My friends at Google: it is time to return to not being evil
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@jon: for those of us who do not see things so clearly, just feel google do something wrong, this is good way to show what is it. So thank you!
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For a time, Google represented a very large chunk of Mozilla revenues. Mozilla was (and still partly is) hugely dependent on Google.
It's really unhealthy for Mozilla independence, toward competition. -
@rigo: happy jolla user here
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@luca247: I would say that is a bit complicated.
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What's happening in Big Tech is very ugly. Twitter too has gone down the dark road. If you don't agree with @Jack's politics, you find yourself shadow-banned or actually suspended. It's a massive attack on free speech. I'll give as much business as possible to smaller companies such as Vivaldi, and for search, DuckDuckGo, which also excels at privacy. God speed.
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This TED Talk is worth a look.
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@paul1149 Technically as things like twitter, google etc. are not publicly owned, they're private entities and so "free speech" doesn't really apply. These companies get to choose what goes on their platform.
The issue at stake is that they aim to maximise profits. To do this they can use the leverage provided by owning the platform to skew away the competition thus cementing their monopoly further. Or, like you mentioned with twitter, hide away any messages that wouldn't be conducive to shareholders (? I'm not sure how twitter makes its money). Or as can be seen with youtube, using fuzzy, ill-defined guidelines as an excuse to hide away anything that advertisers might not like.
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I remember helping with the browserJS just to have Opera be able to use on Gmail (testing the browserJS test file).
Now they spam Chrome ads all over their sites (besides Youtube that I have seen), almost every time you open a new Google search window you get an ad for Chrome, I think that is part of the reason for the surge of Chrome's browser share surge but it came at a cost of a 60 versions with a heavy RAM usage bug (the mass amounts of RAM needed slow Chrome and OS it is running on way down), I did things in Opera 12.x that would be completely impossible in Chrome. That I have seen Vivaldi is much lighter than Chrome.Only reason I have a Google account is because they bought youtube.
I still have "Why Open The Web?" in all my email signatures (I think it is going on 10+ years
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@jon: Communication with Google is almost allways a complicated issue.
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would you be happier if you got a email from Adwords saying you've breached our terms and conditions for bad mouthing us to the press? i would of been. shows a openness, it might not be right, but its a start in the right direction.
keep up the great work
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I think Google has left their first love, but I hope they realize that they get further by cooperation instead of trying to co-opt everyone to their liking.
I recently replaced default Chrome with Firefox partly because of my dissatisfaction with Google. I never thought I would do that. I am hoping that Vivaldi will soon get to trade places with Firefox as my default. I love it so far. Just wish Yahoo wouldn't sniff at Vivaldi on my Mail account.
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Cannot tell you how refreshing this article is, along with this article: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/jon-von-tetzchner-opera-facebook-google
One thing I'm finding lately is that privacy and security (but especially privacy) have taken a back-seat to everything else, and it's very concerning to me. It's not only been a concern for me in choosing a browser, but also now that I'm looking for a new phone; it seems there are absolutely no good options for a phone for those of us who care about our privacy. It makes me wish I had enough money, power, and knowledge of programming so I could just go out and start my own Google, Microsoft, or Apple, but one that truly has the consumers privacy and security at heart.
I'm curious, Jon, if you would tell me, what phone do you use? It's been stressing me out lately to find something that cares about my privacy, but is also easy-to-use, and provides a lot of comforts that many others enjoy.
New idea: VIVALDI PHONE! lol
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@paragon "I use Bing and Ecosia as my preferred two search engines
Regards from chilly Melbourne, Australia!"Curious, why Bing, rather than Startpage or DDG ?
Regards from somewhere also currently chilly & blowy, ~760 km from you
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A somewhat meta-comment...
I remain generally confounded & agog that ad-based or ad-prioritising companies exist, let alone prosper. I've never really comprehended it, but then i suppose that's because i'm clearly not in any of their demographics. Online, & in broadcast media, I:
- don't watch commercial tv, explicitly due to the ads, & the generally brain-dead shows designed for lowest common denominator sheep.
- ditto commercial radio.
- never see online ads, due to blockers
- never use farcebork or twatter
- abandoned Google search engine at least a decade ago, for DDG & sometimes Startpage.
- on the rare occasions when somehow some ad evades all the above measures, i still just visually &/or audiologically ignore it. My philosophy is simple; ads do not exist for my benefit, but for theirs, & their relationship with facts & truth is incidental if even extant.
- never use any online Google services like gmail, their doc thingies, etc, & indeed re gmail i actively try to persuade some of my regular correspondents to also abandon gmail for actual privacy-respecting services.
- even during those lean years post-O12 & pre-V, my only exposure to Chrome was very brief, just to discover how pathetic it was & be able to remove it from my shortlist of potential O12 replacements. Had there never been V, i'd still never have settled on Chrome as my default [or even alternative] browser.
Hence, having been a very early adopter [& fan] of the original Google search engine "back in the day", & admired their "do no evil / don't be evil" ethos, i became incrementally disenchanted & then horrified as i observed their descent into darkness over the years. It just beggars my belief that so many millions [or is it gazillions these days] of sheep around the world are so lazy & undiscerning that they sign over their souls to the devil, & become the product. Baa, baa...
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@ultraviolet: Thanks.
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@steffie: I find Bing to be more accurate than DuckDuckGo. As 'Just another mainstream search engine', I find Bing to be the lesser two evils.
I try using Ecosia as much as I can, and refer to Startpage whenever Bing lets me down.
Regards to you, dear fellow Aussie
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@javiergbarroso: Just try getting a straight answer from a Google Rep when using the Google Product Forums that hasn't been pre-scripted
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I use google apps (docs, sheets, the rest) every day. And always from Vivaldi. Could I get a clarification - is the browser I'm using having to hide its name from the server of those apps just so that I can use them?
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@aach1 Yes. Google blocks Vivaldi. So Vivaldi tells Google it's Chromium.