Google's services, especially their free services, are never really free. It's just that the price tag is so well hidden that ordinary users really believe this. But the HN audience is more technical than that and they see through the smokescreen.
Except for those that are making money off adds directly or indirectly, and who believe in their god given right to my attention and my data.
> I'm increasingly blown away by takes on here that are so dramatic and militant about things that barely even register to most people.
Things 'barely even registering to most people' is not as strong a position as you may think it is. Oxygen barely registers to most people. But take it away and they register it just fine (for a short while). The 'regular' people that you know have been steadily conditioned to an ever worsening experience to the point that they barely recognize the websites they visit when seeing the web with an adblocker for the first time.
It's just that the price tag is so well hidden that ordinary users really believe this.
And if they die believing that, what price did they really pay? I don't think the difference mostly comes down to a lack of knowledge or understanding, but more a difference of care or assigned value. There are a lot of smart people on HN, but with that often comes exaggerated anxieties and paranoias. If most people don't give a crap about giving their data to Google or allowing the big bad advertisements to penetrate their feeble minds or whatever, vociferously beating that drum just amounts to old-man-yelling-at-cloud-esque FUD.
Things 'barely even registering to most people' is not as strong a position as you may think it is.
I understand that logically that is neither here nor there, it was more just an expression of exasperation. It's kind of like how I'm equally blown away by how much energy some people put into anti-abortion laws. It's like, ok, everyone can have their opinions, and there's plenty of reasonable discussion to be had, but to put so much negative energy into something that's like, is this really the battle that's worth this much outrage right now? There are literally genocides and violent deportations going on around us. Google are not the bad guys.
Also, I don't use any kind of ad blocker. There are definitely lots of ad-infested unusable experiences out there but Google products are generally among the classiest and most unobtrusive.
The people that put effort into anti-abortion laws are usually trying to force their view of how other people should live onto those other people.
I block ads out of my life because I am easily distracted and have seen the internet go from a great place to a billboard that continuously screams at me for my attention. It's pure self-preservation, I don't begrudge you your 45 minutes of advertising time per day at all.
They created the largest spying instrument in the world that creates hidden profiles (that can never be deleted) documenting web activity, psychological state, medications, etc, etc for billions of people - and have been caught multiple times sharing data with governments (they're probably compromised internally anyway). I would categorize that as unethical. But yeah, you can cheer for the scraps they throw out.
>about things that barely even register to most people.
News flash: This whole website is about things that don't register to most people. It's called hacker news FFS.
In any case, I think a trillion dollar company probably doesn't need defending. They can easily tweak their algorithm to bury this type of stuff; after all this opinion is probably not "relevant" or "useful" to most people.
On this day, only Google Maps does not have real competitor on Android. Otherwise, it is possible to drop Google and even get better services. Brands are difficult to compete.
You're right but I hate that you're right. The only part I disagree with is
>I think they all are pretty happy with the deal and would not switch to a paid ad-free version.
If they were given a low friction option to pay the advertise price for these services I think a lot would choose it. Advertisement pays almost nothing per person. Almost every person could pay more than the cost to serve them an ad. To use a service ad free for a year would cost less than $1 per user. This differs on the platform obviously with stuff like youtube being far more expensive but for day to day stuff the cost is low.
Google's services, especially their free services, are never really free. It's just that the price tag is so well hidden that ordinary users really believe this. But the HN audience is more technical than that and they see through the smokescreen.
Except for those that are making money off adds directly or indirectly, and who believe in their god given right to my attention and my data.
> I'm increasingly blown away by takes on here that are so dramatic and militant about things that barely even register to most people.
Things 'barely even registering to most people' is not as strong a position as you may think it is. Oxygen barely registers to most people. But take it away and they register it just fine (for a short while). The 'regular' people that you know have been steadily conditioned to an ever worsening experience to the point that they barely recognize the websites they visit when seeing the web with an adblocker for the first time.
It's just that the price tag is so well hidden that ordinary users really believe this.
And if they die believing that, what price did they really pay? I don't think the difference mostly comes down to a lack of knowledge or understanding, but more a difference of care or assigned value. There are a lot of smart people on HN, but with that often comes exaggerated anxieties and paranoias. If most people don't give a crap about giving their data to Google or allowing the big bad advertisements to penetrate their feeble minds or whatever, vociferously beating that drum just amounts to old-man-yelling-at-cloud-esque FUD.
Things 'barely even registering to most people' is not as strong a position as you may think it is.
I understand that logically that is neither here nor there, it was more just an expression of exasperation. It's kind of like how I'm equally blown away by how much energy some people put into anti-abortion laws. It's like, ok, everyone can have their opinions, and there's plenty of reasonable discussion to be had, but to put so much negative energy into something that's like, is this really the battle that's worth this much outrage right now? There are literally genocides and violent deportations going on around us. Google are not the bad guys.
Also, I don't use any kind of ad blocker. There are definitely lots of ad-infested unusable experiences out there but Google products are generally among the classiest and most unobtrusive.
The people that put effort into anti-abortion laws are usually trying to force their view of how other people should live onto those other people.
I block ads out of my life because I am easily distracted and have seen the internet go from a great place to a billboard that continuously screams at me for my attention. It's pure self-preservation, I don't begrudge you your 45 minutes of advertising time per day at all.
They created the largest spying instrument in the world that creates hidden profiles (that can never be deleted) documenting web activity, psychological state, medications, etc, etc for billions of people - and have been caught multiple times sharing data with governments (they're probably compromised internally anyway). I would categorize that as unethical. But yeah, you can cheer for the scraps they throw out.
>about things that barely even register to most people.
News flash: This whole website is about things that don't register to most people. It's called hacker news FFS.
In any case, I think a trillion dollar company probably doesn't need defending. They can easily tweak their algorithm to bury this type of stuff; after all this opinion is probably not "relevant" or "useful" to most people.
On this day, only Google Maps does not have real competitor on Android. Otherwise, it is possible to drop Google and even get better services. Brands are difficult to compete.
Try Mapy. Outperforms Google maps any day.
You're right but I hate that you're right. The only part I disagree with is
>I think they all are pretty happy with the deal and would not switch to a paid ad-free version.
If they were given a low friction option to pay the advertise price for these services I think a lot would choose it. Advertisement pays almost nothing per person. Almost every person could pay more than the cost to serve them an ad. To use a service ad free for a year would cost less than $1 per user. This differs on the platform obviously with stuff like youtube being far more expensive but for day to day stuff the cost is low.
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