@samir :100a:

@samir Don't forget links to malware disguising as popular open source projects at the top of search results

@samir and video!

Google promote videos over regular blogs and now I can't find those awesome coding blogs and if I try to watch a coding video I waste an hour only to find they gloss over the bit I needed...

@samir I avoid using Google unless absolutely necessary, and then I try using a private mode in a browser. Why should I give my information for free, or at all?

@samir when I used to run a company building websites, I used to tell clients that they should first think about what they want the website to do for their users and that should inform the design. Google was always a secondary concern for us. I feel like, if you build a great website that fulfills a need, then folk will find it.

If you build it, they will come 😅

@samir totally agree.
I use Firefox with cookies autodelete and other plugin to harden security PLUS necessary Google sites relegated to a container where I only do Google stuff.
This should avoid bleeding cookies in my normal web use, where I switched to DuckDuckGo

@samir I thought the recipes were like that because you can't copyright a recipe, but you can copyright a story that goes with it.

@samir not to forget how Google more or less controls how the web will develope on a technical level, because they have almost have a monopoly on the browser market, as almost everything except Firefox uses Chromiums engine as base...

@samir I was just thinking the other day that it has become impossible to find a recipe online that isn’t buried in a five thousand word essay on the origin of eggs.

Thanks for the explanation why it is so. Turns out it was just good old capitalism corrupting everything that’s nice.

@samir And the search engine is now utter garbage that can't locate anything other than SEO-gamed bogus content. They fixed the web with their search engine...and then let their greed break it. I'm just surprised no one has come up with a new search engine that bypasses all the junk. If someone were to do this will they would be a hero to many. But there's probably no money in it so we will be stuck with this forever.

@samir I use Google as little as possible, not even for searches. But I have noticed the annoying pop-up on other sites, inviting you to connect with Google. That pisses me off no end.

@samir I didn’t realise Google was the cause of those effects!! The cookie pop up increases are especially noticeable to me. & I’m sure u know about Ecosia but if not, I find it a pretty great search alternative; well-designed on mobile too.

@samir They also broke email, as I found out when setting up my own mail server with the seemingly unreasonable requirement of being able to get through the gmail spam filter.

@samir

Plug Wide Angle Analytics https://wideangle.co and forget the cookie banner. No tracking, just useful analytics.

Google ads are useless. And they are commonly a source of spam or outright scams.

You got plenty of recommendations to avoid Google search so won't repeat them.

"Content Marketing" and "Engagement" killed the Internet as we knew it.

We are all tired of Google and Facebook and other

@samir Try https://based.cooking

@samir that's why I decided early on not to put tracking on my website or emails. If people ain't buying, then it ain't working. #poormansanalytics

You're talking about Google Analytics like people are forced to use it. Yes, way too many websites use various analytics services, Google Analytics is one of the popular ones. It's their owners' choice. Google is not to blame for this one.

It is to blame for many other things though. In my own opinion, Google needs to be split up into several independent companies: the search engine and cloud services company, the Chrome company, the Android company, YouTube, and the ad network company.

@samir buy cookbooks 😉 no ads there

@samir Don’t use Google.

@samir

I agree, this is why I don’t use Google products (except occasionally YouTube), and certainly not in any of my web development projects. Google Analytics is terrible. And I don’t optimise for Google search, I optimise for visitors.

@samir and eventually they want people to #buy their #ads that trump all your #seo as #payed ads show up on the top.

@samir All you say is true and Google appears to have a hair-trigger for de-monetizing sites/videos for arbitrary rules.

@samir

All search engines are catalogs now.

Not "what matches what you seek" but "what products and endorsed services match what you seek."

Google wrecked the web.

@samir
Exactly. Want to actually know what needs to be known about something? Wikipedia has run rings around Google's aim to "organise the world's information". https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/our-approach/

@samir I don't have any of that on any my websites. There are no cookies. There is no tracking. And the page loads in .5 seconds or less.

@samir I didnt know these things were because of Google..

@samir
This is before talking about Google Chrome, which does what it wants regardless of standards, or makes its own horrible excuses of standards, like the Topics and FLOC and Manifest V3. And tries to kills adblockers every way possible.

@samir

And let's not forget they broke email (send a message to gmail account from small/private hosted mail server and go right to recipients spam folder.)

@samir be evil has always been its guiding ethos.

@samir A problem I've been experiencing a lot lately is when an contents of an article or page jump around constantly because ads of different sizes pop up at random. I was trying to read something on WedMD last night and I kept losing my place as the layout reset over and over again.

