Why on Earth would anyone go to Google for news.
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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Hey guys, stop using Google and Meta and X and Amazon.
They're kinda ruining civilisation with their terrible ideas and all you get in exchange is news that doesn't inform you, social interactions that are largely artificial and a permanent inability to use technology which they exploit by selling you enshittification-laden garbage.
The price of their "free" services is way too high. Get rid of them.
I find the bigger issue is critical mass: "why would I use an app that nobody else uses?" (when they say "nobody else" in this context they actually mean "not literally everyone else" 😅🙄)
I think it's akin to the sentiment that we see on here sometimes where people wish that Lemmy had bigger communities.
We've been conditioned to think more views/subscribers/upvotes is always a positive thing and you should always be aiming for more.
In reality (and imo), communities that have less members more successfully function as actual communities. Toxic conversations are a lot less likely to break out among people who've had a bunch of other conversations before and users who exhibit toxic behavior are socially shunned and shamed if not banned. (I'm massively generalizing here, but I don't want to write a book).
The way I've managed with my group is to just not have the other accounts and tell them that if they want to message me then they can install Signal. It's a bit of a filter as well; If they're not willing to do something as simple as install an app to talk to you, then they were not likely very good friends to begin with (imo).
If they're not willing to do something as simple as install an app to talk to you, then they were not likely very good friends to begin with (imo).
This argument is very susceptible to Uno reverso 😅
Sure, and there you just have to weigh:
- Your relationship with that person vs
- Your desire to have a right to privacy and not participate in a system which weaponizes social media to generate political outcomes favorable to the billionaire owners of those services (ex:, as the stories today show, disallowing saying the word Epstein or Zionist on TikTok).
I know that isn't an easy decision and generally I value my relationships more than fighting The Man. I've just been lucky enough that my social circle are all other tech people who have been privacy-aware since the beginning. I do keep an iPad to talk to family, but it is not associated with any other account that I use.
Every time I say this to someone offline, they act like it's literally impossible. It's so frustrating
In some sense they are not wrong.
The average person has no idea how technology works because these companies do everything for them for free in exchange for their private data.
It used to be common that kids would learn how to use computers to pirate music and burn CDs. Now the incentives to learn (free music/movies) is gone because Spotify and Google give you all you want for the low price of your privacy and eternal dependency on them for access to the fruits of technology.
Getting your privacy back means giving up those conveniences and learning to use the technology that you depend on. For most people that is too much to ask.
"Luckily" the deluge of algorithm enabled propaganda and resultant fascist resurgence have some people questioning this bargain.
This is true.
I had to re-learn how to pirate music when I decided to quit Spotify. (FYI, by using tools that rip audio from Youtube videos.)
Check out soulseek, next gen napster with FLAC...nicotine is a good client (use a VPN obvs)
VPN 100%
I don't leave home without it. :)
slskd is a great choice if it's running on your home sever
yt-dlp is a handy tool
Guys, I've figured out how to get rid of this "feature".
Stop using Google.
Google peaked with maps anyway.
IDK, OSM is much more detailed and up to date.
Not really
Maybe in super busy urban areas
But I live in a large city and regularly have to update information that is 5+ years out of date
Small villages? Unless there's someone living there who has it as a hobby, there's no chance it will be even close to up to date
That depends on where you live.
Did you know that fascist regimes generally prefer audio dubbing films and tv shows instead of subtitles because then they get to control what the dialog says to their captive citizens ? And if most citizens can't speak the foreign language and can't read lips they never find any changes because how could they ?
Google is doing the same thing here. But with your own content.
That's an interesting thought, but is there more to it? The German market is one of the biggest ones where almost everything gets dubbed, but that's a country with a pretty stable democracy.
Do you have examples of fascist regimes that dub to advance propaganda?
"Users are happier when we tell them lies our algorithm says they'll like. Yes it is also news"
I find the AI audio translation on YouTube, which Google now seems to be imposing as standard, to be the most absurd thing of 'em all: even the intros are so poorly translated that it couldn't be more ridiculous.
I'm sure many users don't realize that this is supposed to be a "feature" and mistakenly believe that the foreign-language video they deliberately clicked on is obviously AI-generated because the audio track is so horribly bad.
Well, another reason for PeerTube...
Next step: YT starts phasing out human creators in favor of Google's homegrown AI slop.
Ummmm... According to YT, about 50% of new videos is AI generated (20% AI slop, 30% AI brainrot, don't ask me whats the difference), and some industry analytics expect that to grow to 90%>
Although it's not like one can't just move to an alternative assuming they can take their audience with them or their audience isn't too big to lose, before Google snuffs them out in favor of AI slop.
Fun experiment: Ask Google if there are more stars in the solar system than grains of sand in a glass of water. See the AI confidently say "yes" and then refresh the query and see it confidently say "no".
I have experimented and can very often get AI to give whatever answer I want (i.e. on a yes/no) by subtly changing the query. Super easy to manipulate the results.
The same is predictably true in research, meaning a lot of academic research being produced at the moment is complete crap. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08825
I don't know if I'd say "a lot," but I think you are correct to say "some." We don't need to suddenly start flinging around generalized invectives towards science, especially when there's already a concerted effort by conspiracy theorists and bad actors to convince people to reject science out of hand.
True, there's a lot of good research being produced as well. There's just an insane amount of academic work being produced in general, both good and bad.
Yes, and I passed that research paper onto someone who works with researchers who think LLMs are the best new invention for technical writing. It's going to be a constant battle, even amongst people who should know better.
Yes, it is annoying to see text written that is confidently asserting nonsense
Google has been proven to be information manipulators. Who would go there for the truth? Websites with independent journalists and citations will shut all of this down (but please, not another podcast).
Why is people still using google? I used it recently due to a mistake after years of using DDG and honestly, i dont know how anybody can find anything with it. Ads, paid ressults, rubbish that i didnt ask for.... Maybe im just not acustom to... idk, googling? But i feel like they trully fucked it up.
I tried switching to DDG for a month or so and I felt like the search results were not quite right, and google was at least equivalent quality, but more often just better.
It was a huge shame because I don't want to stay on google for all the reasons everyone is talking about.
I asked someone else who tried to switch away from google and they said the same thing.
That was my experience the first time i switched but i insisted cause my hate to google prevailed. What i felt at the moment is that google had so many aid for searching that 1: it kind of de-trained me in how to properly use keywords and 2: was great for searching common stuff but made search too convergent.
This is just based on vibes and feelings, so it could very easily be a lot of nonsense.
Now trying it back, i feel it off, as I said, but it could also be that i just got acustom to how DDG works. The thing is, not a single result on fisrt page was on topic.
I've been hearing this for 5 years now
Cool. Well I replaced Google with a million other things that are objectively better.
Oh...is this just some attention thing to try and get me back? Aww... Sorry, G. Look, G, I'm sorry to tell you over text, but it's over. It's been over for years. We broke up so long ago, and it was never going to work out anyway. Please just delete me from your contacts list. It's better this way.
I disabled the stupid "Discover” feature, which was inanity without AI.
There are LLM based plugins to convert clickbait headlines to summarize the actual content. "News" sources can blame themselves and wtf Google is converting them into
Install Brave. Use its default search.brave.com. Google last. After a lot of other good options.