Killed by Google is the Google graveyard; a free and open source list of discontinued Google services, products, devices, and apps. We aim to be a source of factual information about the history surrounding Google's dead projects.
(ergo: google is not a stable partner or supplier of digital equipment, apps, or services)
Commit snafu slapped an irrevocable Apache 2.0 license on confidential API Docs. //
The documents also suggest Google has whitelists that will artificially boost certain websites for certain topics. The two mentioned were "isElectionAuthority" and "isCovidLocalAuthority."
Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geo-locate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally — including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems — and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops.
At issue is the way that Apple collects and publicly shares information about the precise location of all Wi-Fi access points seen by its devices. Apple collects this location data to give Apple devices a crowdsourced, low-power alternative to constantly requesting global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.
Both Apple and Google operate their own Wi-Fi-based Positioning Systems (WPS) that obtain certain hardware identifiers from all wireless access points that come within range of their mobile devices. Both record the Media Access Control (MAC) address that a Wi-FI access point uses, known as a Basic Service Set Identifier or BSSID.
Every cloud service keeps full backups, which you would presume are meant for worst-case scenarios. Imagine some hacker takes over your server or the building your data is inside of collapses, or something like that. But no, the actual worst-case scenario is "Google deletes your account," which means all those backups are gone, too. Google Cloud is supposed to have safeguards that don't allow account deletion, but none of them worked apparently, and the only option was a restore from a separate cloud provider (shoutout to the hero at UniSuper who chose a multi-cloud solution). //
Google PR confirmed in multiple places it signed off on the statement, but a great breakdown from software developer Daniel Compton points out that the statement is not just vague, it's also full of terminology that doesn't align with Google Cloud products. The imprecise language makes it seem like the statement was written entirely by UniSuper. It would be nice to see a real breakdown of what happened from Google Cloud's perspective, especially when other current or potential customers are going to keep a watchful eye on how Google handles the fallout from this.
Anyway, don't put all your eggs in one cloud basket. //
JohnDeL Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
8y
6,554
Subscriptor
And this is why I don't trust the cloud. At all.
Always, always, always have a backup on a local computer. //
rcduke Ars Scholae Palatinae
4y
1,715
Subscriptor++
JohnDeL said:
This is why everytime I hear a company talk about moving all of their functions to the cloud, I think about a total failure.
How much does Google owe this company for two weeks of lost business? Probably not enough to matter. //
The master paused for one minute, then suddenly produced an axe and smashed the novice's disk drive to pieces. Calmly he said: "To believe in one's backups is one thing. To have to use them is another."
The novice looked very worried. //
murty Smack-Fu Master, in training
9m
90
Subscriptor++
If you’re not backing up your cloud data at this point, hopefully this story inspires you to reconsider. If you’ve got a boss/CFO/etc that scoffs at spending money on backing up your cloud, link them to this story. ...
Google says you can't turn off AI overviews in the main search engine. I'm still seeing the "Labs" icon in the top right, with some checkboxes for AI features, but those checkboxes are no longer respected—some queries will bring up an AI overview no matter what. What you can do is go find a new "Web" filter, which can live alongside the usual filters like "Videos," "Images," "Maps," and "Shopping." That's right, a "Web" filter for what used to be a web search engine. Google says the Web filter can appear in the main tab bar depending on the query (when would a web filter not be appropriate?), but I've only ever seen it buried deep in the "More" section.
Once you do find the Web filter, the results will look like old-school Google. You get 10 blue links, and that's it, with everything else (Google Maps, answer info boxes, etc) disabled. Sadly, unlike old-school Google, these are still the current Google web results, so they'll be dominated by SEO sites rather than page quality.
Google says AI Overviews are rolling out to "hundreds of millions of users" this week, with "over a billion people" seeing the feature by the end of the year, as Google expands AI Overview to more countries. //
The power-user way to use Google Search web now takes a lot of clicks. You'd want to click on "more" and then "Web" for actual web results, and then to get Google to actually pay attention to the words you type in, you'd want to click "Tools" and change "all results" to "verbatim." Alternatively, you could also find a more web-focused search engine instead of Google.
Just like in 2020, Google could not articulate what "policy" the Trump ad violated other than it might be effective.
Google is the internet librarian. Google leads all inquiries down the aisle that Google decides is best, and that is invariably and distinctly leftist aisles. Sure, you can eventually get to opposing opinions and relevant facts, but you have to work for it. //
When they look for information, they don’t read books; they Google. Politico, HuffPo, and Taylor Lorenz for example, are the end results. The search results tell them they live on a dying planet, that skin color trumps merit, and that gender has a spectrum. If contrary facts are presented to them, an inordinate number will scream and stick their fingers in their ears. A liberal niece of mine wrote something false online that she pulled off the internet. I corrected her, in private. Instead of correcting her mistake, she chose to “un-person” me. She hasn’t spoken to me in eight years. She went to Cal Berkley and majored in English. //
All cultures are not equal, and pretending that they are and instructing teachers to elevate all cultures to equal status makes a mockery of our own. One of the developers of Critical Race Theory does not belong in primary or secondary education. Critical thinking does.
