4 ms·

Bullshit. Google doesn't have a social graph of 2.2 billion people, with all their posts and likes. And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo ar

Bullshit. Google doesn't have a social graph of 2.2 billion people, with all their posts and likes. And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo are a click away. If you don't trust Facebook, there are no real alternatives. Yes, there are issues with Google. But they're not in the same universe as Facebook. To suggest otherwise is false equivalence.

brandon272 9y ago
Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure that Google has way more personal and in-depth information on me. Maybe I like a few political posts and share some recipes on Facebook. But people search their deepest, darkest questions on Google while logged in to their Google account. Every email I have sent and received is on Google. Google tracks my location 24 hours a day. Google stores my work documents. Google knows every video I've watched on YouTube. Google has every photo that my phone takes.
- davidwihl 9y ago
  But they do a better job of keeping that information private, whereas Facebook provided the actual data to their partners and advertisers.
  - ksk 9y ago
    Not for long ! https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insights-engine-project-225452 https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insigh... >Among the announcements was the launch of a new effort to share user data with publishers and introduce more machine learning into Google’s publisher products. https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/building-for-beyond-with-insights.html https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/buildi...
    - davidwihl 9y ago
      It specifically says "aggregated and anonymized" data, not personal data. Even then, I imagine with the Facebook backlash, this will be heavily scrutinized.
      - ksk 9y ago
        Did FB really give out personal data? In any case, do we even have an understanding of what is meant by anonymized data (when applied to specific datasets) anyway? I sometimes wonder if any of these firms could call it anonymized by changing the name on the profile to somebody's initials.
        davidwihl 9y ago
        Yep, they really gave out the data. One example is "instant personalization" where Facebook partners would get full copies of Facebook user data including images, likes, friends, etc. It was turned on by default without user notification. https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_personalization.html https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_perso... http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalization-how-to-disable-it-and-why/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalizatio...
        ksk 9y ago
        Ah, I was thinking about the Cambrige analytica story, and specifically handing over data which we have no control over. But you're right to point out they used to have 'share by default' on some data.
- collyw 9y ago
  I have considered moving to another email provider, but the fact is that maybe half of my emails will be sent to Google addresses. So they will still get my information. I have an Outlook account at work and the search is crap in comparison to Googles - which is another reason tying me to Google for the time being.
  - news_to_me 9y ago
    Check out Fastmail. A year ago I switched from Gmail, and slowly people started using my new email (I had gmail forward all other mail to the new mailbox). Now I hardly get any through Gmail. The search is pretty good and the UI is nice. Maybe you'll prefer Gmail, but it's worth a try at least.
- panarky 9y ago
  The point is that you have choices with Google that you don't have with Facebook. You don't have to use Gmail. You don't have to store work documents in Drive. You don't have to log in to watch YouTube. You don't have to use Google Photos. But for social networking, what choice do people have when no other service has even 5% of Facebook's social graph?
  - brandon272 9y ago
    As much as someone can ditch Gmail for a POP3 account at some other email provider, someone can just as easily not use Facebook and communicate with people through email, SMS, iMessage, etc. I do have to store my email and work documents on Google as it's the platform my employer uses.
some_random 9y ago
Google is way worse, you have other options in social media and many, many people are moving to other platforms. Google on the other hand is everywhere, both on your side and on the servers you visit. They probably track less proportionally, but you give them far more data than facebook, no doubt.
- icc97 9y ago
  For me it's the opposite. There are decent replacements for all of Google's services. I can do this on my own and it's my choice. With Facebook there simply isn't a replacement that has all my family and friends. There's no way I'll convince them to use something else.
reaperducer 9y ago
> And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo are a click away I really really really really want to like DuckDuckGo, but it simply doesn't work compared with Big G. I switched my default search engine to DDG once again last week, and after a frustrating week of rarely finding what i want, had to switch back go Google. Last night was the final straw. I was trying to find out the delivery area for a particular newspaper. All DDG gave me was irrelevant ads, links to the newspaper's home page, outdated links to newspaper pages that are 404 now, and links to Wikipedia and other articles about the city. Same search query on Google gave me as the first result a link to a page at the newspaper where I could put in a ZIP code to see if delivery was available. I'll try DDG again in six months to see if its improved, as I have three or four times now. Fingers crossed.
- collyw 9y ago
  I agree, it would almost be nice if you could allow Duck Duck Go to track some of your searches. Google knows I am after the web framework when I type Django. Duck Duck Go doesn't.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - abraae 9y ago
    To be fair, time spent watching Django unchained again is time well spent.
    - collyw 9y ago
      I haven't watched it, but usually those searches are done at work.
- 0x6c6f6c 9y ago
  I find DDG gets me what I need the majority of the time. Where it fails, I just throw in a !g or another bang to go where I need to get more results.
- 9y ago
collyw 9y ago
I don't with autocomplete I sometimes start typing, decide I don't want it recorded and open Duck Duck Go. Google has my thoughts as I type.
danShumway 9y ago
> And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo are a click away. Quick reminder that if you're using Chrome, Bing and DuckDuckGo do not protect your search history. If you're using Chrome and have web history turned on (you probably do), Google parses your browser history to get your search queries from sites like Amazon, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. It's not as simple as just choosing to move to a different product. Google makes every effort to cross-contaminate their products with each other, precisely so they don't lose any of that information. It's very difficult to give up just part of Google's ecosystem.

