#* Google

[periwinklediscoball]

They’re enamored

[catsithkelpie]

Oh.

We need to lay more blame for "Kids don't know how computers work" at the feet of the people responsible: Google.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Tech literacy didn't mysteriously vanish, it was fucking murdered for profit.

[uesp]

Did You Know: Oblivion Remastered does not exist? At least according to this one Google AI summary...

[buckyisonfire]

Thanks Google, very insightful

[nofluxo]

[thelocalmuffin]

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[m0thmancore]

suck, and i cannot stress this enough, my cock to the fucking base

[shefightsforall]

[why-ai]

[crackedpolishedblackstonebrick]

the fact that minecraft is searched more than boobs is crazy

Just in case anyone else was curious.

[spaceyshenanigans]

🎉🎉🎉

[blazehedgehog]

If you're a Youtube creator with monetization privileges, click on the "Earn" tab right now and deal with this if you feel like its necessary. Youtube is going to start running more ads on your videos automatically without your permission, and the ability to opt out will go away in two months.

Youtube is not advertising this anywhere. Checking my "Earn" tab on my own is the first time I'm hearing about it. To me, that suggests they don't want people to know they're doing this, because they want to crank up ad frequency and make more money.

If you've ever seen what happens when you let Youtube automatically pick ad slots like this, they basically try to run an ad every 2-3 minutes. It's a nightmare.

They are going to flood their platform with ads and drive away 70% of their viewership. On the other hand, if you opt out and choose to continue showing fewer ads, you may earn the trust and respect of your viewers.

You have a strategic operative to turn this off before May 12th. If you don't do it before then, it sounds like Youtube will take away your ability to reduce your ad frequency.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I haven't personally verified this as I'm not at a computer, but multiple people in multiple places are saying the same thing. This is fucking insane. First the endless war on UBlock, then the Chromium changes to shut out some blocker functionalities entirely next year, now this?

Something is deeply rotten in recent Google/YouTube policy. I can't imagine that this is legal - how is this not anticompetitive? Google needs to get mega fucked in the press and the courts sooner rather than later.

And I need to switch to Firefox as soon as I get home.

[zoomerinaboomercostume]

I mean, 4chan is back now, but the point still stands. I was not there for the early stuff, but the times they are a-changin'.

having a very strange reaction to 4chumblr art now that 4chan ded

like i'm in a retirement home hearing about another resident who passed. melancholy, nostalgic, but also just faced with my mortality.

the era we're referencing is dead and everyone who remembers it is past the age of still being so online. tumblr will come down too, and with it the early-middle web will be dead.

[bbcphile]

Seriously, Google? You actually changed Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on Google Maps?

What the fuck?!