mariafarrell18h ago

RE: https://mastodon.social/@SteveRudolfi/116279083767770070

If one definition of evil is its wanton destruction of everything that is good and whole in the world, then Google is an active agent of evil.

It is setting out to destroy the world wide web and steal the livelihood of everyone who builds and depends on the web.

I honestly don't know how to mobilise normies to care about and stop this evil. It probably seems too niche and incremental until it's too late.

Oh yeah, and in the UK an ex-Google exec is now running the BBC. . .

Show threadStage name Jay Peach16h ago
@mariafarrell FUCK GOOGLE! Use another search engine!
Show threadmariafarrell16h ago
@jaypeach53 I (have the means to) pay for Kagi and I really love it.
Show threadStage name Jay Peach16h ago
@mariafarrell idk, I use DuckDuckGo despite them using Bing data. Have been using DDG for about 5 years now. Started weaning myself off Google when they dropped the “Don’t Be Evil” motto. What’s a good video platform in the fediverse? YouTube is next.
Show threadmariafarrell15h ago

@jaypeach53 yes, I used ddg myself for a few years before switching largely to kagi. like you I don't love the bing connection but it's a decent free search engine, though now annoyingly you have to constantly repeat that you don't want AI "summaries", every few searches.

for non-youtube video, I can't remember just now the good alternatives, blame my middle-aged post-covid brain! but follow @_elena who's great on them (and much more).

Show threadcwicseolfor
@mariafarrell @jaypeach53 @_elena Even paid users have to tell Kagi “no ai” over and over??! That feels like it would invalidate the whole value prop to me. (Or maybe I’m flashing back to “wait, why pay for fancy channels on cable only to have to sit through commercials,” because I’m just old enough for that.)
4:26pmWeb
Show threadKathmandu10h ago

@cwicseolfor @mariafarrell @jaypeach53 @_elena

I put links on my browsers to noai.duckduckgo.com and that's saved me a lot of annoyance.

Show threadcwicseolfor2h ago
@Kathmandu I set the no-AI DDG as my default browser on everything (technically still using Firefox mostly but attending manually to the about:config, but that may change.)
@mariafarrell Unsure if you’re still using DDG at all but if so that may be the way to avoid seeing any AI suggestions.
@jaypeach53 @_elena
Show threadmariafarrell9h ago
@cwicseolfor no, if memory serves, kagi is ok about accepting my no-ai summary preference definitively. it's duckduckgo that is not.