brandon272 9y ago

Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure that Google has way more personal and in-depth information on me. Maybe I like a few political posts and share some recipes on Facebook. But people search their deepest, darkest questions on Google while logged in to their Google account. Every email I have sent and received is on Google. Google tracks my location 24 hours a day. Google stores my work documents. Google knows every video I've watched on YouTube. Google has every photo that my phone takes.

davidwihl 9y ago
But they do a better job of keeping that information private, whereas Facebook provided the actual data to their partners and advertisers.
- ksk 9y ago
  Not for long ! https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insights-engine-project-225452 https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insigh... >Among the announcements was the launch of a new effort to share user data with publishers and introduce more machine learning into Google’s publisher products. https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/building-for-beyond-with-insights.html https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/buildi...
  - davidwihl 9y ago
    It specifically says "aggregated and anonymized" data, not personal data. Even then, I imagine with the Facebook backlash, this will be heavily scrutinized.
    - ksk 9y ago
      Did FB really give out personal data? In any case, do we even have an understanding of what is meant by anonymized data (when applied to specific datasets) anyway? I sometimes wonder if any of these firms could call it anonymized by changing the name on the profile to somebody's initials.
      - davidwihl 9y ago
        Yep, they really gave out the data. One example is "instant personalization" where Facebook partners would get full copies of Facebook user data including images, likes, friends, etc. It was turned on by default without user notification. https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_personalization.html https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_perso... http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalization-how-to-disable-it-and-why/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalizatio...
        ksk 9y ago
        Ah, I was thinking about the Cambrige analytica story, and specifically handing over data which we have no control over. But you're right to point out they used to have 'share by default' on some data.
collyw 9y ago
I have considered moving to another email provider, but the fact is that maybe half of my emails will be sent to Google addresses. So they will still get my information. I have an Outlook account at work and the search is crap in comparison to Googles - which is another reason tying me to Google for the time being.
- news_to_me 9y ago
  Check out Fastmail. A year ago I switched from Gmail, and slowly people started using my new email (I had gmail forward all other mail to the new mailbox). Now I hardly get any through Gmail. The search is pretty good and the UI is nice. Maybe you'll prefer Gmail, but it's worth a try at least.
panarky 9y ago
The point is that you have choices with Google that you don't have with Facebook. You don't have to use Gmail. You don't have to store work documents in Drive. You don't have to log in to watch YouTube. You don't have to use Google Photos. But for social networking, what choice do people have when no other service has even 5% of Facebook's social graph?
- brandon272 9y ago
  As much as someone can ditch Gmail for a POP3 account at some other email provider, someone can just as easily not use Facebook and communicate with people through email, SMS, iMessage, etc. I do have to store my email and work documents on Google as it's the platform my employer uses.

some_random 9y ago

Google is way worse, you have other options in social media and many, many people are moving to other platforms. Google on the other hand is everywhere, both on your side and on the servers you visit. They probably track less proportionally, but you give them far more data than facebook, no doubt.

icc97 9y ago
For me it's the opposite. There are decent replacements for all of Google's services. I can do this on my own and it's my choice. With Facebook there simply isn't a replacement that has all my family and friends. There's no way I'll convince them to use something else.

reaperducer 9y ago

> And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo are a click away I really really really really want to like DuckDuckGo, but it simply doesn't work compared with Big G. I switched my default search engine to DDG once again last week, and after a frustrating week of rarely finding what i want, had to switch back go Google. Last night was the final straw. I was trying to find out the delivery area for a particular newspaper. All DDG gave me was irrelevant ads, links to the newspaper's home page, outdated links to newspaper pages that are 404 now, and links to Wikipedia and other articles about the city. Same search query on Google gave me as the first result a link to a page at the newspaper where I could put in a ZIP code to see if delivery was available. I'll try DDG again in six months to see if its improved, as I have three or four times now. Fingers crossed.

collyw 9y ago
I agree, it would almost be nice if you could allow Duck Duck Go to track some of your searches. Google knows I am after the web framework when I type Django. Duck Duck Go doesn't.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- abraae 9y ago
  To be fair, time spent watching Django unchained again is time well spent.
  - collyw 9y ago
    I haven't watched it, but usually those searches are done at work.
0x6c6f6c 9y ago
I find DDG gets me what I need the majority of the time. Where it fails, I just throw in a !g or another bang to go where I need to get more results.
9y ago

collyw 9y ago

I don't with autocomplete I sometimes start typing, decide I don't want it recorded and open Duck Duck Go. Google has my thoughts as I type.

danShumway 9y ago

> And if you don't trust Google, then Bing and DuckDuckGo are a click away. Quick reminder that if you're using Chrome, Bing and DuckDuckGo do not protect your search history. If you're using Chrome and have web history turned on (you probably do), Google parses your browser history to get your search queries from sites like Amazon, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. It's not as simple as just choosing to move to a different product. Google makes every effort to cross-contaminate their products with each other, precisely so they don't lose any of that information. It's very difficult to give up just part of Google's ecosystem.