Decided to try @Mojeek as my default #SearchEngine (switching from #DuckDuckGo). I like that they have their own crawler, instead of just using #Microsoft's results. Let's see how this goes...
Data mining-based machine #translation is indeed a #privacy nightmare, but for a lot of stuff sometimes we just have to pick our poison. But recently I've seen that #DuckDuckGo has also started offering this service as one of their instant answers functions.
I have no idea what backend they are using and how privacy-friendly it is. What do you think about it? Would you use it over, say, googletranslate or would you rather use something else?
When I think about how the old, good internet turned into the #enshitternet, I imagine a series of small compromises, each seemingly reasonable at the time, each contributing to a cultural norm of making good things worse, and worse, and worse.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
But thanks to the antitrust trial, we're learning about more of these. #MeganGray - ex-#FTC, ex-#DuckDuckGo - was in the courtroom last week when evidence was presented on Google execs' panic over a decline in "ad generating searches" and the sleazy gimmick they came up with to address it.
Hi, long time vegan, but rather new to cycling. I used to be OMAD (please don’t question the health/fitness, I’m just poor, not ideological), but due to cycling I need to eat 2 meals to have the strength to get back home (riding uphill). I tried eating breakfast, but by the time I get to work and get through the shift, I...
Voilà 15 ans que DuckDuckGo défie Google sur le terrain de la recherche en ligne, mais avec un argument de poids : pas question d’exploiter vos données personnelles.
first wave blogger known SEO has always been bullshit for Google.
many of y'all don't even know about the Indian "web security" company that back in the aughts blackholed Boing Boing and a chunk of in the USA feminist/political blogsophere.
sites like mine were getting massive amounts of traffic from India & Pakistan & POOF gone and completely delisted from their search pages in their localized Google...
it just keeps on and on spreading itself thru every single TLD they can get their hands on: .com .org. .net. ca. fr. .es .de. jp. .com.mx. .au. .com.au.
15 ans pour l'outil de recherche respectueux de la vie privée. #DuckDuckGo... et toujours utilisé par moins de 0,6 % des internautes dans le monde. Qu'est-ce que ça lui prend pour monter en popularité?
So, this surveillance capitalism thing is totally out of hand. Today @protonmail had a great explainer (https://mastodon.social/@protonmail/111165171600485248) on the mind bending evil Google is up to with it's new "privacy features". But pretty much every tech company is now in the business of profiling you and monetizing your tidbits.
What can you do? A lot as it turns out, but if you just want ONE EASY THING that you can do today, SWITCH TO FIREFOX (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/) and make DuckDuckGo your default search engine.
I've been talking about how AI will directly lead to an Idiocracy (2006) scenario for some time, but today's update to the "can you melt eggs?" saga is as clear an illustration of how as I think it's possible to ever have.
Quora's AI answers made up the melting point of eggs, and then Google picked it up and responded affirmatively that you can indeed melt eggs.
Then people wrote articles about how stupid it is that Google says eggs can melt. The Google fixes the answer.
Then Google ingests an article about how stupid it is that Google says you can melt eggs, and suddenly Google starts answering affirmatively again that you can melt eggs, citing the article about how stupid Google is for thinking you can melt eggs.
Having just spent a fruitless 20 minutes, I have determined there’s no way to create a QR code using my phone without signing up for some dumb service.
#DuckDuckGo aggregates a wide variety of sources, plus its own crawling of the web. Good! But:
That web is increasingly filled not only with crap, but with sites that actively subvert the usefulness of search results.
> Engineers [are] not trying to cure cancer […] they're trying to engineer ways to force you to click on things you don't wanna click on, basically, technological forms of mind control, and also find ways to avoid legal responsibility for that.
For me, personally, it was with DDG that I learned how #Google was privacy-invasive, and my starting point to learning more about #privacy.
As controversial as they are with conflicts of interest, I think they opened quite the door to what alternative #searchengines could be. Search and then metasearch came up and gave us a lot more privacy-friendly alternatives.
How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet - WIRED (www.wired.com)
cross-posted from !google...
Vegan lunch ideas, please [with very specific "requirements"] [adult advice needed]
Hi, long time vegan, but rather new to cycling. I used to be OMAD (please don’t question the health/fitness, I’m just poor, not ideological), but due to cycling I need to eat 2 meals to have the strength to get back home (riding uphill). I tried eating breakfast, but by the time I get to work and get through the shift, I...