4 ms·

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You ar

Like many of you, I serve as IT support for family. Some of those family are beginning to slip cognitively, so I'd like to say: Fk google for doing this. You are confusing my relatives who cannot tell the difference between your ad-spam and actual links, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you are now taking advantage of old people. I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) and move them over to chatgpt when possible. If anyone has better ideas, I'm all ears.

cmrdporcupine 1y ago
Buy them a Kagi membership and switch them to that.
- daveidol 1y ago
  A lot of people want to complain but don't want to pay (not saying that is OP, just generally)
  - cmrdporcupine 1y ago
    to be fair, I had a Kagi subscription for a year, but I recently cancelled it (mainly because I'm not working now and need to cut monthly expenses). I'll probably rejoin eventually, but I can understand why people cut these things out or won't do it. Recurring monthly expenses can be hard.
MarcelOlsz 1y ago
My parents hate technology but they love their little KDE thinkpad.
TheDong 1y ago
> move them over to ChatGPT OpenAI has even more VC money to pay back than Google ever did. Practically all the large tech companies so far have turned to ads and monetizing users rather than charging enough to remain more neutral. I suspect one day, when you ask ChatGPT "Can you give me a link to mid journey", you'll instead probabilistically get a link to whichever competitor paid OpenAI for the best placement.
- itopaloglu83 1y ago
  Or give you results that are completely unrelated and even try to convince you that what you’re trying to search doesn’t exist. Studied with a guy from old Soviet Union, they were educated in a way that every modern invention had a Soviet inventor. ChatGPT can create an individualized reality and truth for everyone depending on which advertiser’s target demographic they fit in.
  - LtWorf 1y ago
    Like how americans are convinced they invented the telephone because the patent office said so?
    - typpilol 1y ago
      Ok I'm curious. Who's the real inventor
      - eru 1y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone might be a good starting point.
      - ghshephard 1y ago
        Antonio Meucci invented the Teletrofono around 1849 and filed a patent for it in 1871. I know this mostly because it was a big deal in a Soprano's episode.
      - alanh 1y ago
        See my reply to parent. Reply to sibling: Whoa, I've seen the Sopranos 3 times and never caught that reference.
    - alanh 1y ago
      Curious, I asked Grok: > Is there controversy over the true inventor of the telephone?Yes, there is controversy over the true inventor of the telephone. While Alexander Graham Bell is widely credited, several inventors and researchers argue for recognition based on their contributions: > Antonio Meucci: An Italian inventor who filed a patent caveat for a "voice communication apparatus" in 1871, five years before Bell's patent. Meucci's device, the "teletrofono," could transmit voice over a wire. Due to financial hardship, Meucci couldn't renew his caveat, and Bell was granted the patent in 1876. In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution (H.Res. 269) recognizing Meucci's contributions, stating he demonstrated a working device earlier, though it didn't officially credit him as the inventor. Some still argue Meucci deserves primary credit. > Elisha Gray: An American engineer who filed a patent caveat for a telephone-like device on the same day as Bell, February 14, 1876. Bell's patent was filed hours earlier, leading to disputes. Some claim Bell may have had access to Gray’s ideas through patent office connections, though no definitive evidence supports this. Gray later challenged Bell’s patent but lost in court. > Philipp Reis: A German inventor who developed a device called the "Reis telephone" in 1861, capable of transmitting music and some speech. While it was less practical for clear voice communication, some argue it was a precursor to the telephone.
cyanydeez 1y ago
So inatead of being scammed, theyll be emotionally manipulTed. Bizzaro solution. Sign them up to kagi.
captainkrtek 1y ago
Kagi is quite good, its clean, simple, and not much money.
jgalt212 1y ago
> I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) I guess they are all on Firefox.
james_pm 1y ago
Kagi search.
bdangubic 1y ago
kagi ftw
ransom1538 1y ago
Who uses google in 2025. That is bizarre.
Baeocystin 1y ago
Not Google related, but cognition and older relative relevant: The amount of predatory scamware targeted towards older adults on the app stores is infuriating. I have a family friend who is now in the early-mid stages of Alzheimer's, but is still able to live at home and enjoy her life. She gets confused and stressed out by the fake 'alert! all your photos will be deleted!!' ads that pop up when she does her adult coloring books or jigsaw puzzles on her ipad. Apple's recommended apps in this category are evil in this regard, every single one. I've had to disable $80/week 'security' subscriptions from her account more than once. It is shameful that this is allowed.
toomuchtodo 1y ago
Kagi, as others have mentioned. Google search is dead.
- tourist2d 1y ago
  [dead]
sswam 1y ago
[dead]
nytesky 1y ago
Creat your own family yahoo — a website you maintain that has links to the websites they commonly use like mail and bank. Set as home page and new tab page. It’s a slight security risk since it shows where you have accounts. If you are savvy, build your own search that just passes it to an LLM and returns as page.
- cpeterso 1y ago
  Maybe that’s business opportunity for some to create and manage trusted personal portals for family members.
condiment 1y ago
I pay for Kagi for search, my family uses Kagi. I pay for NextDNS to block ads, all of my family's devices use NextDNS. I pay for credits on OpenRouter and host an OpenWebUI instance, all of my family's AI is private. I pay for the news - The Economist, the WSJ, FT, NewScientist, etc. Lies are free, the truth is behind a paywall. The only thing money can't buy, yet, is a phone network free of robocalls.
- gxs 1y ago
  Dude not to mention their ai assistant is top notch Happy customer here as well
- bombcar 1y ago
  I gotchu fam: https://tincan.kids/ https://tincan.kids/ It’s a phone, it’s a network, it has no robocalls! I know, I know.
inamberclad 1y ago
Network wide ad blockers like PiHole are also quite useful but they can cause some confusion from the client side because things just break for no apparent reason.
kajaktum 1y ago
In hindsight, we should have known this would happen eventually. At this point, we have to be actively be against free services. Every time its just a ticking time bomb. There's literally no incentive for them to be an actual good service, just good enough that you tolerate it and not consider other options, but shit enough that they can extract value out of you.
- gxs 1y ago
  Yeah agree 100% - this is why I’m a happy kagi customer It’s kind of cool being treated like a customer New feature releases aren’t about ad placement or SEO or personalization / tracking Instead, their product updates are targeted at me - cool nifty features that I can immediately try out Like kagi or not, just the feeling of having devs care about my actual personal experience is a breath of fresh air I know not everyone is an fortunate, but I’d happily spend on other software of this caliber
  - ibfreeekout 1y ago
    I recently signed up for an annual subscription to Kagi on their Starter plan and I couldn't agree more. Search quality with them has been great so far, and I realize their small web search and exploration features too. I've been slowly working to find other paid services as alternatives to the free ones that I'm currently using (next big one was shifting away from Gmail and onto a personal domain for mail using Fastmail). Migrated away from Notion and using Obsidian with Syncthing running on my unRAID server at home. Generally just trying to find alternatives that aren't in the data mining and user lock in sphere and more about maintaining a positive user experience without taking advantage of their users and their data.
    - gxs 1y ago
      That’s awesome Be sure to try the assistant if you haven’t and browse the settings page for all the things you can do, again if you haven’t It’s my default on my phone through their extension it works well I’ve contacted their support in the past and they always give me real answers to questions about he product or suggestions Gl!
Suppafly 1y ago
>and move them over to chatgpt when possible That's a huge mistake.
BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
I just use duckduckgo and turn off the ads in search settings
ragall 1y ago
Kagi is a better alternative.
shreezus 1y ago
This is a real risk. I know of someone who got phished with a fake number for Apple Support (the fake number was promoted and appeared at the top of the search results). Apparently they do this with banking phone numbers as well.

