“Chrome exists to serve Google search.” - The Verge (www.theverge.com)
from Alby003@lemmings.world to world@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 13:08
https://lemmings.world/post/2290429

#world

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pimento64@sopuli.xyz on 27 Oct 2023 13:50 next collapse

Teddy Roosevelt’s ghost, come back and bust this trust.

TheBat@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 17:01 collapse

Leave Big G in the dust, ads on their video platform are just grift and lust.

ForestOrca@kbin.social on 27 Oct 2023 13:57 next collapse

I have ecosia set as my default search engine on chrome. and only use chrome for those instances when firefox doesn't serve the need.

Chariotwheel@kbin.social on 27 Oct 2023 13:58 next collapse

In fact, we all exist to serve Google. Hail the blessings of the corporation!

Alby003@lemmings.world on 27 Oct 2023 16:43 collapse

Android is google. Isn’t it?

clmbmb@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 14:00 next collapse

And this is a surprise for whom?

nogooduser@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 18:46 collapse

Next they’ll tell me that Alexa and Kindles are just there to sell me stuff.

jecht360@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:17 next collapse

Move to Firefox (or any non-Chromium browser really) and use a different search engine that’s not run by a giant corporation. I use DuckDuckGo.

blitzkrieg@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 14:18 next collapse

Doesn’t DuckDuckGo just use Bing and suppress search results?

jecht360@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:26 next collapse

It supposedly uses Bing and several other search results while suppressing content mills. I’m open to using anything though, DDG just happens to be the more privacy oriented one I went with.

blitzkrieg@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 17:53 collapse

Didn’t they suppress Russian related search results?

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 19:10 collapse

Good thing too, no need for “info” from that troll factory calling itself a country.

blitzkrieg@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 19:47 next collapse

So, you’re okay with being under the control of a company only showing you what they want.

skeezix@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 19:52 next collapse

What I want is no Russian trolls or misinformation, so yes.

blitzkrieg@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 20:06 collapse

So, you are okay with your search provider deciding what is misinformation and what is not.

Seems like a slippery slope to me.

skeezix@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 01:35 next collapse

As long as they’re objectively deciding then yes. There really isn’t a decision to be made; information is either misinformation or not misinformation. There is no grey area for subjectivity. There is no room for opinion or interpretation. As long as they maintain a track record of being objective then it’s good.

red@sopuli.xyz on 28 Oct 2023 12:33 next collapse

When they are objective and transparent about it, then yes.

stillwater@lemm.ee on 28 Oct 2023 14:59 collapse

Considering how far gone people hopped up on misinformation have become over the past decade, you’re looking in the wrong direction about where the slippery slope is.

There are simple, objective standards to suss out good information from bad. We have seen that people are simply not good about filtering it out for themselves and will fall for misinformation purposefully if it serves their prejudices. Why not have an independent body verifying if information is worthwhile or not?

All the people who bring up this nonsense are usually the types who are mad stuff like “COVID is a liberal hoax” is being suppressed.

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 21:04 collapse

Nope!

Rose@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 13:58 collapse

Your understanding of the troll factories is quite off. According to the ex-employees and the publicly available social media accounts data, the average troll paid by the Russian government is someone who poses as a person living in the West and even uses some Western talking points, making them hard to distinguish from a real person. They also get people in the West out to protest for BLM and guns rights, for and against immigration, and other causes with the goal of facilitating discord, which then creates headlines in the Western media, not Russia Today as you’d expect.

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Oct 2023 14:48 collapse

And yet those russian sources keep getting pushed by those same trolls… Strange…

Rose@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 16:10 collapse

Any examples?

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Oct 2023 16:38 collapse

Have you been on the internet?

parpol@programming.dev on 27 Oct 2023 14:26 next collapse

Yes, so use SearX which uses all the search engines, including google, duckduckgo and Bing, but shares 0 of your data with them.

cyborganism@lemmy.ca on 27 Oct 2023 15:04 collapse

Yeah but you either have to use some rando’s instance or host your own. That’s not exactly safe or easy to use.

