4 ms·

This type of behavior + AMP has pushed me off google completely. I'm determined to cut them out of my technical life entirely, I've even switched myself and ev

This type of behavior + AMP has pushed me off google completely. I'm determined to cut them out of my technical life entirely, I've even switched myself and everyone I know/support off their DNS. I can't support their shady practices anymore.

metalliqaz 9y ago
Sorry for being that guy, but what is AMP in this context?
- jwong_ 9y ago
  > The Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP) is an online publishing format, created by Google
- jszymborski 9y ago
  https://www.ampproject.org/ https://www.ampproject.org/ (first hit on DDG.gg for '"amp" google')
- robteix 9y ago
  I'm not the parent but I'm sure they mean Accelerated Mobile Pages[0] [0] https://www.ampproject.org/ https://www.ampproject.org/
- FuriouslyAdrift 9y ago
  Accelerated Mobile Pages It's a weird accelerator thing for mobile. I've never quite figured out its use case except to hoover up more metrics for Google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages
  - amrrs 9y ago
    The use case is simple: Transcend through adblockers and show ads in mobiles. Mobile users primarily use adblockers because websites suck their data and also speed. AMP ensures faster content delivery and lite data and also comes with ads.
    - nailer 9y ago
      Doesn't explain why they don't allow you to host AMP pages on your own domain and still be in the search carousel.
- joatmon-snoo 9y ago
  AMP, as pushed by Google, is essentially Google re-hosting a pared-down, mobile-friendly version of your site. Alex Kras has two blog posts that got a lot of traction early on that highlighted some issues with this trend [1] [2]. [1] https://www.alexkras.com/google-may-be-stealing-your-mobile-traffic/ https://www.alexkras.com/google-may-be-stealing-your-mobile-... [2] https://www.alexkras.com/please-make-google-amp-optional/ https://www.alexkras.com/please-make-google-amp-optional/
  - metalliqaz 9y ago
    Thanks much, I was wondering how AMP made him suspicious of google.
    - nailer 9y ago
      Essentially Google only allow Google-hosted AMP content in their search carousel. You could create an AMP (or otherwise fast) page on your own CDN and Google won't show it unless it's on their domain.
chrshawkes 9y ago
I loathe AMP. Biggest piece of crap coming out of Google in a long time.
- gaius 9y ago
  Well, it wasn't designed with your interests in mind. You are the product, remember.
  - mcgarnagle 9y ago
    Well, which is why he loathes it
avip 9y ago
> I've even switched myself off their DNS So this is how tech-nerds revenge their nemesis.
- theWatcher37 9y ago
  Damn straight. Their DNS is yet another ingress point for their spyware empire. The only ethical thing to do is technically (and morally) divest from google infrastructure.
ancarda 9y ago
Any suggestions for alternatives to 8.8.8.8? Is OpenDNS any good?
- peterwwillis 9y ago
  4.2.2.[1-6] is easy to remember, but IIRC they don't want people to use them anymore. Here's a list of harder to remember addresses: https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062 https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062
- newscracker 9y ago
  I used to use OpenDNS several years ago (before it was bought by Cisco), but also faced some issues not directly related to the DNS service and stability. OpenDNS allowed people to create accounts and specific blacklists/whitelists. That, when combined with the OpenDNS app (same user account) that would run on the users' computers, would tell OpenDNS which sites to block for which source IP address (the user's) even for those with dynamic IP addresses from their ISP. Being on a connection with a dynamic IP address, once in a while I'd get the IP address of someone else who had the OpenDNS filtering setup and hadn't run the OpenDNS app or it somehow failed to report back (or the time between the periodic pings from the app with the IP address update). When I used OpenDNS servers during those times, I would get blocked out of sites and get weird custom messages that those users had setup. The only solution was to create an account myself on OpenDNS, run the OpenDNS app on all my systems, and trigger an IP address update back to OpenDNS from the app if at all something didn't work. I'm guessing the same filtering support still exists, called Home Internet Security. [1] One tool I have used in the past to benchmark DNS servers and choose is namebench. [2] It seems like the last releases were in 2010, but it worked for me even a few years ago (haven't checked after that). [1]: https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/ https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/ [2]: https://code.google.com/archive/p/namebench/ https://code.google.com/archive/p/namebench/
- bmn__ 9y ago
  OpenDNS is neither Open nor DNS. I invite you to participate in OpenNIC, the democratic DNS root. <https://opennic.org> https://opennic.org> <http://enwp.org/Alternative_DNS_root#OpenNIC> http://enwp.org/Alternative_DNS_root#OpenNIC>
throwaway613834 9y ago
What is the benefit of not using their DNS?
- stefantalpalaru 9y ago
  > What is the benefit of not using their DNS? You stop informing them about the domains you visit.
- alexknvl 9y ago
  Presumably to not supply them your domain usage stats.
- biafra 9y ago
  Not giving them this information. Every question to Google is an answer for Google.
bhnmmhmd 9y ago
But remember that in countries where certain sites are censored, AMP provides an easy way to access the restricted blogs/websites. Maybe the most important of these websites is reddit.
fweespeech 9y ago
I'll admit I still use them but only on my own domain as a non-free account. Its just not safe w/o any kind of support channel.
balladeer 9y ago
This is why I have been religiously adding my first-name@outlook.com and mail@my-personal-domain as recovery emails or primary email wherever possible on the Internet. Effort is to try and keep email on my own domain as primary and hopefully move off Google ecosystem completely. I recently moved to iPhone. Now I am not an iFan or so (and I am an Android developer at my day job) but what I like about it that there are couple of service centres in my city and I can actually go and talk to a person directly employed by Apple. Their reps are a phone call away and in fact I can just get a call from them in a few click, or send an email and a human being will respond to me. I don't like robo bans. I think nobody does. I had really bad experience when Uber banned my account based on some false alarm and it took almost a week to get it revived. Just imagine a robo ban where there's possibly no remedy or in most cases no hopes to contact with an actual human being. There are also very good paid hosts like https://mailbox.org/en https://mailbox.org/en (I moved to them as my third non-throwaway email address after I realised sdf.org can't be anything more than a site for hobby, chitchat, and nostalgia). I hardly use Hangout now so there's little incentive in sticking with Gmail anyway. Office moved almost entirely to Slack (but it's still GApps mail and GDocs sadly) and friends and family to WhatsApp and Fb Messenger long ago. But this is risky too - Fb owns both. My effort to move them to something like https://signal.org https://signal.org has failed spectacularly (any tips on this? Or alternate services?). Some of them are on Telegram though, and some still on Viber.