cmrdporcupine 1y ago

Buy them a Kagi membership and switch them to that.

daveidol 1y ago
A lot of people want to complain but don't want to pay (not saying that is OP, just generally)
- cmrdporcupine 1y ago
  to be fair, I had a Kagi subscription for a year, but I recently cancelled it (mainly because I'm not working now and need to cut monthly expenses). I'll probably rejoin eventually, but I can understand why people cut these things out or won't do it. Recurring monthly expenses can be hard.

MarcelOlsz 1y ago

My parents hate technology but they love their little KDE thinkpad.

TheDong 1y ago

> move them over to ChatGPT OpenAI has even more VC money to pay back than Google ever did. Practically all the large tech companies so far have turned to ads and monetizing users rather than charging enough to remain more neutral. I suspect one day, when you ask ChatGPT "Can you give me a link to mid journey", you'll instead probabilistically get a link to whichever competitor paid OpenAI for the best placement.

itopaloglu83 1y ago
Or give you results that are completely unrelated and even try to convince you that what you’re trying to search doesn’t exist. Studied with a guy from old Soviet Union, they were educated in a way that every modern invention had a Soviet inventor. ChatGPT can create an individualized reality and truth for everyone depending on which advertiser’s target demographic they fit in.
- LtWorf 1y ago
  Like how americans are convinced they invented the telephone because the patent office said so?
  - typpilol 1y ago
    Ok I'm curious. Who's the real inventor
    - eru 1y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone might be a good starting point.
    - ghshephard 1y ago
      Antonio Meucci invented the Teletrofono around 1849 and filed a patent for it in 1871. I know this mostly because it was a big deal in a Soprano's episode.
    - alanh 1y ago
      See my reply to parent. Reply to sibling: Whoa, I've seen the Sopranos 3 times and never caught that reference.
  - alanh 1y ago
    Curious, I asked Grok: > Is there controversy over the true inventor of the telephone?Yes, there is controversy over the true inventor of the telephone. While Alexander Graham Bell is widely credited, several inventors and researchers argue for recognition based on their contributions: > Antonio Meucci: An Italian inventor who filed a patent caveat for a "voice communication apparatus" in 1871, five years before Bell's patent. Meucci's device, the "teletrofono," could transmit voice over a wire. Due to financial hardship, Meucci couldn't renew his caveat, and Bell was granted the patent in 1876. In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution (H.Res. 269) recognizing Meucci's contributions, stating he demonstrated a working device earlier, though it didn't officially credit him as the inventor. Some still argue Meucci deserves primary credit. > Elisha Gray: An American engineer who filed a patent caveat for a telephone-like device on the same day as Bell, February 14, 1876. Bell's patent was filed hours earlier, leading to disputes. Some claim Bell may have had access to Gray’s ideas through patent office connections, though no definitive evidence supports this. Gray later challenged Bell’s patent but lost in court. > Philipp Reis: A German inventor who developed a device called the "Reis telephone" in 1861, capable of transmitting music and some speech. While it was less practical for clear voice communication, some argue it was a precursor to the telephone.

