Mastodawn

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2026/03/06/google-just-patented-the-end-of-your-website/

And well... I suppose that also answers my question:

Apps might be more resistant to the lastest Google attack.

Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website

A newly granted Google patent could let the search giant replace your brand's landing page with an AI-generated version you have no control over and only your buyers see.

Forbes

Juan 1d ago

@Firlefanz wow now that's distopian. Also probably illegal because of misrepresentation and IP law, although they have already proven that they're effectively above the law whenever they use the word "AI"

S. Lott 2d ago

@Firlefanz read Doctrow’s Enshittification. Apps have anti-tampering, anti-reverse engineering protections web sites lack.

I would assume Apps have that only if it's programmed into them.

But thanks, that is a good point to keep in mind.

I'm just so fed with creating accounts for every little service, giving them name, address birthday, they are all grabbing data when I don't really want them to.

Joyce Lionarons 2d ago

@Firlefanz @slott56

I'm sure the anti-tampering stuff is true, but I also hate apps with a passion and do not use them if there is any way to avoid them.

S. Lott 2d ago

@Firlefanz nah. It’s the law. Apps are covered by anti-tampering laws.

Where?

Steven D. Brewer 🏳️‍⚧️2d ago

@Firlefanz @slott56 DMCA.

@stevendbrewer

No, I meant which country. Because as far as I know there are few international laws about software.

S. Lott 2d ago

@Firlefanz @stevendbrewer USA. The original intent might have been anti-circumvention of various locks and controls on DVD players to help manage intellectual property. (ie. movie anti-piracy). But it is broadly applied to any software you purchase.

Steven D. Brewer 🏳️‍⚧️2d ago

@slott56 @Firlefanz Yeah, but @pluralistic did a great job of laying out in this talk how the USA has pressured basically every country in the world to pass identical anti-circumvention legislation. He's pointed out that they could reclaim their digital sovereignty by repealing those laws and allowing their people to circumvent the techbro's lock on innovation: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition

Pluralistic: The Post-American Internet (01 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

S. Lott 1d ago

@stevendbrewer @Firlefanz I cannot agree enough that apps are often despicable.

What makes them worse is this abusive anti-tampering legislation that makes apps so seductively appealing to techbros.

Analog AI 1d ago

@Firlefanz @slott56 Apps often have tracking built into them, whereas (some) web browsers let you defeat it.

Steven D. Brewer 🏳️‍⚧️2d ago

@slott56 @Firlefanz Apps also allow corporations to collect much more data about the user.

@stevendbrewer

That is my impression, yes. Data grabs.

C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸2d ago

@Firlefanz

I think they assume it will trap you into using their service more or buying from them more since you went to the trouble of downloading and setting their app up. I only do this for companies I already like and intend to keep using. With the others, if they don't have an accessible website that's easy to navigate, I move on.

@crcollins

Yep, that's what I usually do, as well.

They want me to use an app? Nope.

James Tweedie 1d ago

@crcollins @Firlefanz There's also the issue that a number of websites throw a fit if you access via a VPN or if you have ad blockers. I just ignore them now.

C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸1d ago

@MyricaGale @Firlefanz

Oh yeah, there have been some sites that complain about my ad blocker. Or the ones that demand my email for viewing their content. I don't return to those sites.

Scott Rochester 2d ago

@Firlefanz my iPhone has the apps which came on it.

I have added Mastodon and Bluesky.

I do not need to add anything else.

Sym (public node)

1d ago

@Firlefanz The argument I heard once upon a time was that the app is the same thing as the website, inside a wrapper that ensures that it can only open that one URL. I don't know what reality that argument was sourced from though, because while every modern app is a glorified website, it's also a shitty one that is measurably inferior to the company's actual website, and it turns out that "assume that there will never be a supply chain attack" is way worse than "I might typed an URL wrong."

Autumn Meadow 1d ago

@Firlefanz
I am going to answer this question under the assumption it is not rhetorical. If it is, my apologies.

Apps give access to a great deal more of our personal data than websites do. This makes apps far more profitable. The corporations push apps by killing their own websites the way AI tools were pushed by the intentional killing of Google search's usefulness.

They want to profit from our data.

@meadow

Thanks. Yeah, that was my assumption, as well.

