Super interesting deep dive on optimizing web content for visual search experiences like Google Lens
I use #Google meet for meetings in #Firefox, which works well most of the time.
Some meetings, I just watch a presentation, which I tend to attend from my desk. I like to pop the video feed out from the browser and put it as a separate window tile on my screen, removing the margins from the GMeet composer.
Today I found out that this doesn't work anymore. media.ccc.de works, but if I pop the GMeet feed, it just re-attaches to the GMeet composer within seconds.
Anyone else experienced this?
This might grind my gears more than it should, but I really don't like the days where I feel like I'm living in a @pluralistic story and the service providers slowly tug on the rug underneath me.
If this is intentional by The #Google, I -really- hope they roll it back.
The margins in the GMeet compositor takes up 800 (~66%) extra horizontal pixels, which might not seem like much on a vertical 4k monitor, but is -really- annoying.
Side-by-side split screen comparison of Google Meet window on the left and the CCC video on the right. The difference between the CCC video vertical space and the Google Meet window is colored in red.
Screenshot of a vertical 4k monitor showing a detached video from media.ccc.de on the top, Firefox with media controls beneath, Obsidian editor in the middle and Kubernetes docs on the bottom. The detached video window is scaled to show the video as full as possible, and takes up 1211 pixels vertically (~32% of the screen).
Screenshot of a vertical 4k monitor showing Google Meet, on the top, Obsidian editor in the middle and Kubernetes docs on the bottom. The Google Meet window is scaled to show the presentation as full as possible, and takes up 2011 pixels vertically (~52% of the screen).
I use #Google meet for meetings in #Firefox, which works well most of the time.
Some meetings, I just watch a presentation, which I tend to attend from my desk. I like to pop the video feed out from the browser and put it as a separate window tile on my screen, removing the margins from the GMeet composer.
Today I found out that this doesn't work anymore. media.ccc.de works, but if I pop the GMeet feed, it just re-attaches to the GMeet composer within seconds.
Anyone else experienced this?
The ultimate #Google self-own: Google's AI Overview result of "enshittified google" that includes "AI Overview" as an example of enshittified Google.
“Perhaps without the distraction of the [1990s 🇺🇸] #antitrust case, #Microsoft would not have been so far behind on mobile operating systems, something that allowed Google to pull ahead. #Google’s rivals in AI #will hope that history is about to repeat itself.”
https://www.ft.com/content/d42a15e2-5005-4720-8831-023d8f1878f8
https://www.ft.com/content/d42a15e2-5005-4720-8831-023d8f1878f8
***** Major YouTube price increases, and predictions about Google's future *****
A bunch of non-U.S. countries are now seeing major increases in the costs of #YouTube Premium individual and family plans. You'll recall the U.S. had similar increases relatively recently.
Prediction: #Google will start charging everyone for Gmail, Google Voice, and other basic Google services (perhaps even versions of Search), or force users to accept decreases in service quality (e.g., massive increases in ads) to avoid paying those fees (or to pay lower fees). These are services where many millions of users would find moving to alternatives extremely disruptive, and Sundar could likely pull the switch at any time.
Ultimately, it's clear that Google just wants to be as close to 100% AI as possible, with as few employees or bothersome "low value" users as possible, while still growing the profit funnel to the C-suite.
Wikipedia-Mastodon Thing -- https://mastogizmos.com/wmt.html
Occasionally my ability to name my tools fails, lol. Anyway, Wikipedia-Mastodon Thing lets you keyword search #Wikipedia for articles with associated Mastodon addresses in #Wikidata. .
7/12
Mastodon Web Search -- https://mastogizmos.com/mws.html
Mastodon is a social network but it's ALSO a set of Web sites. And Web sites can be searched. Mastodon Web Search gives you two different ways to find Mastodon instances via Instances.Social and lets you bundle those instances into a #Google search with the help of site: syntax.