It’s a nice project though.

parpol@programming.dev on 27 Oct 2023 15:22 collapse

You can always change instance every few searches in case there is logging

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 19:11 collapse

Who tf is going to do that when you can just use an alternative?

parpol@programming.dev on 28 Oct 2023 04:33 collapse

I do it. There is no alternative.

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:47 next collapse

Yes.

Alby003@lemmings.world on 27 Oct 2023 16:41 collapse

Switch to brave browser & brave search completely.It’s independent.

skeezix@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 19:54 next collapse

I’d rather put a microphone in the toilet and listen to you take a dump.

Alby003@lemmings.world on 28 Oct 2023 02:02 collapse

<img alt="image_downloader_1698458535195.gif" src="https://lemmings.world/pictrs/image/fcad956b-d974-4fff-84a8-a203e5f8d0c8.jpeg">

Illuminostro@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 03:42 next collapse

That’s a big negative.

Jumuta@sh.itjust.works on 28 Oct 2023 15:15 collapse

Brave is chromium

Alby003@lemmings.world on 27 Oct 2023 16:40 next collapse

Sadly the default one of google 🫠

soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id on 27 Oct 2023 16:50 next collapse

Perhaps I’ll switch to Firefox when they actually start getting things together and start implementing the things people ask for instead of actively removing functionality deemed “too complicated”

kelvie@lemmy.ca on 28 Oct 2023 04:30 next collapse

Or just pay Kagi. If you’re not paying they’re gonna have to get their money somewhere, and search is expensive.

Jumuta@sh.itjust.works on 30 Oct 2023 07:26 collapse

if it’s not open source I don’t trust it

vermyndax@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 16:24 collapse

I started getting targeted ads on DDG this morning. They were targeting my search terms, and Microsoft had bought the targets. Getting Edge ads in DDG is a hard stop for me.

ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works on 27 Oct 2023 15:14 next collapse

I’m not sure why this is supposedly either surprising or malevolent. Google spends a significant amount of money on developing Chrome and then gives it away for free; clearly they must be making money off of it in some other way. Their usual approach to making money off of things they provide for free is to show the users ads, and defaulting to Google search is how Chrome does that. I don’t think this is any different from saying that YouTube or Gmail exist to serve Google’s ad business (which they clearly do).

What’s funny to me is that I’ve heard of companies that really do provide a free version of their product without ads or any other way to make money off of it directly. Their goal is to protect their enterprise version of the software (which is not free) by reducing people’s motivation to make an open-source competitor. I could see Google maintaining Chrome without their search engine as the default in order to prevent someone else from creating a popular browser which does have a default search engine that isn’t Google’s, but that actually seems more anti-competitive…

BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social on 27 Oct 2023 17:12 collapse

I think your second half is bang on the nail for the missing part of this story. It is not just to drive search directly, it is also to control the browser market long term.

That's what Microsoft did very successfully with Internet Explorer too. They have it away for free and bundled it with Windows, killing all competition and then used that to leverage MSN. They also didn't follow standards and through market dominance shaped the internet.

Google sort of follows standards but they have also forced through proprietary standards or have broken code which is why some websites don't work well in Firefox or Safari even now.

Chromium may be open source but it is a tool used by Google to control and dominate the internet.

Apple is exactly the same with WebKit - they talk about privacy and security but the real motivation is surpressong alternate routes to the internet from their devices whic then keeps iron control over payment methods particularly in iOS. Yet people in the apple eco system buy into the narrative that the one piece of software you're not allowed in iOS is a non apple web browser, as if that is an acceptable approach. It's just another manifestation of anti competitive behaviour and the power and money you can get by "free" software.

supercheesecake@aussie.zone on 28 Oct 2023 00:36 next collapse

To be fair, with Apple it’s kind of both. Because they make a large chunk of their gazillions off hardware, they can make privacy part of their platform and mean it.

