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Google is FUBAR

extremetech.com

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Re: Google is FUBAR

#101

Post by smspence »

manish_gill wrote: post #92
JanezStupar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On one side I always used Google service under presumption that Google is already collecting and analyzing all of its data as a complete profile. On the other hand I really dislike the way Google is heading. In the olden days when Google was dumber having high Google Fu allowed you to get required information faster and with greater accuracy. When Google was dumber you could use its flaws to get where you wanted. Tod…

>Today it just picks whatever it believes is what you are searching for and wont budge. This is especially annoying when you are just starting out on a search of a topic you know nothing about and need a random factor to get going. Preciously the reason why I've started using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. In my experience, it almost always provides unbiased results.

Could you give a specific example of a search that you've done on Google that gives you bad results? And that would give you better "unbiased" results on DuckDuckGo? I would like to try and do a side-by-side comparison. Also, what do you mean by "unbiased"? What is the "bias" that Google has? I am trying to find real, concrete examples of all of the complaints in this thead, and I can't really find any.

Re: Google is FUBAR

#102

Post by smspence »

Ecio78 wrote: post #48
Destroyer661 wrote: post #3

I have a hard time understanding the whole deal everyone is making of Google finally combining the whole ecosystem they have into one nice package. I don't think the author knows that Google already knows what you use in Google docs, they already mine your email to show ads to you, they already do everything he talks about, they're just now going to let you have access to it through search instead of having to go to…

they already mine your email to show ads to you, they already do everything he talks about, they're just now going to let you have access to it through search instead of having to go to mail/reader/youtube/etc individually Uhm ok tell me if you like this scenario: * I'm fed up of my employeer so I'm sending tons of jobs applications from my personal gmail account * I dont write these mails while at work, but sometime…

What you are scared of is some hypothetical situation that there so-far is no evidence it could or would happen in the future? When you do web searches, your personal emails start popping up within the results? That actually happens, or is going to happen? When?

Re: Google is FUBAR

#103

Post by c2 »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #16

Assuming this article's suppositions are correct (that Google must become more social to continue growing), Google is showing a lot of cojones . Most businesses won't cannibalize their core cash-cow, even when they know the future is limited (see Kodak with digital cameras and every hard disk manufacturer :). There is no question it is a gamble; but if the other option is an eventual sunset (and I wouldn't be surpris…

Pretty relevant example, as Eastman Kodak just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection just last week.

Re: Google is FUBAR

#104

Post by luser001 »

cletus wrote: post #50

Disclaimer: I am a Google engineer. These opinions are my own. Nothing I say in any way represents the company's position, officially or unofficially. That being said, I see all this as much ado about nothing. Privacy policies are complex beasts governed by many regulatory environments. Reducing a huge number of these policies to a handful, announcing it ahead of time and giving you controls over privacy all seem lik…

> This is something you can opt out of (to some extent with privacy controls, otherwise with logging out).

And conveniently, most users will never bother to change their defaults.

My concern is not only that my particular interests are being tracked.

My concern is about the worsening of the power asymmetry between the general public and their (for lack of a better word) rulers (i.e., govt.+corporate complex).

What good can come of the fact that the rulers will know the zeitgeist of society at arbitrarily fine levels of resolution? (The feel-good answer is that if they know, they'll cater to the wishes of those whom they nominally serve, but I think there are enough examples to show otherwise).

For instance, can't an outsider's campaign to a high public office be squished more easily just before the cusp of him/her becoming "too big to ignore"?

Re: Google is FUBAR

#105

Post by smspence »

jrockway wrote: post #24

So, this was all true before the privacy policy change. Google isn't asking for new rights, they just condensed 70 documents into one.

Facts and logic are not going to stop the bloggers from creating FUD and link bait.

Re: Google is FUBAR

#106

Post by Ecio78 »

talmand wrote: post #89
spindritf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> of course in this case I should've logged out from google Yes, exactly, what is to stop anyone from just going through your sent mail if they were already willing to go through your web history?

I believe he was saying he would not have accessed his email on his work computer at all, he would then log into Google for other reasons and not open his mail. But Google would then go ahead and show him something related to his email account that he did not want. Leaving his computer logged into his Google account and his employer sitting down to go through the account, such as sent mail, is a different matter. The…

Yes exactly, thanks talmand for the clarification, i was thinking about the case in which the user is not logged in the mail but google fetches data for your search from all your personal data just because you're logged on.

Re: Google is FUBAR

#107

Post by Turing_Machine »

smspence wrote: post #101
manish_gill wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Today it just picks whatever it believes is what you are searching for and wont budge. This is especially annoying when you are just starting out on a search of a topic you know nothing about and need a random factor to get going. Preciously the reason why I've started using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. In my experience, it almost always provides unbiased results.

Could you give a specific example of a search that you've done on Google that gives you bad results? And that would give you better "unbiased" results on DuckDuckGo? I would like to try and do a side-by-side comparison. Also, what do you mean by "unbiased"? What is the "bias" that Google has? I am trying to find real, concrete examples of all of the complaints in this thead, and I can't really find any.

I'm not the original poster, but it's really annoying to me that Google has changed its default behavior so it returns results that don't necessarily contain all my search terms, often higher on the page than results that do contain all my terms. While this may be helpful to the clueless, I'd love a "yes, I really know what I'm doing" user pref that lets me switch back to the old behavior.

Re: Google is FUBAR

#109

Post by protomyth »

As much as I love my parents and my close friends, I really, really don't want their postings or links to influence searches I do. They, as a whole, are not relevant to any search I have done in the last year.

On twitter, I follow a lot of area experts and could be relevant in those specific areas, but many of them have wider interests. Some of these interests would negatively influence the search I do.

I really wish they would concentrate on customer service (human) and dealing with the spam links and implications of the must-post-first journalism model that is a basic creation of their payment model.

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