@EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zip
member since 29 Apr 2026 22:16
comments
- on Google’s AI Mode Is Ripping Shoppers Off With Vastly Higher Prices, Study Claims: Prices were 21.6 percent more expensive on average in Google AI Mode compared to a traditional search. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 4 Sep 2026
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on Sony Implements New Customer Harassment Policy Following Backlash Toward Its Plans to Stop Making Physical Game Discs in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026
Me too. But also isn’t that what they have been doing these past months.
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on Google Maps renames “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America” even faster than US government in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
I use Organic Maps and CoMaps mainly. Sometime Kagi Maps and FlockHopper (not sure what I under the hood of that one though). I prefer OSM generally.
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on PlayStation Wants To Prove In Court That You Don't Own Your Digital Games in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
🤣 Well I’m a vampire so jokes on them.
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on PlayStation Wants To Prove In Court That You Don't Own Your Digital Games in c/technology@lemmy.world · 31 Aug 2026
It should be called renting (or something similar). But then, that would likely mean an expectation of a lower price tag and they wouldn’t want that. Who would rent a game for $80? Even if the rental is a decade or longer. Probably people out there that would and currently do this.
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on The Dutch Data Protection Authority has decided to fine Uber €825 million ($966 million) under European data protection rules for deactivating driver accounts through automated systems without adequa… in c/technology@lemmy.world · 22 Aug 2026
I hope this has more far reaching effects. These companies pull this kind of nonsense all the time. Right now, they can lock you out of your account without notice or warning or ability to properly appeal. They also often don’t tell you the reason why. Looking at Google and Meta and Amazon and Apple.
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on Chinese video platform Bilibili is going global to challenge Youtube in c/technology@lemmy.world · 21 Aug 2026
I meant to say, not directly use their services for video and definitely aim to give them less identifiable information. Like Invidious’s Yewtu.be (yewtu.be) scrapes YouTube and is not reliant on their API (but does give IP addresses to YouTube, hence the use of a VPN), but FreeTube uses YouTube’s API by default I think, but can use Invidious’s scrapping API (docs.freetubeapp.io/usage/privacy/). PeerTube is not reliant on YouTube at all and can be a good alternative even though it may have fewer videos (since you use that, then you’ve basically degoogled in that case). Maybe once a month or less I will watch a video from any of those services, so I don’t ever subscribe to any channels. I prefer to read documentation rather over watching videos when possible. To me that is in the spirit of degoogling. Same as I don’t avoid every website that has some script of Google under the hood. But I do block their trackers by activating “No Google” (github.com/nickspaargaren/no-google) from time to time if it doesn’t break a website (some website I need to access for work might not load if I have that on) and DuckDuckGo onionized on Tor mostly. I also need to use AlpaFold for work, but fortunately we have an instance that doesn’t go to Google’s servers. They created the protein folding technology and the instance and scripts had to be downloaded at some point from their servers. Degoogling is a fairly complex today. I have been reading more and more about digital cooperativism (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_cooperative) and even though something may be open source, as expected, companies can still profit off of it. From the sounds of it, when it comes to cooperativism, no one person controls everything or profits. You may know more about this any how. All that said, giving people more digital privacy and protection is not a technological issue, but more of social issue. Hopefully people get more informed and interested in their digital rights in the future and society moves away from the likes of Google and Meta and Amazon and Apple (and OpenAI) at large.
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on Chinese video platform Bilibili is going global to challenge Youtube in c/technology@lemmy.world · 21 Aug 2026
If I have a project, I often prefer to read up on how to accomplish the task, such as going to blog posts or getting to the source documentation. If that is not possible, I use yewtu.be (it can be slow to load just FYI). There is also PeerTube, but it doesn’t have as much content. Lastly, there is FreeTube, which is built on YouTubes API and gives them revenue in some way, but doesn’t have ads. It doesn’t allow Google to learn your behavior or target you for ads. I also use a VPN (with DNS protection enabled) when loading anything. If you’re degoogling (as I and many have done), one other item I hear people say they have difficulty dropping is Google Maps. I know you didn’t ask about it, but just to add, other options exist, such as Open Street Maps (OSM), Organic Maps, CoMaps, Magic Earth (I think may be built on Google Maps API, but not entirely sure), and Kagi (I’m fairly sure it uses Apple Maps and Google Maps API). Also, I have just started looking into FlockHopper, but I’m not sure what it is built on, I think OSM and MapBox (not sure if I have that right), but I’m not sure. Also MapQuest still exists.
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on Chinese video platform Bilibili is going global to challenge Youtube in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026
Not terribly interested in this video platform as I also don’t use YouTube. I really hope Google gets broken up and I don’t like them harvesting my data and selling it to the US Government any more than I like companies like Bytedance selling my data to the Chinese Government. I am in the US and think we should have established data privacy and data protection laws long before things got to the point they have gotten too.
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on YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18 Aug 2026
Sounds like a desperate attempt to convince investors that there is growing user engagement by decreasing the amount of time needed for a video to be considered engaging. Must be that people are moving through shorts at breakneck speeds. I haven’t touched YouTube in many years as the platform turned into one giant ad service (even if you pay for to remove ads). I guess that is what Google is primarily anyway, a company aiming to serve personalized (maybe also behavioral) ad to people.
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on Google's classic Search button is gone in a new AI-first homepage in c/technology@lemmy.world · 11 Aug 2026
Been using DDG for years now, and have since turned off AI. My only issue with DDG, StartPage, and Ecosia, is that they don’t do their own indexing (AFAIK). I still use them, but have been looking into Kagi and Brave (I know they have their own issues as well) as I think they index independently of Google or Microsoft. With not having an independent index, then the search engine is at the mercy of the companies that do. Such as is Google wants to remove or deprioritize something, it would also be seen in StartPage. Again, that my understanding and it may be wrong.
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on Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant in c/technology@lemmy.world · 7 Aug 2026
Also, (maybe some would argue first) might be that someone goes to prison over a thing like this.
I cannot believe Google hasn’t been broken up yet. I haven’t used their services in years and block them on my home network. I used to use their search and other services all the time, until 2022 when I saw several news articles come out about them locking people out of the accounts because their AI accused people of being child abusers, but when those people were found innocent, Google refused to return their data or accounts. That is disgraceful behavior for a company. Plus many many other issues. Glad to see that they are killing their brand with AI, meaning they are not driving traffic to other websites anymore, but raising energy costs for those sites. And that now this. Glad to also see that people are moving away from their map system in the latest round of news. AI needs to be regulated. Our data needs to be protected. Privacy (digital and in the real world) should be a basic human right.