Google IS evil

trysail

Catch Me Who Can
Joined
Nov 8, 2005
Posts
25,593




Google

IS

evil.



_____________________________

A very long but eye-opening article:
The Case Against Google


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against-google.html
by Charles Duhigg

...Google has succeeded where Genghis Khan, communism and Esperanto all failed: It dominates the globe. Though estimates vary by region, the company now accounts for an estimated 87 percent of online searches worldwide. It processes trillions of queries each year, which works out to at least 5.5 billion a day, 63,000 a second. So odds are good that sometime in the last week, or last hour, or last 10 minutes, you’ve used Google to answer a nagging question or to look up a minor fact, and barely paused to consider how near-magical it is that almost any bit of knowledge can be delivered to you faster than you can type the request. If you’re old enough to remember the internet before 1998, when Google was founded, you’ll recall what it was like when searching online involved AltaVista or Lycos and consistently delivered a healthy dose of spam or porn. (Pity the early web enthusiasts who innocently asked Jeeves about “amateurs” or “steel.”)...

In other words, it’s very likely you love Google, or are at least fond of Google, or hardly think about Google, the same way you hardly think about water systems or traffic lights or any of the other things you rely on every day. Therefore you might have been surprised when headlines began appearing last year suggesting that Google and its fellow tech giants were threatening everything from our economy to democracy itself.



(much) more...




 



...In your social media spaces, call attention to Google’s giving preference to government sources and de-ranking sites and blogs that criticize or call for reforms — basically demoting the voice of the people in favor of the voice of the government.

Do the same pointing out Google’s biasing search results so that the Big Guys that hold Mainstream Views come out on top — and important minority views are buried under the dross. All this instead of letting the Internet decide through popularity-based rankings.

Use any search engine other than Google and encourage your families, friends, neighbor, businesses to switch default search engines to something else — anything else. Chiefio has an excellent essay about how even DuckDuckGo is biased (because it uses Google’s database) and offers an alternative https://www.mojeek.com/

[Don’t think Google biases search? Try this “How do I change the default search engine in my browser?” in a Google search. For me, the whole first screen-full of links tell you how to switch to Google.]

If you have a blog and wish to join a BoycottGoogleSearch movement, where any attempt to refer to your site from a Google domain returns a re-direct to a BoycottGoogleSearch page (which explains why we boycott Google) please contact me directly at my first name (Kip) at the domain i4 decimal net. If there is enough support, I will set up the infra-structure and supply code to put on your pages...

-Kip Hansen



 


tryfail

IS

boring.



_____________________________

.
 
Not evil so much as they have the ability to be if they choose. In time when a new generation takes over then I expect them to go full Dr. Evil but not until all the current folks are gone.
That being said, DuckDuckGo is a good alternative no matter what some asshat thinks. It's not about databases for searches, it's about privacy and they provide that. Mostly.
Plus with the Deep Web being used more and more Google becomes less useful.

You want real evil keep an eye on Amazon. Before long they'll have an underground lab beneath Raccoon City.
 



...In your social media spaces, call attention to Google’s giving preference to government sources and de-ranking sites and blogs that criticize or call for reforms — basically demoting the voice of the people in favor of the voice of the government.

Do the same pointing out Google’s biasing search results so that the Big Guys that hold Mainstream Views come out on top — and important minority views are buried under the dross. All this instead of letting the Internet decide through popularity-based rankings.

Use any search engine other than Google and encourage your families, friends, neighbor, businesses to switch default search engines to something else — anything else. Chiefio has an excellent essay about how even DuckDuckGo is biased (because it uses Google’s database) and offers an alternative https://www.mojeek.com/

[Don’t think Google biases search? Try this “How do I change the default search engine in my browser?” in a Google search. For me, the whole first screen-full of links tell you how to switch to Google.]

If you have a blog and wish to join a BoycottGoogleSearch movement, where any attempt to refer to your site from a Google domain returns a re-direct to a BoycottGoogleSearch page (which explains why we boycott Google) please contact me directly at my first name (Kip) at the domain i4 decimal net. If there is enough support, I will set up the infra-structure and supply code to put on your pages...

-Kip Hansen




My first page, running the same Google search, shows me about Google and Chrome. But it also shows me about Firefox and Edge, and generic search engines. I'm also provided a list of "top" web browsers. :confused:

Criticise Google's ranking methodology all you want. But, evil? That's how we know tryfail has an agenda he's not telling us. :rolleyes:
 
My first page, running the same Google search, shows me about Google and Chrome. But it also shows me about Firefox and Edge, and generic search engines. I'm also provided a list of "top" web browsers. :confused:

Criticise Google's ranking methodology all you want. But, evil? That's how we know tryfail has an agenda he's not telling us. :rolleyes:

Their searches are biased but you'd never know without side by side comparisons. They aren't stupid.
Any evil will come from other aspects of their business. I refuse to have Google Home or Amazon Echo is my house or really in my life at all. That's where it's starting and you can call me paranoid but I'm right.
 
Their searches are biased but you'd never know without side by side comparisons. They aren't stupid.
Any evil will come from other aspects of their business. I refuse to have Google Home or Amazon Echo is my house or really in my life at all. That's where it's starting and you can call me paranoid but I'm right.

