4 ms·

I think it's that, now, everything is to feed the ad business while back in the day, it wasn't. back then, they had lots of cool products, and they also served

I think it's that, now, everything is to feed the ad business while back in the day, it wasn't. back then, they had lots of cool products, and they also served ads. now they have ads and lots of products the siphon data from users to feed the ads business. I say this as someone worked there for a decade and saw lots of "NSA - not search or ads" t-shirts.

anaanymouse 7y ago
Even less data is being used for ads than when you worked there - Gmail is no longer used, Photos doesn't use them, Android doesn't except insomuch as the Google search bar exists on the home screen, Maps barely has ads...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mehrdada 7y ago
  > Gmail is no longer used Any evidence of that? Enterprise GSuite is not supposedly used, but consumer Gmail not feeding into ads would be surprising to me. Android feeds location and contacts data.
  - subb 7y ago
    Not much evidence, but they stopped reading emails to target ads a while ago. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/google-will-stop-reading-your-emails-for-gmail-ads https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/google-wi... https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en
    - mehrdada 7y ago
      Thanks. That's insightful.
- V-eHGsd_ 7y ago
  > Maps barely has ads... maybe you're using a different version of maps than I am, but I just downloaded it and the first page is chock full of ads, it begs me to turn on search history so it can show me "more relevant results". it's also full of dark-patterns like if I click "commute" in the settings, there's no back "<" like there is in most views, but there's a nice blue "turn on" and a grayed out "no thanks". hell, when you finally disable the account linkage (another dark pattern hiding that option), the main window is still 25% (+) ads. https://imgur.com/a/IMg3PQf https://imgur.com/a/IMg3PQf
  - topicseed 7y ago
    Not sure what the screenshot is meant to show but... There is not a single ad on it.

anaanymouse 7y ago

Even less data is being used for ads than when you worked there - Gmail is no longer used, Photos doesn't use them, Android doesn't except insomuch as the Google search bar exists on the home screen, Maps barely has ads...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mehrdada 7y ago
> Gmail is no longer used Any evidence of that? Enterprise GSuite is not supposedly used, but consumer Gmail not feeding into ads would be surprising to me. Android feeds location and contacts data.
- subb 7y ago
  Not much evidence, but they stopped reading emails to target ads a while ago. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/google-will-stop-reading-your-emails-for-gmail-ads https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/google-wi... https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en
  - mehrdada 7y ago
    Thanks. That's insightful.
V-eHGsd_ 7y ago
> Maps barely has ads... maybe you're using a different version of maps than I am, but I just downloaded it and the first page is chock full of ads, it begs me to turn on search history so it can show me "more relevant results". it's also full of dark-patterns like if I click "commute" in the settings, there's no back "<" like there is in most views, but there's a nice blue "turn on" and a grayed out "no thanks". hell, when you finally disable the account linkage (another dark pattern hiding that option), the main window is still 25% (+) ads. https://imgur.com/a/IMg3PQf https://imgur.com/a/IMg3PQf
- topicseed 7y ago
  Not sure what the screenshot is meant to show but... There is not a single ad on it.