Technology

37708 readers

213 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

133

How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet - WIRED (www.wired.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from [email protected]

Google may be altering billions of search queries daily to generate results that increase purchases.

Testimony in an antitrust case revealed an internal Google slide about changes to its search algorithm, involving "semantic matching" to generate more commercial results.

Google covertly changes user queries, substituting them with ones that generate more revenue for the company and display shopping-oriented results.

This manipulation benefits Google's profits but harms search quality and raises advertiser costs.

Despite legal challenges, Google's market dominance allows it to continue these practices, impacting users' ability to access unbiased information.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Friendly reminder that Brave CEO donated to Prop 8, Brave was founded with seed money from right-wing-fanboy-billionaire Peter Thiel, Brave injected their own referral codes into links, Brave replaced page ads and injected their own, and tons of other delightful shit.

Brave has proved time and again that they're only trustworthy as long as whatever scheme they're working on isn't found out, and I can't imagine that there is any chance their search engine is any better.

If someone recommends Brave to you, you should ignore them, because they are wrong. Brave Browser is a mess of a software project, and the company building it is even worse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In this context the name makes a lot of sense

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You mean because it describes the users, and not the product? 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The users, the business model, the people who think they’ll get away with their evil schemes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Even better 😁