against this monopoly...? Once upon a time, Congress used to write and pass laws to protect Americans from egregious abuses of power like this. Of course, that time is long gone.

> egregious abuses of power like this

Do you honestly think removing URLs from search results is an "egregious abuse of power?" This is the company that buys credit card transactions from Visa et al. and associates them with your maps and and history for the benefit of advertisers, and you're complaining about them removing a design element 95% of people probably don't care about?

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#122

It's still regular for me but if true this will probably be the last straw for me. It's already absolutely impossible to send someone a link to a pdf you've found through google, this would make it impossible to send any link. That bloody wrapper is also a fine piece of shit. Search engines should link to content, not appropriate that content, hide who supplies it or mess with the links.

Google isn’t really a search engine anymore. They’re a data harvesting company who then try find ways to profit off sharing that data with you. Google penalises other websites for stealing content or re-hosting stuff without adding value, then goes ahead and does exactly that all the time.

It makes perfectly sense if you read how Google was originally funded. Culture runs from the birth.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#123
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with just not using Google instead?

As your parent comment wrote: "Keep in mind that not sending your data to Google is not a real option, there are several government services, heath care providers and utility companies using reCAPTCHA, you personal data either gets harvested by Google, or you're barred from accessing essential online services."

Thanks I missed that part

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do we have any recourse against this monopoly...? Once upon a time, Congress used to write and pass laws to protect Americans from egregious abuses of power like this. Of course, that time is long gone.

> egregious abuses of power like this Do you honestly think removing URLs from search results is an "egregious abuse of power?" This is the company that buys credit card transactions from Visa et al. and associates them with your maps and and history for the benefit of advertisers, and you're complaining about them removing a design element 95% of people probably don't care about?

I meant Google in general. It’s yet another tiny step in a terrible direction. At this point I would love to legislate most of Google out of existence, personally.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#126

First of all, I hope this is just an tiny experiment or better a hoax, and won't be widely adopted. Google deserves constant critique, but they also deserve credit as a company that often promotes the open way first (for example, schema.org as a way anyone can describe their information, which can be ready by anyone). But if it's not an experiment, I'd start putting my energy into moving away from Google. In the Alta…

This is not a tiny experiment. They have been testing the removal of domains like this for YEARS.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#128

I switched to Ecosia a while ago and most of my searches return relatively solid results. For the ones that don't, you can type a #g at the end of your search term to continue to use google. They claim to not maintain search history profiles, they still have URLs, and they implement more search features regularly from what Ive seen. Not as private as DDG, but its definitely a step in the right direction. Oh and they…

Ecosia is nice, but I find their privacy claims to be a little misleading. They forward searches to Bing alongside your IP address and are not in control of what Bing stores. DDG uses Bing as well, but does not send your IP there.

"For example, when you do a search on Ecosia we forward the following information to our partner, Bing: IP address, user agent string, search term, and some settings like your country and language setting."

Although it does claim that bing anonymizes the data after 4 days.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#129
Whether this claim is true nor not, Google is able to pull such a move due to its monopoly. Most of us are against monopolies but don’t care about Google’s central position on our precious Internet. We should act up though. One day, it could be too late.

I’ve been using DDG for around a year now after numerous failed attempts in the past. I, too, had been frustrated with some search results, but I don’t miss Google anymore at all thanks to the bangs feature.

It is not obvious but DDG has a learning curve. You should re-learn the practice of “Googling skill” that we had to have years ago. I could even guess which queries DDG would fail to bring meaningful results before hitting enter now. In these cases I add a “!s” bang for https://startpage.com — a privacy conscious Google proxy.

DDG bangs are especially useful on iOS, where you could type a query from any page and only have 3 options: Search in the Web/App Store/Maps. If the search engine is DDG though, you could search your query in any website you know its bang with just a single step.

Re: Google are removing URLs entirely from search results?

#130

First of all, I hope this is just an tiny experiment or better a hoax, and won't be widely adopted. Google deserves constant critique, but they also deserve credit as a company that often promotes the open way first (for example, schema.org as a way anyone can describe their information, which can be ready by anyone). But if it's not an experiment, I'd start putting my energy into moving away from Google. In the Alta…

I think it's more "test with users but keep programmers/power users happy". Old accounts (or maybe accounts they deem to be 'power users'?) still see the green http/s links, and my search for "mortgages" doesn't show the favicons like the reddit suggests. https://i.judge.sh/rare/Spoon/chrome_EVGYE1pF7H.png This happened with the little icons next to the "all/news/images" tabs at the top a few months ago, I didn't see…

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