Apparently people simply don’t like mentions of subscription services
That’s true, especially for news it seems. Of course my suspicions didn’t arise from simply seeing mentions, but suspicious patterns. (Again, not to the level of anything provable.)
Using a Google proxy isn’t going to make Google’s results any better. But by all means everybody, keep using Google while complaining about how shit it is and then downvoting anybody who mentions any options.
Proxying it certainly isn’t sustainable (see adblocking & YouTube, or Nitter the Twitter proxy that was crippled). Options are good. Didn’t personally downvote you btw! And I can tell ya, SearXNG image search is inferior to Google’s for my needs… but Kagi’s seemed equivalent. Do believe voting with your wallet for paid search seems a sustainable and sane move. Good on you.
Also I wish the only conceivable options for reducing [suspicions of] astroturfing weren’t all so horrific… like submit your Social Security Number to a third party verification service, and let them try to dig into all your relationships with companies or something before vouching for your online accounts. Even that wouldn’t eliminate the problem though (can pay cash to strangers you meet via encrypted messengers). For now hope the reasonably suspicious amongst us can be regarded as appropriately skeptical.
Simply hating every single paid service for having the gall to charge slightly more than it costs to operate, though, is definitely a little too much :)
If anything makes me suspect astroturfing, it’s the inevitable hostile reactions to mentions of Kagi. At least this time I didn’t end up staying in the negatives or get told that charging money for online services is immoral because reasons. I could swear that Google hires people to specifically spew idiotic bullshit about subscription search services just so people keep using Google
Me too!
That’s true, especially for news it seems. Of course my suspicions didn’t arise from simply seeing mentions, but suspicious patterns. (Again, not to the level of anything provable.)
Proxying it certainly isn’t sustainable (see adblocking & YouTube, or Nitter the Twitter proxy that was crippled). Options are good. Didn’t personally downvote you btw! And I can tell ya, SearXNG image search is inferior to Google’s for my needs… but Kagi’s seemed equivalent. Do believe voting with your wallet for paid search seems a sustainable and sane move. Good on you.
Also I wish the only conceivable options for reducing [suspicions of] astroturfing weren’t all so horrific… like submit your Social Security Number to a third party verification service, and let them try to dig into all your relationships with companies or something before vouching for your online accounts. Even that wouldn’t eliminate the problem though (can pay cash to strangers you meet via encrypted messengers). For now hope the reasonably suspicious amongst us can be regarded as appropriately skeptical.
Simply hating every single paid service for having the gall to charge slightly more than it costs to operate, though, is definitely a little too much :)
If anything makes me suspect astroturfing, it’s the inevitable hostile reactions to mentions of Kagi. At least this time I didn’t end up staying in the negatives or get told that charging money for online services is immoral because reasons. I could swear that Google hires people to specifically spew idiotic bullshit about subscription search services just so people keep using Google
Can’t forget, Googie’s got The Juice
Those sweet sweet search results, now pre-digested for our adhesive pizza needs
All fun and games until Alphabet Adware Co sells enough data on us we’re price discriminated against on every conceivable service!