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

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

#211
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really a matter of opinion or what people think. We're already in a recession here in the United States, as we've had two negative GDP growth quarters in a row. Anyone who says otherwise is likely just doing so for political reasons, as it's also an election year here in the United States, but to do so they'd have to literally change the definition of recession (they're trying but it's not working).

This is a classic example of how propaganda works. The layman's definition of recession, which has never been used officially or by policy-makers in America, is this bit about "negative GDP growth for two quarters". But despite that not being how we've always determined recessions here, if you read the reply above, the user has literally invented a political conspiracy about their ignorance about economics. The layma…

>the NBER defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales".

Which we have right now. But don't trust objective observations of reality. Just Trust the Experts™ and call anyone who disagrees a conspiracy theorist.

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

#212
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

I use both Chromium and Chrome. Chromium is of course not affected.

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

#213
post #7
post #2

Have you seen this banner by yourself? Tried from a few different locations with no luck

Yep, Fitbit smartwatch ad for us in Sweden, no Chrome plugins (even shows up in incognito). Might be exclusive to a portion of users or locations.

www.fitbit.com - add it to your hostsfile.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ug…

What extensions are you using? I (anecdotally) never have any of the issues you describe. And I'm on my computer 12+ hours per day, most of which is spent galivanting across the web in Firefox. Are you using a forked version of Firefox?

ah, good point about the extensions, I do have uBlock Origin and NoScript, so it could actually be those, even if the latter is basically off 90% of the time... thank you for pointing that out ^_^

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

A lot of the most egregious, society-warping behavior by monstrous-sized companies is due to paying execs with stock. It was a salary tax avoidance maneuver that started in the 80's, and has led to 1) absolute fixation on short-term stock price, and 2) (also to that end) stock buybacks. Many of our largest corporations have used recent stimulus moneys to fund buybacks like it was sex or something. All it has been is…

RSUs are taxed as income according to their value on the day they vest. Companies can offer employees below-market grants, but the difference is recognized as a cost and (eventually) has to be approved by shareholders.

Stock options with a strike price below market also have tax implications for both the company and the employee.

Equity based compensation essentially comes out of the hides of shareholders: As long as they are happy (and people aren’t playing Thiel-type games), it’s not as terrible as you make it out to be. There’s a limit to what buybacks can do to juice prices and equity generally puts people into a long term mindset.

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

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why blame this on Wall Street? This idea is the idea of someone at Google, it was implemented by someone at Google, the decision to go ahead was approved by someone at Google.

The someones at Google are compensated significantly by shares of the company, traded on Wall Street, and some of them are compensated with even more shares if those shares do well. Pretending the two are at arms length is a bit silly.

Seems to me that the individuals involved would care more about getting extra shares than the expected increase in share price from this change.

The bonus might be significant, the increase in share price might be a percent or 2. Google dishes out this bonus, not Wall Street.

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

#217
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really a matter of opinion or what people think. We're already in a recession here in the United States, as we've had two negative GDP growth quarters in a row. Anyone who says otherwise is likely just doing so for political reasons, as it's also an election year here in the United States, but to do so they'd have to literally change the definition of recession (they're trying but it's not working).

This is a classic example of how propaganda works. The layman's definition of recession, which has never been used officially or by policy-makers in America, is this bit about "negative GDP growth for two quarters". But despite that not being how we've always determined recessions here, if you read the reply above, the user has literally invented a political conspiracy about their ignorance about economics. The layma…

The link you posted supports the GP’s assertion that not declaring the current economic situation as a recession is politically motivated. The third paragraph specific cites common criticism of the NBER on that very front.

That there could and should be some more sophisticated, objective definition of a recession than “two years of GDP decline” isn’t in question. But, at least according to your own source, NBER fails to provide that definition and is commonly criticized for is subjectivity during political years.

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

#218
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That's the neat part, you don't. The problem, ultimately, cannot be solved without disassembling neoliberal capitalism. It is more or less endemic to the system. To a large extent that short termist, get returns and move on before the cost is due, mode of being is how we managed to run an economy that requires constant growth (rather than stability) to function. It's also why we won't solve any of our climate or many…

Yeah. It's wild to see sibling comments thinking that it's an exec incentive "problem." No, exec incentives align to GOOGL shareholder incentives and GOOGL shareholders are pursuing returns at your expense, as is their right under capitalism. In theory, competition keeps this in check, but we either need to get much more serious about encouraging competition or we need to figure out a different way to organize control.

Personally I'm a bigger fan of "encourage competition" than "reorganize control," at least in the search engine market, but I fully agree with you that what we see here is the system working exactly as designed.

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

#219

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ug…

What extensions are you using? I (anecdotally) never have any of the issues you describe. And I'm on my computer 12+ hours per day, most of which is spent galivanting across the web in Firefox. Are you using a forked version of Firefox?

It's more a function of the websites you visit. When your bank or pay is locked behind a site that breaks on firefox... it's hard to keep the faith.
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