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> When it comes to the most central tenet of individualism — free will — the tech companies have a different way. They hope to automate the choices, both large

> When it comes to the most central tenet of individualism — free will — the tech companies have a different way. They hope to automate the choices, both large and small, we make as we float through the day. It’s their algorithms that suggest the news we read, the goods we buy, the paths we travel, the friends we invite into our circles. I recently quit Google News for this. Despite my best efforts at customization using the limited controls that it provided, it insisted on feeding me stories for sources I'd turned off (but were obviously preferred by Google News), and not from sources that I'd prioritized. Sure, it'd put some stuff in from the prioritized sources, but there was an obvious pattern of using Google's preferred cadre of media outlets for certain major stories, even when one of my preferred sources had an article on the same story. I would liken trying to customize Google News to herding cats.

mjevans 9y ago
Same; mostly for it not letting me tell it to ban any news provided that put up paywalls.
SyneRyder 9y ago
Did you find a Google News alternative? I'd love to switch, especially if there's something else with the Preferred / Blocked Sources feature, and hopefully also the blocked topics feature. I considered Feedly Pro when they added Mute Filters, but they only offer 25 filters. I realize I'm creating a filter bubble for myself, but I'm okay with a bubble that doesn't include 'news' from TMZ or who Katie Holmes is dating now.
- dmitrij 9y ago
  I switched to Newstral, https://newstral.com/en https://newstral.com/en. I like the simplistic beauty of the "algorithm": The first three stories on the front page. And you can order and select the sources.
- danjayh 9y ago
  Honestly, I just go to Reuters now. It's better than most major news outlets, and certainly better than Google's aggregator.
zo1 9y ago
Same goes in Youtube. It is next to impossible to actively "block" a specific channel on Youtube. I recently tried to do it after noticing #ElsaGate videos popping up in my son's recommended videos, and I just couldn't find anything. It's done by about a dozen channels, and I figured it'd be trivial to just identify them all because Google conveniently marks them all as "related" on each other's channels. But no luck. The secondary sneaky part is sure they let you "block" a channel, but all that means is that that "Channel" can't comment on your videos. WTF? A gigantic site, with arguably thousands of developers and employees, and a simple function such as "block channel's videos" can't be implemented? Oh, and thanks to HTTPS, you can't even write a proxy to fix the incoming HTTP responses to filter stuff out (unless you install CA certs on all your clients), which is impossible for locked-in devices such as ChromeCasts, Rokus, and all other "Smart" viewing devices. The conspiracy-theorist in me thinks that the whole "HTTPS the whole web" was just a sneaky way of gaining control over how your clients view your content, and not really privacy.
- tauchunfall 9y ago
  >It is next to impossible to actively "block" a specific channel on Youtube. I recently tried to do it after noticing #ElsaGate videos popping up in my son's recommended videos, and I just couldn't find anything. I never heard about #ElsaGate before. There is obviously a pedagogic message in the videos. The main problem seems that leaving the kids unattended watching these videos doesn't work here. Similar to Grimms' Fairy Tales or children stories from Shockheaded Peter. Parents need to read these books to their children in order to give them feedback. I've read some texts by Prof. Dr. Stefan Aufenanger from University of Mainz about this topic. EDIT: Of course, in order to explain things to kids they need to be in a certain age. The videos seem to be targeted to children in pre-school age.

mjevans 9y ago

Same; mostly for it not letting me tell it to ban any news provided that put up paywalls.

SyneRyder 9y ago

Did you find a Google News alternative? I'd love to switch, especially if there's something else with the Preferred / Blocked Sources feature, and hopefully also the blocked topics feature. I considered Feedly Pro when they added Mute Filters, but they only offer 25 filters. I realize I'm creating a filter bubble for myself, but I'm okay with a bubble that doesn't include 'news' from TMZ or who Katie Holmes is dating now.

dmitrij 9y ago
I switched to Newstral, https://newstral.com/en https://newstral.com/en. I like the simplistic beauty of the "algorithm": The first three stories on the front page. And you can order and select the sources.
danjayh 9y ago
Honestly, I just go to Reuters now. It's better than most major news outlets, and certainly better than Google's aggregator.

zo1 9y ago

Same goes in Youtube. It is next to impossible to actively "block" a specific channel on Youtube. I recently tried to do it after noticing #ElsaGate videos popping up in my son's recommended videos, and I just couldn't find anything. It's done by about a dozen channels, and I figured it'd be trivial to just identify them all because Google conveniently marks them all as "related" on each other's channels. But no luck. The secondary sneaky part is sure they let you "block" a channel, but all that means is that that "Channel" can't comment on your videos. WTF? A gigantic site, with arguably thousands of developers and employees, and a simple function such as "block channel's videos" can't be implemented? Oh, and thanks to HTTPS, you can't even write a proxy to fix the incoming HTTP responses to filter stuff out (unless you install CA certs on all your clients), which is impossible for locked-in devices such as ChromeCasts, Rokus, and all other "Smart" viewing devices. The conspiracy-theorist in me thinks that the whole "HTTPS the whole web" was just a sneaky way of gaining control over how your clients view your content, and not really privacy.

tauchunfall 9y ago
>It is next to impossible to actively "block" a specific channel on Youtube. I recently tried to do it after noticing #ElsaGate videos popping up in my son's recommended videos, and I just couldn't find anything. I never heard about #ElsaGate before. There is obviously a pedagogic message in the videos. The main problem seems that leaving the kids unattended watching these videos doesn't work here. Similar to Grimms' Fairy Tales or children stories from Shockheaded Peter. Parents need to read these books to their children in order to give them feedback. I've read some texts by Prof. Dr. Stefan Aufenanger from University of Mainz about this topic. EDIT: Of course, in order to explain things to kids they need to be in a certain age. The videos seem to be targeted to children in pre-school age.