Google whines about my location, any fix?
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Don't use Google so cannot test anything (and it seems like the popup is anyway not showing up for everyone) but Vivaldi allows you to add more block-lists in the settings to the ad/tracker blocker. Some of them may contain a rule that blocks this specific annoyance. For example you could try "Fanboy's Annoyance List" or similar.
That being said, imo no reason to stick to a single search engine. I have a handful that I use and when researching something I just start with any of them, if I don't find a good result I switch to the next. Google's result don't seem to stand out as particularly good to me.
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@Onweerwolf said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
@Pathduck said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
@Onweerwolf Then that's probably some setting buried deep inside Google's myriad obscure privacy settings pages. Not really a Vivaldi problem.
No, it's not a Vivaldi problem, no one claims it is. If you Google this issue you will see it is a new crossbrowser issue.
Just for science, I did try this setting set to block on multiple computers and I did not get the pop up. Not sure if there might be other settings at play with your pc settings (VPN,Proxy's etc)
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@Onweerwolf That is something Google decide to display.
This may be an A/B test (some visitors get one version of the site, others get some other version; and there may be many other versions of the test, C, D, E ....; most major sites do such testing to discover what works and what doesn't) that Google is running, and which group a user is assigned to is generally stored somewhere, possibly in a cookie.
Who gets assigned to which group can be globally random, or may be keyed to something specific about the user, such as country, state, city (determined by your IP address). E.g. one test being run might only be possible for results from some specific geographical area.
The thing about such A/B tests is that the user sitting next to you, much less a user on the other side of the planet, might never see that particular version of the website. The problem with that, of course, is that users can get into discussions (aka "shouting matches") about "I see this!" and "I don't see that!".
Also, note that websites may enable features based on region (again, based on IP address). E.g. some websites decide default language of the site based on such information (e.g years ago my then-ISP was using an IP range that had previously be used in Austria, kept getting German text on some sites).
BTW, "fun fact": Google Chrome does A/B testing, too, enabling/disabling field trials and features in small sets of user installations (this is hard-disabled in Vivaldi, no worries). One that is underway at this moment is the deprecation of Third-party cookies (which is actually a "we do 1% now, 5% next month, 10% month after that" feature enabling, until 100%).
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@viljay said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
Don't use Google so cannot test anything (and it seems like the popup is anyway not showing up for everyone) but Vivaldi allows you to add more block-lists in the settings to the ad/tracker blocker. Some of them may contain a rule that blocks this specific annoyance. For example you could try "Fanboy's Annoyance List" or similar.
That being said, imo no reason to stick to a single search engine. I have a handful that I use and when researching something I just start with any of them, if I don't find a good result I switch to the next. Google's result don't seem to stand out as particularly good to me.
I will try this next. Tomorrow when the pop-up shows I will first try the ublock elements block feature and see if that works.
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This post is deleted! -
So far it looks like the Ublock Elements blocker feature is doing it's trick.
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Well, cheered too soon. Google now presents me with a fully greyed out screen. It only goes away when I remove the blocked elements from ublocker.
I absolutely hate terrible companies like this. Super annoying. I've tried other search engines in the meantime but none of them seems to be reasonable alternative.
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@viljay said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
Don't use Google so cannot test anything (and it seems like the popup is anyway not showing up for everyone) but Vivaldi allows you to add more block-lists in the settings to the ad/tracker blocker. Some of them may contain a rule that blocks this specific annoyance. For example you could try "Fanboy's Annoyance List" or similar.
Can you explain how this works? Where or how do I enable "Fanboy's Annoyance List"?
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@Onweerwolf
Hi, for the setup check: Blocking ListsHere is the list: https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-mobile-notifications.txt
Cheers, mib
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@mib2berlin said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
@Onweerwolf
Hi, for the setup check: Blocking ListsHere is the list: https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-mobile-notifications.txt
Cheers, mib
I find this confusing. Does it go under 'exceptions'?
Like this?
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@Onweerwolf
No, exceptions is the opposite.
Click Manage Sources, two hidden setups appear, add the list to Ad Blocking Sources. -
okay I see now.
That's really confusing to hide those lists and make a button that says "manage" instead of "show". If you've never done this you don't see anything to manage.
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@Onweerwolf
I understand but it is exactly described in the help page I linked.Anyway, I hope this helps, mib
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Not really. "Settings > Privacy" doesn't exist, it's "Privacy & Security"
Additionally there is no incentive to click 'manage sources' if you haven't added a source yet. You're looking for a place to add the source not for a way to edit something that is already there. You don't even know there are already sources there since they are hidden, for unknown reasons.
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@mib2berlin said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
@Onweerwolf
Hi, for the setup check: Blocking ListsHere is the list: https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-mobile-notifications.txt
Cheers, mib
Did not work, unfortunately.
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@Onweerwolf
Hi, I cant test this, I never get such a message, sorry. -
So, I found a fix on Reddit that has been working for me, so far.
In uBlock add this filter:
www.google.com##html:style(overflow: visible !important) www.google.com##div[role="dialog"] span:has-text(/^See results closer to you\?$/):upward(7)
Original link: https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/17zpook/comment/ks9nred/
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@Onweerwolf
Google can tell what city you are in from your IP number. I do not log into Google (except for Gmail) and I do not allow anyone to use Location. Google Maps will open showing me the city where I am located (but not the exact spot). -
@Streptococcus said in Google whines about my location, any fix?:
@Onweerwolf
Google can tell what city you are in from your IP number. I do not log into Google (except for Gmail) and I do not allow anyone to use Location. Google Maps will open showing me the city where I am located (but not the exact spot).Not sure what your point is.
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@Onweerwolf
You were complaining about Google complaining about your location. They know what city you are in (and therefore what country) from your IP number.