Whereas with Google, trolling your private information to sell you more stuff is all they are, and everything else serves this.

It may not be perfect, but in my opinion it’s ok to view the former as a better option than the latter. If convenience and integration are also important to you.

Jumuta@sh.itjust.works on 28 Oct 2023 15:19 collapse

it really frustrates me how Apple stole Konqueror from KDE and branded it as safari and now treats it like its own browser that’s supposedly more private than the open source work it’s based on

aquaman@infosec.pub on 27 Oct 2023 15:45 next collapse

Indeed.

As Orion exists to complement Kagi search.

Orion can be used fine with anything else though too circa the time of this post. Highly recommend both.

bilb@lem.monster on 27 Oct 2023 15:54 next collapse

I’ve been loving Kagi, but I have no particular need for their browser.

ETA: Oh, I see it’s only for iOS and macOS anyway. Maybe that ecosystem needed it, but I wouldn’t know.

aquaman@infosec.pub on 27 Oct 2023 16:13 collapse

Yep, though Linux is coming next “soon”.

I like that Orion (via Kagi as the business) is directly aligned with MY interests as a human.

Safari, I’m generally a fan of too as Apple is–for now–generally aligned with customer; but mostly annoyed that they force an extension to use a search not in their list. Also find the adblocking just “ok” in Safari.

photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 19:12 collapse

Apple is generally aligned with the customer

Fucking lol

aquaman@infosec.pub on 27 Oct 2023 20:28 collapse

Fun community. First and last time I’ll be chiming in here.

Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 22:18 next collapse

Ignore that dickhead hahaha

Lemmy has the kind of hate boner for Apple that I had when I was a teenager, so I just assume these twats are still teens and will learn someday.

No1@aussie.zone on 27 Oct 2023 23:01 collapse

Yeah, he probably has an Android 🤮

reev@sh.itjust.works on 27 Oct 2023 16:11 collapse

If they release a non-chromium windows counterpart (not sure if WebKit works on windows?) I’d seriously consider it. Eagerly awaiting it!

soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id on 27 Oct 2023 16:47 next collapse

the Assistant team has admitted that the product does not have a market fit on mobile

How is there not a market demand for a voice assistant on mobile devices?

TheOakTree@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 19:19 next collapse

I read this too and scratched my head. I would argue that voice assistants are more useful on a mobile device than a stationary one 💀

SMillerNL@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 08:14 collapse

I’d guess because there is an OS assistant that’s hard to change.

dan1101@lemm.ee on 27 Oct 2023 19:01 next collapse

I haven’t verified this is still the case, but in the past every URL you typed into Chrome GoogleBot would then index shortly later.

ETA: Did a test and it doesn’t seem to happen any more.

WindyRebel@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 19:19 collapse

I work in SEO and have had many URLs that are orphaned and I go to them directly. It wasn’t until I asked Google to index via Search Console, or had it added to a site map and pinged Googlebot, that it would get indexed. You can live check if a page is indexed by using the site operator and entering the URL.

If what you said was true, then even orphaned pages would be indexed from a visit and that just is not my experience as a professional.

dan1101@lemm.ee on 30 Oct 2023 13:17 collapse

Yeah I made a unique HTML page on Friday and retrieved it in a stock version of Chrome. As of today there have been no GoogleBot hits on it.

MonkderZweite@feddit.ch on 27 Oct 2023 20:35 next collapse

Are you surprised? Chrome, Chromebook and Android are mere vessels to get data.

cabron_offsets@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 00:27 next collapse

Blud no shit

praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works on 28 Oct 2023 02:38 next collapse

Wow really? Had no clue at all.

Illuminostro@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 03:40 next collapse

In other words, water is wet, grass is green, and the sky is blue.

bitsplease@lemmy.ml on 28 Oct 2023 14:03 next collapse

Pretty much everything Google makes exists solely to power it’s ad service - including it’s search engine. That’s literally their whole business. Did anyone think that Google was building browsers just as a fun weekend project?

RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 16:09 collapse

…obviously.