That’s above the fold, not the whole screen.
For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
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Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#92The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…
Where do normal people go from Google? I've seen plenty of billboards for DDG, and even radio ads, but how likely is it that a user will switch (& persist) when their browser is controlled by the offending company that isn't afraid of implementing dark patterns to get the users back? Anecdotally, I have a senior citizen neighbor who asked me to look at her computer because of ads (I figured malware/adware) and she wa…
I talked to my nephew a while back. He’s part of the young generation and work in construction. He advised me to switch from Google to DDG.
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#93To be fair, it depends on the screen. The submission makes it sound like the whole first page is ads, but there’s 4 ads at the top instead of the usual 2-3. It happens to extend to the fold in this Twitter user’s browser. I scroll past all ads out of habit[0], so honestly this doesn’t impact my Google usage. Wish I didn’t have to train that muscle, but here we are. :( [0] my pihole breaks the links anyway
UBlock Origin - available on all major browsers, including iOS (er, this has adblock, but not uBlock in particular) and Android, my friend.
uBlock Origin available on iOS? Please explain!
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where do normal people go from Google? I've seen plenty of billboards for DDG, and even radio ads, but how likely is it that a user will switch (& persist) when their browser is controlled by the offending company that isn't afraid of implementing dark patterns to get the users back? Anecdotally, I have a senior citizen neighbor who asked me to look at her computer because of ads (I figured malware/adware) and she wa…
Bing, Yandex, and DDG are more than serviceable. Furthermore, you have to imagine every search counts. Sure, Siri results might come directly through Google but that doesn't mean they won't lose some other fraction of your searches if you set your default search on Safari to be Bing.
Yandex in particular is way better than Google for finding illegal content in my experience.
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#95In principle making a some-of-the-web search engine is a tractable problem. Start by indexing known high quality, preferably moderated sites. Allow trusted users to upload their bookmarks for indexing. And so on...
My guess is the reason there are so few competitors is economics. You can't get investment as long as Google stock is a sure bet. Few will pay for your service as long as Google is answering their questions. Advertisers aren't interested as their money is more effectively spent on Google. Therefore you can't build an audience sure to lack of revenue/capital.
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Currently it's in free beta with a waitlist (took a week for me) When did you apply? I filled out their survey at the end of december and haven't even received a confirmation email. I tried again a few weeks back with a gmail address, and still nothing. So I guess at least it's already at Google-level customer service.
Around the new year. No idea how the waitlist is managed. I was pleased at how prompt it was after signing up for the Github Copilot beta several months ago and not having heard a peep out of them.
Very strange then, it almost feels like I've been shadow-banned from a service I haven't even used yet considering that I tried to request an invite with 3 different email domains (to rule out any domain whitelist) on 2 different platforms (to rule out any typeform website issues), waiting at least 3 weeks in between (to rule out any rate-limiting).
There doesn't even appear to be any contact email aside from the discord which is also invite-only. Kind of soured me on the whole experience.
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#97The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…
The top reply to the linked tweet shocked me:
> further evidence to long $GOOG tbh
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#98Firefox + Ublock & Privacy Badger, on desktop and mobile. I also use Blokada on Android. This combination stops most ads, and if a few sneak through it is easy to create a custom rule.
While I still find Google useful, especially Google Scholar, I've primarily moved to DuckDuckGo for most casual searches.
Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#99Re: For some searches the whole screen on Google is now ads
#100The Facebook stock debacle from yesterday makes me think that maybe there is a limit to how user-hostile a tech giant can be before it really starts to hurt their bottom line. For a while it seemed like companies like FB had captured enough of the market that they seemed impervious to backlash from their many controversies, too big to fail in a way. It’s too early to tell if this is the beginning of FB’s demise, but…
FB is not losing because it's user-hostile. It simply was outcompeted by TikTok because it has a better and more engaging video product.