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Its sad but I think at this point its kind of a safety issue not to use an ad blocker. Those results are not clearly ads and I've clicked on fake links in the p
by beckthompson 1y ago
Its sad but I think at this point its kind of a safety issue not to use an ad blocker. Those results are not clearly ads and I've clicked on fake links in the past when they were.
- LorenDB 1y agoYou also should just stop using Google Search. DuckDuckGo is solid, or if you don't want to use search results from Bing's index, I've been very happy with Brave Search.
- behnamoh 1y agopeople say that but they often come back to Google ;) I've just learnt to use ad blockers. the only time I disable it is when I look up the definition of something or the location of a place and the entire page goes blank because of some rules I've added to uBlock.
- arkh 1y ago> people say that but they often come back to Google ;) It used to be the case. One of my laptop is setup with default DDG and the rare times I switch back to google I'm disappointed by even worse results.
- array_key_first 1y ago> people say that but they often come back to Google ;) The thing is that Google is actively becoming more hostile and difficult to use. Not just Google Search, but really all their products. They're becoming Facebook, slowly but surely. Something we might be forced to use now and again, but nobody actually likes. The reality is that Google is such a poorly run company that they will destroy their own products, given enough time. Their competitors need to do nothing. Literally nothing.
- LorenDB 1y agoI haven't used Google (apart from their as-of-yet undefeated image search, the occasional hard link from a web page, and the two times I tried the Circle to Search feature) for at least five years now and I have zero interest in going back.
- jeremyjh 1y agoI agree about DDG, but I find Kagi worth paying for.
- nicce 1y agoA very valuable service for its price. Also translate.kagi.com is much better than Google’s one.
- balder1991 1y agoFor translation, a good one is DeepL.
- fragmede 1y agothere's also bing, which does not cost money to use.
- DanOpcode 1y agoI have been using Kagi for about a month now. Haven't had any desire during that time to go back to Google. Solid search engine!
- coldpie 1y agoCan you give some example queries where Kagi performs better than Google? I've tried it a few times and found it to be nothing special.
- cuu508 1y ago
- aydyn 1y ago> You also should just stop using Google Search. DuckDuckGo is solid The only people who would say that are people who would be better off just asking ChatGPT. Any nuanced search that isnt some encyclopedic fact is terrible on DDG.
- xp84 1y agoI agree somewhat, but those searches are getting less and less good on Google though. In my recent experience, I'm far better off asking ChatGPT or just using it through Bing/Copilot than what I used to do a decade ago, which was deep dives through 5 pages of long-tail search results.
- teekert 1y agoIt's solid, I use it 95% of the time, that 5% Google usually still disappoints. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=midjourney&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=midjourney&ia=web -> Hmm, midjourney the AI thingy is not even there for me! Just https://www.midjourney.com https://www.midjourney.com which is not really clear on what it is. Midjourney is at Midjourney.online, which is not even on the first page. So Argualbly Google is still better. What a world. Btw, I search DDG from the Firefox bar, and that does not let me copy the URL anymore!!! Wtf. There is just the search term, like there is in the field below it!! Omg, now I have the same thing twice, and a useful thing has been lost.
- squigz 1y agoErm, I'm fairly confident Midjourney.com is what you're talking about? https://www.midjourney.com/explore?tab=video_top https://www.midjourney.com/explore?tab=video_top Midjourney.online doesn't show up on either platform for me on the first page.
- klez 1y ago> I search DDG from the Firefox bar, and that does not let me copy the URL anymore Yeah, I just noticed too. Go to Settings->Search there's a checkbox just below the default search engine. Uncheck that. Should be something along the lines of "Show search terms in the address bar in search results" (sorry for any errors in the translation, my browser's language is not English).
- mock-possum 1y agoDuck Duck Go is consistently worse than Google Search in, see https://www.tumblr.com/ddgvsggl https://www.tumblr.com/ddgvsggl
- carlosjobim 1y agoDuckDuckGo falls hard in quality when it comes to queries which are not in English. The only search engines who are good for those are Google and Kagi, in my opinion.
- ocdtrekkie 1y agoAll of the ad links are broken by our firewall at work. People complain but eventually they learn to skip the ads. Absolutely a security risk, search ads are second only to phishing emails as a threat vector.
- endgame 1y agoThe FBI agrees with you: https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-blocker-to-dodge-scammers https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-b...
- smcin 1y agoNo, the previous admin's FBI did [0]. But then that alert page (on ic3.gov, Internet Crime Complaint Center) was taken down almost immediately after the 11/2024 election, before even the director was replaced. I genuinely expected this sort of basic alert should remain non-partisan. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008235322/https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA221221 https://web.archive.org/web/20241008235322/https://www.ic3.g...
- smcin 1y ago(at minimum, a search for "ad blocker" on ic3.gov should turn up some authoritative and useful advice page, not a random jumble of articles and press releases)
- inerte 1y agoIf you're trying to do anything in terms of official documents, there's a middleman charging more. I searched for "passport application" the other day and it was 4 ads of people offering this service. My dad was trying to get an ESTA visa a couple years ago and ended up paying twice the actual price, because he can't discern what's the official site or not.