How to stop indoctrination? I’m not sure. I hovered over the final paragraph for quite some time. I still don’t know. We might be at the point of no return. I hope not. I hope we are, instead, at a crossroads. Florida is leading the way with pedagogy designed to teach, not indoctrinate. Facts do matter. There is no gender spectrum. Math is not racist. Palestine was never a country. Let’s get back to facts, and maybe we can save the country. //
The Original John Doe
8 hours ago
"How to stop indoctrination?"
You might as well ask how to Unbrainwash someone. If you Google that you will see that nearly every site says step one is to re move the stimulus that is causing the brainwashing. This mean you would have to remove every leftists cell phone or remove every leftist news agency. This is basically impossible.
Therefore an examination of history is in order. Every country that successfully brainwashes at least 50% of its population (The United States has accomplished this) either ends up becoming a socialist/communist country or devolves into civil war. Keep in mind that the United States has already brainwashed 100% of the population into accepting an UNELECTED president in the White House for 3 years, 3 months, 9 days and counting with ZERO consequences.
After the stolen 2024 election, we shall see if conservatives will let the country become a socialist/communist regime or if something else will transpire. //
Sargon of Cincinnati
2 hours ago
The great Thomas Sowell fears we are past the tipping point. You are not alone in your questioning of if this indoctrination can be stopped.
Over the last year, we've alerted our readers to specific RedState articles that Google has demonetized, meaning that no ads can be shown on those articles and RedState doesn't receive any revenue on them, for allegedly violating its guidelines. Google claims the offending articles contain "dangerous or derogatory content" or "unreliable and harmful claims," but what they really contain is content Google and/or the government deem dangerous to groupthink and the accepted narratives – content that might make people question what they're being spoon-fed by legacy media propagandists.
Some might argue that it's not censorship because Google doesn't require that we take the "offending" post down. I'd argue that it's still a form of censorship because it's making it painful to go against the orthodoxy. If RedState can't pay its writers, RedState and the "dangerous" truths and opinions published on the site will go away. (Or so it thinks.)
Since August 2023, Google has demonetized more than 85 RedState stories, and that total is growing every day. //
Why is Google flagging all these stories?
It's doing it because each flagged article harms our domain score overall, which lowers our ad rates and leads to a lower quality of ads being shown on our site.
It's doing it because we're getting closer to the 2024 election and Google wants to make sure that outlets that practice real journalism are sent a big message: that any criticism of the integrity of the election will not be tolerated.
Google has been putting its thumb on the scale to help Democratic candidates win the presidency in the last four election cycles during which it censored Republicans, according to a right-leaning media watchdog.
The Media Research Center published a report alleging 41 instances of “election interference” by the search engine since 2008. //
A source close to Google told The Post that third parties who have looked at our results and “found no evidence to support claims of political bias.”
“There is absolutely nothing new here — just a recycled list of baseless, inaccurate complaints that have been debunked by third parties and many that failed in the courts,” a Google spokesperson told The Post.
In that ecosystem of advertisers, content consumers, ad networks, and content distributors, ad blockers aren't the disease, they're the symptom. Trying to neutralize a symptom alone leaves the disease thriving while the host just gets sicker. In this case, the disease isn't cynical freeloading by users, it's the basic dishonesty of online advertising. It promises things to advertisers that it cannot deliver, while blocking better ways of working. It promises revenue to content providers while keeping them teetering on the brink of unviability, while maximizing its own returns. Google has revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars, while publishers struggle to survive, and users have to wear a metaphorical hazmat suit to stay sane. None of this is healthy. //
Content providers have to be paid. We get that. Advertising is a valid way of doing that. We get that too. Advertisers need to reach audiences. Of course they do. But like this? YouTube needs its free, ad-supported model, or it would just force Premium on everyone, but forcing people to watch adverts will not force them to pony up for what's being advertised.
The pre-internet days saw advertising directly support publishers who knew how to attract the right audiences who would respond well to the right adverts. Buy a computer magazine and it would be full of adverts for computer stuff – much of which you'd actually want to look at. The publisher didn't demand you have to see ads for butter or cars or some dodgy crypto. That model has gone away, which is why we need ad blockers.
Unfortunately, when we wrote on Omar backtracking... sorta, Google demonetized our article, claiming that it contained "dangerous or derogatory content." They didn't bother to tell us which line or lines in the piece were problematic; they never do. //
The bottom line is, we reported on a Congresswoman spreading misinformation/propaganda and halfheartedly retracting it, and Google thought that was "dangerous or derogatory content" that ads should not be run on.
When the truth keeps getting out despite our tech overlords' best efforts, their last tool is to starve us and destroy our business by denying us advertising revenue.
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