My friends at Google: it is time to return to not being evil
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Wait... What?
is that "Microsoft" I'm hearing all over again? -
@beatkitano That tends to happen as part of google's anti-spambot measures. Lots of other services do that, and I notice that a lot when I use my VPN.
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This is all quite worrying to hear. The most annoying part of all this, is the fact that there isn't any transparency here. Were you given a reason why your account was suspended?
💻 Windows 10 64-bit Sopranos Builds • en-GB • 🗳 vote for features • 🕵️♀️ Code of Conduct • 🐞 Report bugs
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@lonm: At first there was not much at all, but gradually we were told what we needed to do to reopen. There was no message in the interface that we were blocked there was no warning and communication was minimal. We were being told that we need to know the rules, but when we asked what rules we had broken, we got vague answers, many of which we were told were not actual requirements, but seemingly required by us (none are followed by Google them selves on their browser site).
CEO & Co-founder Vivaldi
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well at least we can say google is the reason why Vivaldi exist, to give the users a better web
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@jon Have you considered that after the 2.4 billion € fine, the Commission considered Google as a monopolist and thus they are forced to contract and deliver ad words? This incident could cost them another 2.4 billion.
On the ad - side. I LOVE jolla, the unlike phone. They had a very successful campaign and are known widely now, without Google. Don't you underestimate the hunger people have to have an alternative? For almost 15 years, Opera was the leading alternative.
And there the story is not fully coherent, as vivaldi uses Google's rendering engine. And I know of no article explaining the protections in place against choices from Google Developers. I know you have them, but I'm looking for some written article that is easy to find.
And Vivaldi should take up the work presented by Håkon Bratsberg at the Workshop on user centric controls https://www.w3.org/2014/privacyws/agenda.html This was really promising. I think Vivaldi only makes sense if it is as unlike as the Jolla phone, but hopefully with a better business model
KUTGW -
@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.
CEO & Co-founder Vivaldi
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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.
Current Vivaldi snapshot.. MX-23 Linux x64, KDE desktop.
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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
Why Open the Web?
Despite the connecting purpose of the Web, it is not entirely open to all of its users.
When used correctly, HTML documents can be displayed across platforms and devices.
However, many devices are excluded access to Web content. -
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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
♀ 🇦🇺