metalliqaz 9y ago

Sorry for being that guy, but what is AMP in this context?

jwong_ 9y ago
> The Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP) is an online publishing format, created by Google
jszymborski 9y ago
https://www.ampproject.org/ https://www.ampproject.org/ (first hit on DDG.gg for '"amp" google')
robteix 9y ago
I'm not the parent but I'm sure they mean Accelerated Mobile Pages[0] [0] https://www.ampproject.org/ https://www.ampproject.org/
FuriouslyAdrift 9y ago
Accelerated Mobile Pages It's a weird accelerator thing for mobile. I've never quite figured out its use case except to hoover up more metrics for Google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages
- amrrs 9y ago
  The use case is simple: Transcend through adblockers and show ads in mobiles. Mobile users primarily use adblockers because websites suck their data and also speed. AMP ensures faster content delivery and lite data and also comes with ads.
  - nailer 9y ago
    Doesn't explain why they don't allow you to host AMP pages on your own domain and still be in the search carousel.
joatmon-snoo 9y ago
AMP, as pushed by Google, is essentially Google re-hosting a pared-down, mobile-friendly version of your site. Alex Kras has two blog posts that got a lot of traction early on that highlighted some issues with this trend [1] [2]. [1] https://www.alexkras.com/google-may-be-stealing-your-mobile-traffic/ https://www.alexkras.com/google-may-be-stealing-your-mobile-... [2] https://www.alexkras.com/please-make-google-amp-optional/ https://www.alexkras.com/please-make-google-amp-optional/
- metalliqaz 9y ago
  Thanks much, I was wondering how AMP made him suspicious of google.
  - nailer 9y ago
    Essentially Google only allow Google-hosted AMP content in their search carousel. You could create an AMP (or otherwise fast) page on your own CDN and Google won't show it unless it's on their domain.

chrshawkes 9y ago

I loathe AMP. Biggest piece of crap coming out of Google in a long time.

