Technology @lemmy.ml floofloof @lemmy.ca 1 yr. ago

How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet

www.wired.com How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet

Testimony during Google’s antitrust case revealed that the company may be altering billions of queries a day to generate results that will get you to buy more stuff.

42 comments

This is a highly concerning allegation, and it does explain some interesting results I've noticed lately. I've wondered why, especially when searching for products, an expected result isn't there unless I invoke it by name. I'd chalked it up to their competition having more mindshare and thus a higher page rank score. Now I'm not so sure.

Worse, it somewhat supports claims that the far-right has been making, although those claims still completely miss the mark.
- What annoys me most is that you'll get that product carousel at the top of sponsored products that aren't what you want, then 3 or 4 results of sponsored links, then maybe you get the actual thing in the 5th real result.
  
  It's a really bad search experience.
  
  That's my experience of it too, and yet the Google users I know refuse to try anything else because they insist every other search engine gives useless results while Google gets it right. Perhaps it depends what kinds of things you tend to search for, but I usually do better with Duck Duck Go, and sometimes even with Bing. People's love for Google search at this point has to be based in how it used to be, not how it is today.
  
  Usually Amazon is my first search stop then Google. I find I need to disable my ad blockers to be able to use the sponsored links. I often am searching for a solution product not a specific item so I'm curious about the options. Then I narrow down into specific items which Google does a pretty good job of I find for me.
  
  I often use search within Google Maps to find locations hours, reviews on a experience, and a location or business' website.
  
  I've recently switched to Duck Duck Go and FF and I find it might be a familiarity to the types of localized results I miss as I'm still pretty plugged into the Google eco system and duck duck go doesn't seem to hit the mark as closely for me.
- Which far right claims are you saying it’s supporting?
  
  I think the claims I've heard irl are something along the lines of "can't trust Google search results, they're censoring 'em!" I figure the things they're mad Google "censors" are probably literal or borderline fascist content - and I also tend to assume they're probably misusing the word censor. I think the tenuous connection here is just that yeah Google is probably doing some shady stuff with their search results.
  
  unintelligable nonsense Big Tech unintelligable nonsense
I can't say I don't use Google as I own an unrooted pixel on the Fi network but I've done what I'm able to lessen the information given to them by stopping the use of the search engine, browser and sandboxing any Google pages in my FF browser. It started bothering me how much I was relying on one company for nearly everything online.

My next phone will likely be rooted and running a different OS.
- Pixel is still one of the best options overall despite other Google enshittification. There are plenty of ways to move away from Google defaults without changing the OS. If that's not enough, you'd still benefit from their software support. Third party OSes like LineageOS and Graphene can use Google's updated sources and binary blobs for driving the hardware during the same 5-7 year support lifespan. As a result those OSes should be able to run securely on a Pixel at least till the end of its official support span.
- Rooting can harm the security of your device, significantly.
  
  I understand you're wanting to root for privacy reasons, and I'm not saying you should never root, just understand the risks.
  
  Instead, I'd suggest keeping your Pixel and installing GrapheneOS.
  
  Or, find another phone that is supported by DivestOS.
  
  Both of those ROMs are privacy and security hardened and relock your bootloader for a secure boot.
  
  Rooting can harm the security of your device, significantly.
  
  Why is that? On a rooted device you still benefit from Google scanning installed apk, and root access is protected by an explicit accept dialog.
  
  It's the exact same setup as UAC on Windows or the admin prompts on Linux and Mac.
- I'm pretty reliant on a couple of big providers I find. Usually Amazon is my first search stop then Google. I find I need to disable my ad blockers to be able to use the sponsored links. I often am searching for a solution product not a specific item so I'm curious about the options. Then I narrow down into specific items which Google does a pretty good job of I find for me.
  
  I was an early Google adopter so I've been using Google for a lot of things over the years.
  
  I often use search within Google Maps to find locations hours, reviews on a experience, and a location or business' website.
  
  I've recently switched to Duck Duck Go and FF and I find it might be a familiarity to the types of localized results I miss as I'm still pretty plugged into the Google eco system and duck duck go doesn't seem to hit the mark as closely for me.
- I'm on android and how I protect myself in this phones environment is:
  
  VPN - Mullvad is my go to
  
  App Cloner - Obfuscate and scramble my GPS, Wifi, Phone Model, Google Analytics ID, and MAC address on isolated apps.
  
  Brave Browser- Set to delete cookies, history, ect when it closes
  
  Last Pass - So the above is easier to regain access to accounts
- rooting cripples your security and there is little benefit to it.
  
  How does rooting "cripple" security? You still need to give Superuser permission to apps on an individual basis. So long as you only give Superuser permission to widely-used open-source apps, what's the "crippling" change?
  
  Or do you mean having an unlocked bootloader, which gives anyone with physical access to your device tools to unlock your phone? That's related, but different, from rooting. And you can lock your bootloader and keep root access, so they aren't interchangeable.
  
  There's a lot of benefit to it, and if you don't install all the crap you find on the internet you'll be fine.
Wired has removed the story because it "does not meet [their] editorial standards".
It's time to go monopoly busting!
Who uses google besides my grandma tho?
- who do you think is using literally anything else other than tech people?
  
  You're exactly right. Given the circles we run in it's easy to forget the rest of the world just doesn't give a shit about any of this.
  
  No way any of my friends would pay 10 bucks a month for kagi, so yeah most people just don't care enough or search enough to want to look into alternatives
  
  I'm not a tech person, and I'm currently using a SearXNG instance
  
  My non techie friends use ecosia or whatever.
- The majority (>80%) of people who have an Internet connection.

You've viewed 42 comments.