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Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

bbc.com

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Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#81

Post by snowwrestler »

retox wrote: post #33
ditonal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is a fluff piece that's comically uncritical of Google. There's obvious hypocrisy for a company that's done all sorts of user-antagonistic things to internet users as Google has, from Google AMP stealing traffic, to PRISM actively violating the 4th amendment, to Dragonfly explicitly enabling censorship. Google's gotten away with the hypocrisy due to a relentless PR engine. Maybe if you don't like predicta…

My understanding is that Google was a target of PRISM, not complicit in it.

PRISM was just the internal NSA source designation for data obtained under FISA warrants, which are not optional.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#82

Post by cobertos »

dmitriid wrote: post #73
threatofrain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google also seems to be one of the few entities in the world capable of building kick-ass web apps.

I've yet to see a single kick ass web app from Google. All of them are barely functioning slow-as-molasses slugs (or I'm jaded by the entire GCP experience).

I think this is somewhat of a more recent occurance, and possibly only GCP related. I've only had a couple GCP interactions now but all of them have gotten me to stay away from that specific portion of Google.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#83

Post by D_Alex »

Barrin92 wrote: post #59
erdo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except of course Google is not a search engine company, Google is an advertising company

To this day I have no idea what that statement is supposed to express despite seeing it about a dozen times per week. Google makes money selling ads yes, but their core product is search. Like a newspaper, which does journalism, and also has an ad department, or a TV show, with ad breaks, or a sports broadcast. Do people think Google makes their search worse to... sell fewer ads?

It seems pretty clear that Google has made their search worse to sell more ads.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#84

Post by oldgregg »

Google will attack and subvert every nationalist politician around the world because they are existentially dependent on globalism and weak national borders. Anyone who is a nationalist is racist and hates freedom according to Google. Nevermind self-determination. China is their worse nightmare because they are not dumb enough to let profiteers monitor and manipulate their citizens. Other countries are waking up to the reality that allowing these American imperialist multinationals to monitor, control, and ultimately culturally rape their indigenous culture might not be a good thing. When he says a free and open internet is under attack it means that countries are waking up and taking power back from Google. Can't happen soon enough. Will be great for startups and decentralized platforms. Go to a foreign country and clone the big tech companies and build a good-enough solution so that the people will have an alternative when they are ready to kick FAANG out.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#85

Post by snowwrestler »

Barrin92 wrote: post #59
erdo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except of course Google is not a search engine company, Google is an advertising company

To this day I have no idea what that statement is supposed to express despite seeing it about a dozen times per week. Google makes money selling ads yes, but their core product is search. Like a newspaper, which does journalism, and also has an ad department, or a TV show, with ad breaks, or a sports broadcast. Do people think Google makes their search worse to... sell fewer ads?

People say this to acknowledge out loud the perceived change in how Google makes product decisions. In the early days, the lead priority was an awesome, focused search experience. Today, the lead priority seems to be comportment with the revenue model.

This explains user-hostile deprecations like newsgroup search (a literal search engine they bought and abandoned), RSS Reader, etc.

In addition, the ever-decreasing visual distinction between organic search results and ads on Google SERPs is well documented. As is the ever-increasing encroachment of data collection into all their products. Look at how Chrome works with Google accounts now vs 5 or 10 years ago.

Google went from a search engine company who runs ads so they can afford to keep building cool things, to an ad company that runs a search engine because it provides provide data and inventory for its ad network.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#86

Post by Vixel »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

Agreed. The only reason he cares it’s because it cost more to sell their ads on proprietary services

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#87

Post by nirui »

benjaminjosephw wrote: post #61
Spooky23 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is literally the only tech giant with an interest in the open internet. Facebook scored the mortal wound on the web — they reinvented a bigger, badder AOL closed garden.

Relying on giants to defend the interests of the rest of us mere humans sounds dangerous.

But if you look around across all the industries, it is not very hard to realize that most big names that you can easily recognize were created by few giants. Giants is the norm.

A real hero knows when to resist the fear and borrow the power from the giants.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#88

Post by NicoJuicy »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

I still believe arrest adtech made websites free for so many years. ( I mean literally not paying hard cash access it).

Not everyone in the world has equal financial power as a US citizen.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#89

Post by ithkuil »

dmitriid wrote: post #73
threatofrain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google also seems to be one of the few entities in the world capable of building kick-ass web apps.

I've yet to see a single kick ass web app from Google. All of them are barely functioning slow-as-molasses slugs (or I'm jaded by the entire GCP experience).

I recently tried https://deps.dev and was surprised by the speed. But then I realized I was no longer used to things being that fast, and it used to be normal

EDIT: typo

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#90

Post by quaintdev »

jaimex2 wrote: post #71
threatofrain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google also seems to be one of the few entities in the world capable of building kick-ass web apps.

Google also seems to be one of the few entities in the world capable of buying kick-ass startups. Fixed it for you.

But to buy those kick ass startups you originally have to be kick ass.
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