gaius 9y ago
Well, it wasn't designed with your interests in mind. You are the product, remember.
- mcgarnagle 9y ago
  Well, which is why he loathes it

avip 9y ago

> I've even switched myself off their DNS So this is how tech-nerds revenge their nemesis.

theWatcher37 9y ago
Damn straight. Their DNS is yet another ingress point for their spyware empire. The only ethical thing to do is technically (and morally) divest from google infrastructure.

ancarda 9y ago

Any suggestions for alternatives to 8.8.8.8? Is OpenDNS any good?

peterwwillis 9y ago
4.2.2.[1-6] is easy to remember, but IIRC they don't want people to use them anymore. Here's a list of harder to remember addresses: https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062 https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062
newscracker 9y ago
I used to use OpenDNS several years ago (before it was bought by Cisco), but also faced some issues not directly related to the DNS service and stability. OpenDNS allowed people to create accounts and specific blacklists/whitelists. That, when combined with the OpenDNS app (same user account) that would run on the users' computers, would tell OpenDNS which sites to block for which source IP address (the user's) even for those with dynamic IP addresses from their ISP. Being on a connection with a dynamic IP address, once in a while I'd get the IP address of someone else who had the OpenDNS filtering setup and hadn't run the OpenDNS app or it somehow failed to report back (or the time between the periodic pings from the app with the IP address update). When I used OpenDNS servers during those times, I would get blocked out of sites and get weird custom messages that those users had setup. The only solution was to create an account myself on OpenDNS, run the OpenDNS app on all my systems, and trigger an IP address update back to OpenDNS from the app if at all something didn't work. I'm guessing the same filtering support still exists, called Home Internet Security. [1] One tool I have used in the past to benchmark DNS servers and choose is namebench. [2] It seems like the last releases were in 2010, but it worked for me even a few years ago (haven't checked after that). [1]: https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/ https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/ [2]: https://code.google.com/archive/p/namebench/ https://code.google.com/archive/p/namebench/
bmn__ 9y ago
OpenDNS is neither Open nor DNS. I invite you to participate in OpenNIC, the democratic DNS root. <https://opennic.org> https://opennic.org> <http://enwp.org/Alternative_DNS_root#OpenNIC> http://enwp.org/Alternative_DNS_root#OpenNIC>

throwaway613834 9y ago

What is the benefit of not using their DNS?

stefantalpalaru 9y ago
> What is the benefit of not using their DNS? You stop informing them about the domains you visit.
alexknvl 9y ago
Presumably to not supply them your domain usage stats.
biafra 9y ago
Not giving them this information. Every question to Google is an answer for Google.

bhnmmhmd 9y ago

But remember that in countries where certain sites are censored, AMP provides an easy way to access the restricted blogs/websites. Maybe the most important of these websites is reddit.

fweespeech 9y ago

I'll admit I still use them but only on my own domain as a non-free account. Its just not safe w/o any kind of support channel.

balladeer 9y ago

This is why I have been religiously adding my first-name@outlook.com and mail@my-personal-domain as recovery emails or primary email wherever possible on the Internet. Effort is to try and keep email on my own domain as primary and hopefully move off Google ecosystem completely. I recently moved to iPhone. Now I am not an iFan or so (and I am an Android developer at my day job) but what I like about it that there are couple of service centres in my city and I can actually go and talk to a person directly employed by Apple. Their reps are a phone call away and in fact I can just get a call from them in a few click, or send an email and a human being will respond to me. I don't like robo bans. I think nobody does. I had really bad experience when Uber banned my account based on some false alarm and it took almost a week to get it revived. Just imagine a robo ban where there's possibly no remedy or in most cases no hopes to contact with an actual human being. There are also very good paid hosts like https://mailbox.org/en https://mailbox.org/en (I moved to them as my third non-throwaway email address after I realised sdf.org can't be anything more than a site for hobby, chitchat, and nostalgia). I hardly use Hangout now so there's little incentive in sticking with Gmail anyway. Office moved almost entirely to Slack (but it's still GApps mail and GDocs sadly) and friends and family to WhatsApp and Fb Messenger long ago. But this is risky too - Fb owns both. My effort to move them to something like https://signal.org https://signal.org has failed spectacularly (any tips on this? Or alternate services?). Some of them are on Telegram though, and some still on Viber.