Tag: google
-
Chrome again exempts Google from user site data settings
Jeff Johnson observes that Google Chrome has AGAIN started ignoring user privacy settings specifically for .google.com domains. This leads me to ask, not for the first time, why are there still so many people using Chrome as their daily driver, when there are so many perfectly-good alternatives that don't feed the beast in the same way?
-
How I (Don't) Collect Blog Statistics
I used to collect analytics information about visitors to my website, and I've tried a lot of different ways of doing it over the course of a couple of decades. But nowadays I don't collect any at all, and I think that's better.
-
I Regret To Say That GMail is Now a Spam Farm, or, Why You Should Really Get That Dedicated Email Address Now
John Scalzi observes that GMail is now the source of much of the world's spam, especially AI-generated spam, and GMail-originated messages are increasingly at-risk of going to spam folders. Maybe it's time to ditch that primary GMail address, if you haven't already.
-
Ad Infinitum
An excellent article by Matthias Ott describes Google's promised AI-first search experience, which dispenses with search results entirely and just uses an LLM (plus sponsored content seamlessly woven in), keeping you entirely within the search giant's ecosystem and minimising how much they cite their sources. As you might imagine, I have some Opinions too.
-
So Unbelievable it Sounds Like you Googled It
DeGoogling is so... 2010s. Let's make the 2020s the decade where we redefine Google as a verb. In the age of AI-first search, "to Google" now ought to give a nod to the accuracy and ethical issues posed by making AI into people's first experience of Web search.
-
Four OpenBenches
Despite Google making it harder for me to do so 🤬, I managed to add not one, not two, not three but four new memorial benches to the OpenBenches database during a dog walk this morning.
A particular excitement was adding my first bench with two plaques.
It's the little things. -
Why there’s no European Google?
Lionel Dricot explains why the big tech companies are mostly American, not European (and why that's a good thing). It's a cultural difference that also results in Europeans being behind so many of the most-important open source and open standards projects in the world.
-
Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe?
Terence Eden's upset at Google's proposed changes to Android to further lock-down the ecosystem, and I'm concerned too.
-
Doxxing an Imaginary Person?
This morning, Google pulled a video from YouTube belonging to my nonprofit Three Rings. This was a bit of a surprise.
Apparently the video - which is a demo of some Three Rings features - apparently fell foul of Google's anti-doxxing rules. I'm glad that they have anti-doxxing rules, of course. But in this case, the person we 'doxxed' lives on Some Street, Somewhereville. Which I'd like to imagine is clearly a made-up address, but maybe not! -
Google Shared My Phone Number!
When people started calling my personal mobile number with questions about a voluntary organisation I'm involved with, I was confused: we weren't sharing that number. It turns out that Google had decided to take the number I used to verify my identity for Google Business some years prior and start putting it in Google Search results. WTF, Google?
-
Hey Google, pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Wait, it isn't supposed to be pronounced "clan via Pokemon Go garage city of cocoa"? I've been saying it wrong my whole life! 😅
-
Google turns to nuclear to power AI data centres
As Google invest in next-generation nuclear generation to provide electricity to their energy-hungry AI datacentres, so they can keep providing shit answers to everyday questions, I'm optimistic that maybe after the LLM fad fizzles out we'll be left with new power technologies that can benefit all of humankind.
-
Why using Google VPN is a terrible idea
Google are launching a VPN service. The Proton team say why that's bad, and Dan takes a more-sarcastic look at the issue.
-
Accidental Geohashing
Dan mines his own geoposition data of the last decade to ask: did I ever accidentally visit a geohashpoint? Turns out... maybe. Ish.
-
Pay Up, Or We'll Make Google Ban Your Ads
Brian Krebs writes about a new trend of Web extortion, based on threatening to get a victim's website's ads demonetised by pretending to be the victim and attempting to exploit them.