I definitely agree there's room for concern, and a particular worry about home assistants. I don't think it's a paranoid fantasy to believe listening devices have become too intrusive. But, evil? trysail is putting this out because he's championing global warming denialism, and his preferred brand of anti-science propaganda isn't getting the ranking from Google that he wants.
 
I prefer my searches to come up w answers...not conspiracies. For some, that philosophy is evil.
 
Well, they did recently remove “Don’t be evil” from their code of conduct.
 
Well, they did recently remove “Don’t be evil” from their code of conduct.

Did they?

I'll be hornswoggled. I missed that.


They certainly have violated a major tenet of good corporate governance with their control stock and the issuance of multiple classes of shares.


 
How about this, close down your PC, don't log into internet on your phone, and just live like a hermit.

See, it's solved!
 
Re Politics:

When I type certain keywords in Google, I get results that are mainly mainstream or throttle the powerholders' political agendas. .

But typing the same keywords on youtube leads to the discovery of all sorts of things that one would never find about from other search engines.

I think that you tube has (or used to have) one of the least politically biased search engines.
 
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Later in life I realized how my educational shortcomings (I used to be basically illiterate in history and politics) led me to lead a constricted and unnecessarily stressful life.
I knew that I wanted to learn more, but I didn't know what to look for and how to do it.

So I started by typing certain keywords in my Google searches, but that didn't help much.
Because their algorithm searches push forward either the most popular sites, or those promoted by them & power holders' interests (like trysail said).

But then I discovered what youtube had to offer.
Typing the same keywords that I had with google, immediately led to the discovery of all sorts of topics and public intellectuals that I would never have heard otherwise. From all the parts of the political spectrum.

For me, youtube was a goldmine.
I think that it is (or it used to be) one of the least politically biased search engines.



https://youtu.be/KLk-Jpds9M0 :rose:
 
But I also feel that, while google is more 'Left leaning', youtube is a bit more 'Right-leaning', so to speak.

For example, the search "individualism vs. collectivism" leads to: (if you weed out the laypeople talks, or psychology stuff):
Jordan Peterson, The Rubin report, C.E.Griffin, Ayn Rand, Milton Freedman, Libertarian lecture.

I don't know why that is: Because of what people upload? Biased search engine? Number of views?
 
My first page, running the same Google search, shows me about Google and Chrome. But it also shows me about Firefox and Edge, and generic search engines. I'm also provided a list of "top" web browsers. :confused:
Same here. First two links are how to switch the default to Google, but they both link to the same article.
The majority are about other search engines.

FWIW, I mostly use DuckDuckGo, only use Google to see what other results I get, of is a particularly complicated search doesn't work in DuckDuckGo, like multiple exclusions.
 
Re Politics:

When I type certain keywords in Google, I get results that are mainly mainstream or throttle the powerholders' political agendas. .

But typing the same keywords on youtube leads to the discovery of all sorts of things that one would never find about from other search engines.

I think that you tube has (or used to have) one of the least politically biased search engines.

youtube may not be biased, but it is stupid. i stopped watching a few leftwing channels because i noticed that when i watched them youtube had a nasty habit of suggesting neofascist bullshit to me on my homepage. why? who the fuck knows.
 
youtube may not be biased, but it is stupid. i stopped watching a few leftwing channels because i noticed that when i watched them youtube had a nasty habit of suggesting neofascist bullshit to me on my homepage. why? who the fuck knows.

You're right, it h\Has lots of stupid things.

But for me, it was EXTREMELY useful.
Most of my life I was exposed to "old school" kind of things, and lately in particular I found myself in a pretty rigid, semi-Victorian environment.
How can you expose yourself to modern or new ideas, if you don't know what to look for and how to look for?

What sets youtube apart from other search engines is the "suggestions" part beneath the videos. Only by clicking them endlessly when I was bored, did I accidentally came across names like Chomsky, Henry Giroux, Zygmunt Bauman, or political analysis channels like "The Agenda with Steve Paikin". And so many other good things..

These names are familiar to many, but for me it all felt like discovering Mount Everest. Not in a million years would I have hear about them without youtube.
 
or political analysis channels

And so many other good things..

So you like anal from politicians?

We all know they like screwing us in the ass, but not many of us like it.
 
So you like anal from politicians?

We all know they like screwing us in the ass, but not many of us like it.

If your "jibe" is about your impression fact that I might look for Right wing channels:

I can assure you that the one quoted (Steve Paikin) is a Canadian channel which is less biased than others and has, if any, left centrist inclinations.

Youtube has a lot of crap, indeed.
On the other hand, many individual posters upload talks from Universities, public debates and so on. So youtube is often a very useful tool to keep one updated with current trends.
 


Google Tracks Your Movements, Like It Or Not

by Ryan Nakashima


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.

An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so.

Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request...


...Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking.


For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account.

The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search...

more...





 


tryfail

IS

boring.



_____________________________

.

Google
Presents Facts
That Run Counter
To Trysail's Denialist
Belief System
As such
It must
Be
SHUNNED

#JetFuelDoesntMeltSteelBeams
 


Google Tracks Your Movements, Like It Or Not

by Ryan Nakashima


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.

An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so.

Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request...


...Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking.


For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account.

The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search...

more...





So the bitch here is that someone turned off location history then asked for weather and maps where they are and got pissed that their location was noted in order to answer the question they asked?

Stop and think about that for a minute.
 
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