- flyinglizard 1y agoThat's down to US Government policies. If you tried middle-manning any for-profit like that, you'd get a cease and desist letter really quickly. But USG doesn't seem to care. We can't reasonably expect Google to be a gatekeeper here.
- spaqin 1y agoThat's not just the US. I've seen that myself with Vietnam and Seychelles, and I'm sure it's a problem with any other country where a visa or other documents are required
- nick486 1y agoLast time i had to get a visa through these kind of channels, it looked almost deliberate. Outright bribing is now frowned upon, so they make the visa process as frustrating and opaque as possible. So that people have to either waste several days at the embassy, or go through one of those visa agencies instead. You pay for a totally legit above-the-table service, but it is effectively a "socially accepted bribe". And the administrative problem magically disappears.
- int_19h 1y agoYes, it's the same everywhere. In any country with byzantine and convoluted visa and immigration procedures (i.e. most of them) there's a thriving industry of people who will eat the turds for you for a fee.
- hollerith 1y ago>If you tried middle-manning any for-profit like that, I think that is called affiliate marketing.
- vunderba 1y agoStrong agree but unless it gets built-into the browser, the average net denizen simply won't do it. The number of times I've seen a friend of the family try to show me an article on their laptop while casually trying to shoot down the pop-up ads like they're playing a marketers version of Missile Command was astonishing. And EVEN if they do install a blocker, 9 times out of 10 it'll be AdBlock Plus and not uBlock Origin [1]. You know, the one that allows companies to PAY to have their ads whitelisted. This doesn't even cover browsing on a smartphone which unless you're running Android Firefox which supports browser extensions, you have very few options. [1] Notice I said uBlock Origin and NOT uBlock. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
- chuckadams 1y agoBecause the average person looking for an adblocker searches for "adblock". And they're supposed to know the difference between uBlock and UBO?
- jstanley 1y ago> unless it gets built-into the browser DuckDuckGo is built in to the browser! Google is still unfortunately the default, but it's just Settings -> Search -> Default Search Engine, and DuckDuckGo is already in the list. > unless you're running Android Firefox Yeah, obviously run Android Firefox.
- miladyincontrol 1y agoIt absolutely is. I fear for the older generations and less tech minded people who google their bank, and get some random phishing site. Or similarly google what should be libre software and get some random malware on a site that looks 'close enough'. Lets call it what it is, a cancer, one that literally enables countless bad actors and purely for a search engine's own profit. In theory theres a time and place for ads, but maliciously inline and disguised as the actual results people want arent it.
- tokioyoyo 1y agoMost web-usage is happening on mobile, and ad-blockers are less common there. So, younger generation is pretty much living through the ads constantly.
- vunderba 1y agoYup. For reference, on Android your best bet is to install Firefox + uBlock Origin. On iOS, I believe Kagi's Orion has built-in content blockers but you can also install uBlock Origin [1]. [1] https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ublock-origin.html https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ublock-origin...
- stack_framer 1y agoBrave is excellent on Android. I watch YouTube all the time with literally zero ads ever.
- a96 1y agoBrave is a series scam company.
- anticrymactic 1y agoYou can use ReVanced on Android to block the ads in the YouTube app
- int_19h 1y ago
- kwar13 1y agoAbsolutely. I cannot use anything online anymore without pihole + ublock
- pitched 1y agoI’ve started asking ChatGPT to give me the right link. I can’t imagine they won’t start embedding ads too but so far, it’s been pretty clean.
- adcoleman6 1y agoThat seems risky because of hallucinations. Wouldn't Google+Adblock be a better call?
- pitched 1y agoHaving it hallucinate a valid url that is spoofing the site I’m looking for feels less likely than someone managing to game SEO. Eclipse is a good example: the first result in Google is eclipseide.org, not eclipse.org.
- ricardobeat 1y agoIndeed. I got my credit card phished after buying tickets from an 'official' local museum website, it was the first result on Google. Later on I realized that all five top results were scam sites, the real one was 6th. They eventually fixed it.
- symlinkk 1y agoAdblockers are a safety risk of their own - you’re giving @gorhill admin-level access to your browser.
- xigoi 1y agoYou can check the source code.
- array_key_first 1y agoThis is the entire argument for manifest V3. So, if we believe this argument, then modern chromium derivatives should be safe with the ad blockers that run on them.
- int_19h 1y agoV3 still allows for extensions that have full access to the content of your websites, and obviously adblockers need to be in this category to function at all.
- tjpnz 1y agoLet's be more precise about what ads actually are, based on how the ad industry works today: malware
- oblio 1y agoThey always were. Remember IE toolbars? Java and Acrobat bundled software?
- array_key_first 1y agoYes, we called them adware and lumped them in with email worms. We should go back to that.
- merlinnn 1y agoPlus when you click on one, they show you more! So the risk snowballs