@samir

I have always wondered why recipes would ramble on and on for days about their grandma who gave them their recipe, or why it should be eaten on a cold day.

Meanwhile, I've already turned on my stove and a strange smell is coming from it...

@samir Crochet pages that scroll forever because every darn line is interspersed with two rows of advertisement and pop-ups. GAH!

@samir As if Google forced all these sites to show ads...

@samir
@koen_hufkens

Neeva?

@samir I thought the recipe thing was because you can't copyright a recipe?

@samir Google Analytics is good.

@samir I've finally reached the point where I can rarely find a damn thing even with all my search agents running around. This is bullshit.

If I didn't archive what I find when I find it, I'd never find anything more than once.

@samir I didn’t know Google drove all of those things! I thought I liked Google. Now I hate Google. Boo Google. Thanks for educating me.

@samir

I remember the time when people still could make websites without googletagmanager and ajax.googleapis. Those are increasingly rare today.

@samir all #GAFAMs are evil.

Same with #Google's competitiors and monopolizers like #Apple, #Facebook, #Amazon and #Microsoft.

They all are #PRISM-collaborators, #Govware-integrators and generally horrible for the #Web, #Tech, #Society and the #Envoirment - period!

@samir

If I watch a video on YouTube and pause it, the monster immediately brings up a big, obtrusive ribbon with five other videos it thinks I should watch. I haven't even finished the current one!

I watch everything on sites like Invidious now.

@samir @fluepke Ziemlich treffende technische Analyse. Boost wegen Wortwahl für eine Bundesbehörde nicht möglich 😉

@samir google loves money

@samir it feels like a barrage all the time. Ads, requests for my email, stupid sagas to get to the goddamn recipe!

@samir Thank you for posting this.

@samir hmm. The consent banners were IMHO brought by inept legislation budging to lobbying, creating a technically idiotic solution to a simple problem.

@samir @schwa The recipe sites drive me absolutely bonkers! And they’re all like that!

@samir Amen

@samir
Their search engine is getting worse. Things like quotation marks around the term? Being ignored a lot.

@samir For 100% I agree with you!!!

@samir I'm working on a new browsers post right now for the same reason, but I have been sticking with Safari for a while too. Mostly as it's a least worst option for me and also is nicely integrated 🤷‍♀️

@samir not to mention killing off Reader

@samir you are exactly correct, and they ruined YouTube too.

@samir people still use google? I think Bing offers a better search these days.

@samir Want to look at how to install a lightbulb? Here are seven links to 20 minute videos, be sure to like and subscribe!

@samir

Google’s ad driven algorithms deprecated quality content in favor of click farms. Leading to the content desert of 2022 and Google’s increasing uselessness.

It’s almost poetic.

@samir

There are now de-googled android operating systems. I use \e\OS

@anna_lillith

@samir use Duck Duck Go. No tracking. No ads.

@samir ITA. I go to the recipe print option and screenshot those, to avoid this intrusive tedium.

@samir how can we cancel Google, though? I’m genuinely asking because I’m on board of anything viable someone can come up with.

@samir

@samir ‘Recipe sites that go on for fucking days? :blobcatdance:
#I cut out the relevant bits and paste into Word or Notes and print them. They are so pathetic. I had thought it was the fault of over-sharing amateur cooks—thanks for the heads-up on where blame really lies!

@samir Googles a piece of shit

@samir Strange, a reply I wrote in agreement has vanished.
Basically my earlier point was that Google has also destroyed a lot of legitimate publications’ earnings through depressing ad prices, diverting income to splogs, content mills and spun sites. Not to mention taking a decent cut for itself.
The whole enterprise is a massive con.
From a legal POV I would even say it was all foreseeable and a negligence lawsuit waiting for someone to take it on. It would be great to close it down.

@samir make the switch to brave! I did and I'm never turning back :)

@samir
Done of cookies spam? Get the app on trackstore :)

@samir Me too… Do you know Brave Browser? No coockies, no ads (YouTube included). I use it with duckduckgo and I feel free haha.

@samir @charles_ex

@samir very much so :pony_piesad2:

@samir
Try duckduckgo and ad blocker...or Tor browser.

@samir I wonder how the generated "content" can get best results in search :-(

@samir maybe consent-o-matic add-on helps

@samir we have a search at indyradio.net - one glitch, though. after it opens in a new window or tab, you will have to click a second time to get the list of results. after that it's fine.

@samir Fuck Google.

@samir it is a monopoly and should be broken up.

@samir are we ready for a ham internet yet? No money allowed.