8/12
Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin
Solution: Firefox + uBlock Origin 😉🤟
https://tuta.com/blog/best-private-browsers
Here's the latest news: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/browsing/google-pulls-the-plug-on-ublock-origin
It's happening, people. Google Chrome is moving to the Manifest V3 framework. If you haven't transitioned to a different browser yet, now's the time to do so.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2423294/google-is-killing-one-of-chromes-biggest-ad-blockers.html
A decent alternative is Firefox with uBlock Origin, and if you want to go for full privacy awareness, I've heard good things about LibreWolf…
… Floorp …
and Zen Browser:
#google#chrome#browser#privacy#internet #web #online #firefox
thread 11/
Now, were this a work of fiction, this might be where the story ends and we all live happily ever after. But this is real life, and in real life, those with the authority now have to decide what happens to Google’s ad-tech #monopoly. I share the view that it would be better if #Google – all of Big Tech – were broken up into smaller companies, incentivised by competition, and unable to gain the footholds that allowed their current forms from becoming too big to fail, jail, and care.
thread 12/
An acquaintance who I conversed with when the story broke also shares this view. And at the same time, they don’t. Sure, break up #Amazon, and *sure,* break up #Meta. But Google? Google’s products – its ad-tech stack, its search engine, and YouTube – are integral to not just how the web’s financed, but how it functions. You can’t just break up #Google – it’s exceptional. And if you do, us end-users downstream will suffer.
thread 10/An odd debate on Google's breakup
Since I brought him up, I revisited Doctorow’s takes on the recent antitrust ruling against #Google. It is now, undeniably, a #monopoly:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/
This is a *seismic* legal rumbling, on the scale of the rulings that led to the break-ups of Standard Oil and Ma Bell. Across the world, antitrust has been reinvigorated, and lawmakers have enforced competition laws more times in the past four years than the last *forty.*
thread 11/
Now, were this a work of fiction, this might be where the story ends and we all live happily ever after. But this is real life, and in real life, those with the authority now have to decide what happens to Google’s ad-tech #monopoly. I share the view that it would be better if #Google – all of Big Tech – were broken up into smaller companies, incentivised by competition, and unable to gain the footholds that allowed their current forms from becoming too big to fail, jail, and care.
thread 9/
Today’s the first day I try this. Rather than spend days on a longform essay, I decided this next post would be a linkblogging lightning round, to get a feel on how this method might work for me. It turns out this post ended up long, regardless…
thread 10/An odd debate on Google's breakup
Since I brought him up, I revisited Doctorow’s takes on the recent antitrust ruling against #Google. It is now, undeniably, a #monopoly:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/
This is a *seismic* legal rumbling, on the scale of the rulings that led to the break-ups of Standard Oil and Ma Bell. Across the world, antitrust has been reinvigorated, and lawmakers have enforced competition laws more times in the past four years than the last *forty.*
🤩 Fucking SUPERGROUP of a podcast episode: @pluralistic and @brianmerchant on the latest Better Offline.
💪 Feeling powerless to enact change against oligarchs + huge corps? I learned the empowering tale of how Ida Tarbell's writing contributed to bringing down Standard Oil, and how that applies to today.
🔩 Frankenstein was a novel celebrating the Luddite cause!
And so much more . . .
https://linktr.ee/betteroffline
#Enshittification#Luddites#BigTech#Google #Apple#Meta#Facebook
The courts are clear: Google is a monopolist. But will that monopoly be effectively curtailed?
The ruling has been celebrated as a new dawn for the internet, but there are plenty of reasons to believe Google’s power may not be reined in as much as we hope. The fight is far from over.
https://disconnect.blog/the-google-monopoly-ruling-wont-save-the-internet/
Hey, fediverse - dropped a new episode of The Self-Host Cast this morning after sitting down for a casual discussion with Alex and Zack from the #Immich development team last week.
Open to feedback and suggestions for future guests!
https://selfh.st/cast/episode-4/
#selfhost #selfhosted #selfhosting #podcast #photos #videos #google #software #app #apps #alternative