Dystopian. I feel that the internet I loved is getting destroyed more and more every day.

And all because of GREED. It's all driven by greed, by people who already have more money than they can spend, and that's the absolute worst.

Khleedril 1d ago

@Firlefanz They do it because, while cookies are banned from being used covertly on web sites, apps are still free to take whatever liberties they want.

James Tweedie 1d ago

@khleedril @Firlefanz My phone detects and blocks all trackers hidden in both Apps and Web sites. It calls each attempted 'communication' a leak.
In one month there have been over 9000 attempted leaks, 1000 of these from the LIDL shop app.
None have asked permission from me.
Most feed the Trump supporting Google empire as well as dozens of US based data brokers. Not something I want. Pleased that the phone detects and kills the leaks!

Khleedril 1d ago

@MyricaGale @Firlefanz That's what the Play Services are for, and why banking apps insist you have them. Google sees everything you do, and so does the NSA.

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)1d ago

@Firlefanz I am with you. I have a web browser. It can visit many sites. An “app” is a web browser that can visit one site. So I can’t see why I should use an “app” when I already have a web browser. And I hate cellphones.

bencourtice 1d ago

@Firlefanz Yes! why... so they can control your data? So app designers can get work? So CEOs can say they did something for the company?

I think originally the rationale for phone apps may have been that websites didn't display well on a small screen. Now most websites are optimised for phone and look terrible on a big screen. And still we get the apps.

In the era of monopoly capital, what the customer wants is increasingly irrelevant. Frequently we have no choice but to consume what they ladle up to us. Or go and live under a rock. Which is increasingly attractive.

See also: enshittification, bullshit jobs theories

Darrell Bowles 1d ago

@jcsteh @Firlefanz That's a valid question.

Whiskers 🇦🇺1d ago

@Firlefanz 1000% agree

j-j-j-j-1d ago

@Firlefanz taco bell REQUIRING me to use kiosks that try and cram the app down my throat and discourage cash use and also allow the resturant to run on like 3 people

..the food still hits, though

@Firlefanz https://youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ?si=uTyDrGbEf6wCisFB

Christian 1d ago

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

YouTube

@cgo

Yeah, great little video. Thanks.

millennial fulcrum 1d ago

@Firlefanz put it to a thingy

more websites

100%

more apps

more of both

Poll ended at 7:45am.

Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸1d ago

@Firlefanz Hear,hear

Theriac 1d ago

@Firlefanz

Why in the world does every store, every service, every organization need an "app"?the answer is they get more data tied to a recognisable source, which can then be linked to your other data.

Negative12DollarBill 1d ago

@Firlefanz Currently working in brick-and-mortar retail and one sensible answer is, because you need to do some things while physically present in the store or at the checkout. An online store doesn't need it, you're right.

steeph

🎆 ٩(˘◡˘)۶ 1d ago

@Firlefanz You expect people to enter a cryptic "URL" into a text field of the "Internet" app instead of just not doing that? Where would you learn about that URL and how would you remember it? You can google it every time but that bears the risk of ending up on the wrong app site when the right one is not the first result. Why would you make it so complicated when all you have to do is tap the app?

I mean, I agree with you. But businesses try to serve the most incompetent parts of the market and in some cases I'm happy about that because that includes me.

@steeph

Well, right now, a lot of places that just used to send me statements are trying to make me sign up to their "app", and I really hate that.

And some even want to charge me fees if I don't. I feel harassed.

steeph

🎆 ٩(˘◡˘)۶ 1d ago

@Firlefanz Oh, I can't stand that as well. It's an issue with web sites as well though. My bank, my insurance, my health care provider, my other bank, my phone provider, my home internet provider, another insurance and some things I can't be bothered to look up the English translation for all have set up a message inbox for me. Some notify me by mail or email when there's something in my inbox. Some don't. I mean there could be some legally important information be waiting right now in some inbox I never check because companies apparently can't send actual information over email anymore.

For over a year I haven't been able to receive my payslips because some 2FA app isn't compatible for my phone or my back-up phone. So I just don't get to read or check my payslips anymore. Nobody cars. Can't do my taxes accurately anymore either. I will be forced to care about that. I guess I'll have to buy a phone the app provider likes at some point.

@steeph

Totally awful, unfair and it really shouldn't be even legal.