If one definition of evil is its wanton destruction of everything that is good and whole in the world, then Google is an active agent of evil.

[jaypeach53@calckeymusic.social]

@mariafarrell@mastodon.social idk, I use DuckDuckGo despite them using Bing data. Have been using DDG for about 5 years now. Started weaning myself off Google when they dropped the “Don’t Be Evil” motto. What’s a good video platform in the fediverse? YouTube is next.

[tock@corteximplant.com]

@mariafarrell To me, this simplifies things:
-- Build for accessibility, not SEO. (Since 98% of SEO rules are Google's demands.)
-- Tell people that google.com now just searches Gemini, not the web. Use another search engine.

[mariafarrell@mastodon.social]

@jaypeach53 yes, I used ddg myself for a few years before switching largely to kagi. like you I don't love the bing connection but it's a decent free search engine, though now annoyingly you have to constantly repeat that you don't want AI "summaries", every few searches.

for non-youtube video, I can't remember just now the good alternatives, blame my middle-aged post-covid brain! but follow @_elena who's great on them (and much more).

[coleenwalter@mastodon.social]

@mariafarrell Normie herę. Also not an artist. Calling us normies is cutesy at best, pejorative at worst. Jargon further confuses and alienates people. It's not that people won't care. Hope my picture explains it better than my words.

[skylark13@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@mariafarrell @jaypeach53 @_elena

Chiming in to say, there's a "no ai" version of DuckDuckGo. How long they'll keep it, no one knows, but you can set it up as a custom search engine and use it by default then.

Search string URL: https: // noai.duckduckgo.com /%s

Search suggestion API (optional): https: // ac.duckduckgo.com /ac/?q==%s&type=list

(remove spaces)

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@mariafarrell
Also someone from Meta in Ofcom?

You couldn't make it up.

Palantir (in the book controlled by Sauron and corrupted most that tried to use them) entwined in the State. Madness.

Certainly "blue" Labour and more right wing than Thatcher. They didn't win last time, it was more that the Tories lost.

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@jaypeach53 @mariafarrell
Qwant isn't too bad.

[luc0x61@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@mariafarrell There's nothing new, in dominant companies squashing anything else. With computer companies it was already the same with IBM, and then Microsoft and Apple, which still do the same today, along with the newcomers of the 2000s.
They all, always, prevaricated with the arrogance of those with money, adding from time to time the cosmetic appeal of open source funders, or bogus civil rights defenders.

[itseperkele@expressional.social]

@mariafarrell Obviously this is horrible, evil and shit...

... but, I wonder if this sort of bullshittery just ends up splitting the internet. Normies consuming what google injects into their eyes and the others enjoying stuff like The Web Revival stuff.

After Discord started to make noises about the age verification stuff, I had enough, deleted my account, installed a IRC client, found a couple of nice servers and channels and I have been having a blast. There's so many people who do self hosting, have silly websites powered by solar panels that sometimes drop off because its cloudy, have stupid neocities websites with flame backgrounds and visitor counters. Wonderful stuff like that.

I've been thinking of building one of those early-mid 2000's forums. I miss those. I just need to learn how to do... everything.

For me, google can do whatever the fuck they want and the morons can follow them. I'll be in my little corner of the internet with people. Not in reddit with bots.

[maccruiskeen@social.linux.pizza]

@3rdi @mariafarrell Google spends a large amount of money every year to keep you from thinking about switching. Browsers stick the function in the back of the settings so you don't think about it. But don't assume it's just a Google problem. I mean would MS do this if they could? Sure. And the linked article mainly talks about the context of commercial websites, websites trying to sell you shit, which is what drives Google's ad money, so that seems fair. If Google just ruined the part of the web that's there to sell you shit, maybe we could live with that. But of course, eventually it will intrude everywhere.

[endlessmason@hachyderm.io]

@coleenwalter @mariafarrell
I don't understand your comic - is the elitist is handing the protester a sign so they can protest against elitism?

[connynasch@mastodon.social]

@mariafarrell I feel for you!

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@mariafarrell @jaypeach53 PeerTube maybe? Their search engine is here: https://sepiasearch.org

[coleenwalter@mastodon.social]

@EndlessMason @mariafarrell I’m definitely not an artist lol. I was trying to show how overwhelmed ordinary people feel - so much to care about and try to change. The person on the right is the less burdened (perhaps part of the tech community) handing their torch to us. My stick figure sketch was just how the original post made me feel.

[endlessmason@hachyderm.io]

@coleenwalter @mariafarrell
I think, for this article and lots of the billionaire/tech media, you're just not in the target audience.

Maybe it's nice to know about this patent for pub trivia or something, but if you don't have a website that your income depends on then even expending the energy to read it then shrug it off is an over commitment.

There might be some "temp embarrassed millionaire" types who don't have a website that they need to rank to make money but still care about this but they're just fantasising.

[stonykark@mstdn.ca]

@mariafarrell everyone with google on their resume should be tarred and feathered so we can always identify and avoid them