cyanydeez 1y ago

So inatead of being scammed, theyll be emotionally manipulTed. Bizzaro solution. Sign them up to kagi.

captainkrtek 1y ago

Kagi is quite good, its clean, simple, and not much money.

jgalt212 1y ago

> I'm trying to install adblockers (uBlock) I guess they are all on Firefox.

james_pm 1y ago

Kagi search.

bdangubic 1y ago

kagi ftw

ransom1538 1y ago

Who uses google in 2025. That is bizarre.

Baeocystin 1y ago

Not Google related, but cognition and older relative relevant: The amount of predatory scamware targeted towards older adults on the app stores is infuriating. I have a family friend who is now in the early-mid stages of Alzheimer's, but is still able to live at home and enjoy her life. She gets confused and stressed out by the fake 'alert! all your photos will be deleted!!' ads that pop up when she does her adult coloring books or jigsaw puzzles on her ipad. Apple's recommended apps in this category are evil in this regard, every single one. I've had to disable $80/week 'security' subscriptions from her account more than once. It is shameful that this is allowed.

toomuchtodo 1y ago

Kagi, as others have mentioned. Google search is dead.

tourist2d 1y ago
[dead]

sswam 1y ago

[dead]

nytesky 1y ago

Creat your own family yahoo — a website you maintain that has links to the websites they commonly use like mail and bank. Set as home page and new tab page. It’s a slight security risk since it shows where you have accounts. If you are savvy, build your own search that just passes it to an LLM and returns as page.

cpeterso 1y ago
Maybe that’s business opportunity for some to create and manage trusted personal portals for family members.

condiment 1y ago

I pay for Kagi for search, my family uses Kagi. I pay for NextDNS to block ads, all of my family's devices use NextDNS. I pay for credits on OpenRouter and host an OpenWebUI instance, all of my family's AI is private. I pay for the news - The Economist, the WSJ, FT, NewScientist, etc. Lies are free, the truth is behind a paywall. The only thing money can't buy, yet, is a phone network free of robocalls.

gxs 1y ago
Dude not to mention their ai assistant is top notch Happy customer here as well
bombcar 1y ago
I gotchu fam: https://tincan.kids/ https://tincan.kids/ It’s a phone, it’s a network, it has no robocalls! I know, I know.

inamberclad 1y ago

Network wide ad blockers like PiHole are also quite useful but they can cause some confusion from the client side because things just break for no apparent reason.

kajaktum 1y ago

In hindsight, we should have known this would happen eventually. At this point, we have to be actively be against free services. Every time its just a ticking time bomb. There's literally no incentive for them to be an actual good service, just good enough that you tolerate it and not consider other options, but shit enough that they can extract value out of you.

gxs 1y ago
Yeah agree 100% - this is why I’m a happy kagi customer It’s kind of cool being treated like a customer New feature releases aren’t about ad placement or SEO or personalization / tracking Instead, their product updates are targeted at me - cool nifty features that I can immediately try out Like kagi or not, just the feeling of having devs care about my actual personal experience is a breath of fresh air I know not everyone is an fortunate, but I’d happily spend on other software of this caliber
- ibfreeekout 1y ago
  I recently signed up for an annual subscription to Kagi on their Starter plan and I couldn't agree more. Search quality with them has been great so far, and I realize their small web search and exploration features too. I've been slowly working to find other paid services as alternatives to the free ones that I'm currently using (next big one was shifting away from Gmail and onto a personal domain for mail using Fastmail). Migrated away from Notion and using Obsidian with Syncthing running on my unRAID server at home. Generally just trying to find alternatives that aren't in the data mining and user lock in sphere and more about maintaining a positive user experience without taking advantage of their users and their data.
  - gxs 1y ago
    That’s awesome Be sure to try the assistant if you haven’t and browse the settings page for all the things you can do, again if you haven’t It’s my default on my phone through their extension it works well I’ve contacted their support in the past and they always give me real answers to questions about he product or suggestions Gl!

Suppafly 1y ago

>and move them over to chatgpt when possible That's a huge mistake.

BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago

I just use duckduckgo and turn off the ads in search settings

ragall 1y ago

Kagi is a better alternative.

shreezus 1y ago

This is a real risk. I know of someone who got phished with a fake number for Apple Support (the fake number was promoted and appeared at the top of the search results). Apparently they do this with banking phone numbers as well.