Bonum Certa Men Certa

Life Without Google: A Week Later

Video download link | md5sum 800cba906a9d5ad72b255195b48633d2 A Week After Dumping Google Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Using the Internet without Google 'curating' news is very much possible; this can actually be beneficial as that greatly improves the signal-to-noise ratio

THE decision to remove the last of Google from my life (Google News was the hardest to get rid of because it has virtually no competitor in that space anymore) happened last Sunday. It wasn't planned and it was a little impulsive (there's the background story in IRC logs from that day).



The exit went more smoothly than I had expected. As happened with social control media, the only regret I now have is that I did not do this sooner!

The video above explains some of the findings and also shows how I browse Geminispace every 3 hours or so. It's similar to RSS feeds, but the aggregation is based around this page instead of a dedicated RSS reader.

Google is not an essential company. It's a lot of hype and brand worship. To get around Google one just needs to put in a little effort and spend a little time. It's a one-time task.

The frequency we've been able to produce Daily Links increased a lot since we left Google, averaging at about four a day. It used to be about 2.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Carole Cadwalladr Talks About How Big Business Tried to Silence Her (and Why You Might be Next)
Our story is very different from Cadwalladr's for many reasons
LLM Slop and SEO SPAM Take Us Further Away From Facts (the Case of IBM Layoffs)
Some of these can impact Red Hat as well
Microsoft SLAPPs Against Techrights Losing Momentum
It always backfires
 
What Really Matters to Companies is Net Income or Profit (Bankruptcy is Possible Even With High Revenue)
We ought to stop talking about revenue without focusing on actual profit
Companies Conspiring to Keep Salaries Down and Undermine Competition
People who do all the practical work are being paid less and made to work for much longer
Links 14/04/2025: Disinformation, Public Disdain for LLMs, and "Lessons on Tyranny"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Ween and Historic Ada Project Management
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 13, 2025
Influencers: Red Hat, Inc's IPO, 1999, post-mortem on the directed share offer to open source developer community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/04/2025: Microsoft Cuts to "AI" and Azure (It's Failing), ‘Ghiblification’ Shows Slop Doing Much Harm
Links for the day
Links 13/04/2025: Tariff Remorse and Chatbots Leak Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/04/2025: No CSS, Spring Scripting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Turns 72 and Will Be Giving Talks in Europe Soon
We have many local copies of his talks as WebM, having converted files uploaded to YouTube
Revisionism and Lies by LLM Slop and Lazy "Media"
What happened to investigation of issues?
Exposing Corruption and Crimes Against Women Isn't a Crime, It's an Imperative
When evil and greedy people are so desperate to silence you it typically gives you more motivation - not less - to do more of the same
EPO Likely Breaking the Law Yet Again, This Time by Using Slop for Patents (to Lower Costs While Producing Monopolies That Cause Ruinous Lawsuits)
Nobody authorised this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 12, 2025
Links 12/04/2025: Tariffs Standoffs and Spam 'Articles' About Patents
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/04/2025: Isle Release 0.0.4 (Alpha) and Pokemon
Links for the day
Links 12/04/2025: Science and "DEI" Dismantled Further in the US
Links for the day
Links 12/04/2025: "Part of the Problem" and "Facebook Is Just Craigslist Now"
Links for the day
New EPO Leaks: Replacing Patent Examiners and Classifiers With Deficient Bots (Without Even Asking for Permission)
Any consultation about it? Any media coverage? No.
The Consensus is Changing and Web Sites View LLMs as Evil, a Malicious Force of Plagiarism and a Source of DDoS
It's not about "AI" but about plagiarism of sorts
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles About "Linux" Infect the Web, Google News Still Promotes These as 'News'
people who go to a site like google.com or Google News or even social control media (where users get links from Google) will be directed to read slop, i.e. pure garbage.
Gemini Links 12/04/2025: Sigrblot and Conway Calamity
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 11, 2025