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Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#181

Post by achenet »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #112
marcus_holmes wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you're a decision-maker at Google (or Any Large Corp). You have a KPI to increase revenue by 5% this year. If you hit this KPI, then you get a bonus. If you get the bonus, then you can afford the thing that your partner has been wanting forever (or that will make your neighbours jealous, or whatever), and you get a happy life. You know that doing X will harm the company in the long term (defined as anything past…

How do we fix this loop in companies? It is a very serious problem for humanity’s future. It exists in government too. How do we reward long-term thinking and decisions?

build better systems.

Easier said than done, but the basic idea would be something like what the Founding Fathers of the US did with the Constitution - make a system where incentives are set up in such a way as to align success for the individual and the group.

If you start a company, you can experiment with alternatives to the current "increase da KPI" style of organization that is so prevalent nowadays.

I think Steve Jobs was a good example of someone who governed by pointing people to a beautiful vision, rather than mindless "ya, numbers go up" type thinking prevalent amongst investors nowadays.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#182

Post by arnaudsm »

exabrial wrote: post #124

Who still using chrome? Use safari, brave, or Firefox.

Brave is way worse. They have product ads everywhere, pushed a weird crypto scam, and even injected affiliate codes in URLs.

Firefox has ads on their new tab too.

We need better and more respectful competitors.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#184

Post by sp332 »

LoganDark wrote: post #115
sensanaty wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever seen a single ad on Firefox (including on any website thanks to uBlock working better on FF than anywhere else), what ads are you talking about?

Pocket.

Mozilla owns Pocket.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#185

Post by null_object »

tfsh wrote: post #51
dsomers wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you say that, I just opened Safari, no ads.

Safaris default new tab page is the Apple store and most don't know how to change that. edit: turns out I was wrong. 2nd edit: this used to be the case many years ago, thanks for those who confirmed

> 2nd edit: this used to be the case many years ago, thanks for those who confirmed

No - what other posters 'confirmed' is that www.apple.com was one of the choices that could be made for a new tab or homepage - absolutely not the Apple store as you said.

Worth correcting yet again because of what's become a knee-jerk 'but whatabout Apple?' in comment threads about Google on HN.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#186

Post by achenet »

qzx_pierri wrote: post #140
exabrial wrote: post #124

Who still using chrome? Use safari, brave, or Firefox.

I'm so tired of seeing people recommend Brave. Firefox is what the web needs. Organizational shenanigans aside, Firefox is the best browser on the market right now.

yeah, except it doesn't work half the time (I have issues with it on MS Teams, Outlooks, even Gmail sometimes) the Mozilla boss thinks the solution is raise her own pay and fire devs.

EDIT: and I should mention that I am a die-hard Firefox fanboy, that I've been using it since like Firefox 2 or something, and that seeing it fail to properly render certain web apps and having to use chromium, which I consider to be uglier from a UI point of view as a fallback pains me dearly.

Alas, life ain't always perfect.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#187

Post by 2kwatts »

Caboose8685 wrote: post #176
thih9 wrote: post #135

I suspect ungoogled-chromium[1] is not affected by google's changes to chrome://newtab . If anyone wants to stop using Chrome but isn't drawn to any of the alternatives, perhaps you'll like ungoogled-chromium. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled-chromium

It's worth noting that UGC has some significant security regressions https://qua3k.github.io/ungoogled/

When I need to use a Chrome-like browser, I just use Chromium or Brave.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#188

Post by chatterhead »

falcor84 wrote: post #133
chatterhead wrote: post #117

The internet doesn't work without advertising. Almost as if the money to build all this infrastructure has to come from somewhere. If only we could create a digital token that would be in such demand it would generate its own network and infrastructure effect. Oh wait... they ruined that, too.

>Oh wait... they ruined that, too. I lost you there, who is "they" referring to?

Wall Street and it's need for gross revenue to justify unearned bonuses. Advertising is a direct feed into projected values which dictates which stocks can be manipulated with the most justification. And, often the largest fallout later.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#189

Post by thesuitonym »

Daffodils wrote: post #173
misnome wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox has had ads on its "new tab" page by default for ages now.

By ads you mean the popular articles from Pocket? That is an ad for Pocket ?

Not sure if this is what the GP was referring to, but I constantly find Google and Amazon (two sites I almost never use) pinned to my frequently accessed sites in Firefox. I unpin them, then check all settings for any kind of advertising opt, and yet, some month later, they're back.

Re: Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

#190

Post by StevePerkins »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #168
wooque wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brave works, Firefox don't, simple as. I tried Firefox numerous times and I always stumble upon glitches, and it still measurable slower. Chromium won, deal with it.

Brave is super shady by default due to their cryptocurrency associations, and also has made several questionable decisions in the past (see: hijacking your URL bar and replacing it with an affiliate link). Firefox is the superior browser, but if you must use Chromium I strongly suggest ungoogled-chromium over Brave.

I don't touch crypto with a 10-foot pole, but it baffles me why anyone would care about Brave's "cryptocurrency associations". It takes a few clicks, one-time at initial install, to completely disable the "BAT" advertiser network and all of the crypto ads on the New Tab.

Everything in tech is shady. I think advertising is super shady. So I use an ad-blocker and move on with my life.

The bottom line is that your choice today is between Firefox, and something that is Chromium-based. Mozilla is a wreck of an organization, and their browser has compatibility issues all over the place because it's just not large enough to be relevant anymore (I'm sorry, it's true).

So people choose Chromium-based. If you don't want to go with Google or Microsoft, then this means you can use "ungoogled-chromium" or Brave. Brave is available on all devices (Vivaldi doesn't support iOS), and syncs bookmarks and passwords across all your devices.

So yeah. It makes a ton of sense for a lot of people to gravitate toward Brave. Why do I care whether their business model is showing NFT ads to people who don't turn that off? Just turn it off.

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