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The most concrete complaints in this piece appear to be: - Google News includes stories from a source that the author doesn't want anyone else to be able to se

by jsnell 4y ago

The most concrete complaints in this piece appear to be: - Google News includes stories from a source that the author doesn't want anyone else to be able to see. (If they just didn't want to see those stories themselves, then there's an easily accessible "hide sources from XXX" entry in the context menu). - Generic complaints about shopping searches returning links to Amazon, or pages having referral links to Amazon. Might be true, but the case would be a lot stronger with some example queries that show this failure, with suggestions on the good content that is not being surfaced. Without the latter, how can we know that the results weren't actually the best that existed. - An insinuation that Gmail and Drive are "treating the user as the product". (Seems basically untrue; Gmail has incredibly few ads, Drive I think none, and data from neither is used for ad targeting.) - The author couldn't get individual customer support for "being the target of a really weird scheme". No details on the scheme. The person they didn't know whose contact details they got from somewhere wasn't enthusiastic about helping them either.

xkbarkar 4y ago
Yea I thought the same. Sounded more like fragile “milennial” complaint than an actual good article with solid facts. You could find 100 solid ways to distrust google. Didnt think the author hit a single credible point.
- dixego 4y ago
  If you don't think "Breitbart is not a credible news source" is not a valid point then oof, yikes, etc.
  - timapplesauce 4y ago
    I'm curious, what is a "credible" news source these days? I don't think any of the major news networks have much credibility any more, it's just that some may seem better than others simply because they align more with your particular personal opinions and biases.
    - bjelkeman-again 4y ago
      I think that is not true in the EU at least. There are many credible news sources in the Northern European countries, that I follow, and they have different political leanings.
      - timapplesauce 4y ago
        Unfortunately, in the United States all of our major news outlets are extremely biased and have been caught red-handed manipulating or outright lying about the news. The only approach I've found is to consume a few news sources through the lens of their known biases in an attempt to get something resembling the whole picture.
    - throwaway14356 4y ago
      the credibility does improve the further the news outlet hq is away from the location of the topic.
  - Pv9KKy3 4y ago
    [flagged]
  - kernal 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - dixego 4y ago
      Who mentioned left wing news sources?
    - zokula 4y ago
softwarebeware 4y ago
The Epoch Times isn’t just a “source” that some people don’t want to see. And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads. This comment isn’t a reasonable critique of the article it’s denialism at best
- sofixa 4y ago
  > And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads Where? There are, sometimes, 1-2 ads in the "Promotions" tab, which i really wouldn't call "a shit ton". Breitbart and Epoch Times shouldn't come up anywhere close to anything with "News" in the name.
  - marginalia_nu 4y ago
    Dunno about you, but easily half the emails I get are advertisements.
    - nielsinho 4y ago
      Are you sure it's Gmail sending you those advertisements?
      - marginalia_nu 4y ago
        My off-gmail account flags it as spam.
- kernal 4y ago
  >And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads I've yet to ever see an add in any of my Gmail accounts.
Pv9KKy3 4y ago
The shopping links to SEO spammers and shopping comparison sites is in part because the govt has said google CAN NOT discriminate against these sites.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
> Seems basically untrue; Gmail has incredibly few ads, Drive I think none, and data from neither is used for ad targeting. Huh? Looking in my gmail inbox, I see virtually nothing but ads.
squarefoot 4y ago
> Google News includes stories from a source that the author doesn't want anyone else to be able to see. I'm not the OP, however, being the service called News, one would expect it to contain actual news and not 100% biased opinion.

by jsnell 4y ago

xkbarkar 4y ago

Yea I thought the same. Sounded more like fragile “milennial” complaint than an actual good article with solid facts. You could find 100 solid ways to distrust google. Didnt think the author hit a single credible point.

dixego 4y ago
If you don't think "Breitbart is not a credible news source" is not a valid point then oof, yikes, etc.
- timapplesauce 4y ago
  I'm curious, what is a "credible" news source these days? I don't think any of the major news networks have much credibility any more, it's just that some may seem better than others simply because they align more with your particular personal opinions and biases.
  - bjelkeman-again 4y ago
    I think that is not true in the EU at least. There are many credible news sources in the Northern European countries, that I follow, and they have different political leanings.
    - timapplesauce 4y ago
      Unfortunately, in the United States all of our major news outlets are extremely biased and have been caught red-handed manipulating or outright lying about the news. The only approach I've found is to consume a few news sources through the lens of their known biases in an attempt to get something resembling the whole picture.
  - throwaway14356 4y ago
    the credibility does improve the further the news outlet hq is away from the location of the topic.
- Pv9KKy3 4y ago
  [flagged]
- kernal 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - dixego 4y ago
    Who mentioned left wing news sources?
  - zokula 4y ago

softwarebeware 4y ago

The Epoch Times isn’t just a “source” that some people don’t want to see. And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads. This comment isn’t a reasonable critique of the article it’s denialism at best

sofixa 4y ago
> And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads Where? There are, sometimes, 1-2 ads in the "Promotions" tab, which i really wouldn't call "a shit ton". Breitbart and Epoch Times shouldn't come up anywhere close to anything with "News" in the name.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  Dunno about you, but easily half the emails I get are advertisements.
  - nielsinho 4y ago
    Are you sure it's Gmail sending you those advertisements?
    - marginalia_nu 4y ago
      My off-gmail account flags it as spam.
kernal 4y ago
>And gmail etc has a shit ton of ads I've yet to ever see an add in any of my Gmail accounts.

Pv9KKy3 4y ago

The shopping links to SEO spammers and shopping comparison sites is in part because the govt has said google CAN NOT discriminate against these sites.

marginalia_nu 4y ago

> Seems basically untrue; Gmail has incredibly few ads, Drive I think none, and data from neither is used for ad targeting. Huh? Looking in my gmail inbox, I see virtually nothing but ads.

squarefoot 4y ago

> Google News includes stories from a source that the author doesn't want anyone else to be able to see. I'm not the OP, however, being the service called News, one would expect it to contain actual news and not 100% biased opinion.