The Google Gulag
Link here. The essay contains a nice collection of links documenting Google’s increasing leftwing fascist bent. The key quote however is this:
Damore [the man Google fired] was working on Google’s search infrastructure. And there’s little doubt that he was wasted there. Google’s search has grown more useless even as the company’s search revenues have grown. Google’s goal is to streamline and shape search results for a mobile environment by giving users what it thinks they want rather than what they are actually searching for. Google isn’t just politically left-wing, its product mindset has become all about forcing users to do what it thinks they should be doing. [emphasis mine]
In other words, Google’s approach to providing a search engine is now aimed at shaping all searches to go where they want them to.
If you use Google, it is time to find another search engine.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Link here. The essay contains a nice collection of links documenting Google’s increasing leftwing fascist bent. The key quote however is this:
Damore [the man Google fired] was working on Google’s search infrastructure. And there’s little doubt that he was wasted there. Google’s search has grown more useless even as the company’s search revenues have grown. Google’s goal is to streamline and shape search results for a mobile environment by giving users what it thinks they want rather than what they are actually searching for. Google isn’t just politically left-wing, its product mindset has become all about forcing users to do what it thinks they should be doing. [emphasis mine]
In other words, Google’s approach to providing a search engine is now aimed at shaping all searches to go where they want them to.
If you use Google, it is time to find another search engine.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
frontpagemag is breaking my browser today, so excuse if the article references Alphabets’ manipulation of their YouTube content as well.
I don’t use Google for search but I’m a heavy YouTube consumer– my software will download entire video-files, which I view off-line, so I’m never subjected to within-video adverts just the initial interstitial. And I never “log in” to youtube, do not have a facebook account, etc.
(I am sorta locked into the Microsoft ecosystem through work, -I work remotely-, and sorta resigned to the fact MS already knows all-about-me, my software & my computer, and everything I do. Or at least, they have the capability, I’m not that important, just a set of eye-ball’s to be sold by these people.
“Youtube Restricting Conservative Videos”
Louder With Crowder snippet, November 2016
https://youtu.be/RslP2HGBqWI
(8:59)
Wayne: What is the software you use to download youtube videos? If I have the name, I can probably find a Linux equivalent.
Robert: I have been using http://www.youtubeinmp4.com/
It works pretty reliably on windows; I do not know about linux but indications are that it should.
Mr. Z–
“Internet Download Manager”
http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/
Been using this for 15 years. Updates every 45 days or so. Small (5mb) independent program, and integrates through all the popular browsers, but I do not know about it running on the Linux OS or what an equivalent would be.
It basically does 2 things very well;
-automatically detects and acquires the source address(es) within a web-page, for a wide range of audio/video/image file formats.
-increases your download speed, (depending) by breaking up the source file into multiple threads. (you can play with the settings to optimize your own connection.)
It detects 98% of all embedded-players– practically everywhere you can’t easily “right-click, save-file-as.” (wherever they make it hard for you to actually download the file, rather than stream.)
For YouTube– it detects all the Versions (quality) available, and THE killer-app for me, it can pause/stop/resume/schedule (98%) of your downloading, multiple files at once. (not to mention, the only advert you have to watch is the first one they show, once you acquire the actual address, you get the whole file.)
I will occasionally watch stuff via streaming, but have low-speed DSL. I prefer to download certain material in full-screen 720p or higher, HD, if available, and watch later at my leisure, and I physically have the File and can do whatever I want with it…
Michael-
I’ve seen that one, but just have never tried it.
I object to this generalization (and conspiratory theory, to be frank). The guy fired probably had an affair with his boss’ wife and then they all blamed it on this stuff. It’s one guy fired, right? Google is free and best and has never stopped me from being offensive online. I think this fire is hitting the wrong target.
Everyone who gets big and famous gets hated by these strange people. Like McDonalds are always targeted by the “anti-globalist” mob on the streets. Because they cook food.
I’m locked into Microsoft by profession (developer) and personal use for desktop and tablet. I’m pretty much locked into Apple for phone. My employer is locked into Google for email/calendar/docs, and as a developer, I have to support Chrome for web apps.
Other than professional use, I avoid anything related to Google, for so many reasons. This is just one more, but it’s kind of pointless to “boycott” a company that I wouldn’t do business with anyway. Their arrogance is nauseating. I abhor their contempt for privacy. Because they finance all their software through advertising, and datamine everything that goes through their services, their approach to users is best described as a stranger offering free candy to children.
Of the major software companies, the only one that I have any trust or respect for is Microsoft. Yes, they collect usage data, but it is either anonymized, or it is locked down to your Microsoft account. They don’t sell your data to anyone else. They’ve been burned on anti-trust, on security, and on privacy, and they’ve learned their lessons. They run a reasonably capitalist business model in terms of selling products based on their value to their customers. They are much more open to user and customer feedback than any other software company. They are not perfect, either, but they are far from the “evil empire” of old.
As for Google, I can’t wait for their crash-and-burn. They’re past due.
Referencing “IDM.”
You can use a free test version for 30 days to try it out. It costs like’ $30 for a Key-code.
Not shareware and no adverts. It does update itself but you can block that.
–It does handle C-span embedded players and video, they show up as “Name.ts” Files (“Transport stream,” Format,) but windows Media Player & Videolan will play them back correctly. Or for a hack that often works, but not always, if your preferred Player won’t cooperate, just change the File extension from “name.ts” to “name.mpeg” or “name.mpg.” (Windows however, will whine about “unstable file extension” but you can just ignore it, most of the time.)
Totally tangentially —
The folks at http://www.archive.org make it very easy to download everything they have, by design. YouTube however, wants you to stream, but that can be avoided.
Robert wrote: “If you use Google, it is time to find another search engine.”
Due to a previous suggestion from Robert, I have been using Startpage.com for several years.
Isn’t it ironic that Diversity programs tend to demand uniformity?
When I was in college, we had an organization called the Multi-Polycultural Action Committee (M-PAC, to me this sounded like a traffic accident), but they discouraged certain cultures that they thought were not conducive to Multi-polyculturalism (whatever that turned out to be, it clearly was not inclusive of those cultures they discouraged). They even threw off the committee a member whom they thought had been raised poorly; he called someone “Buckwheat,” and that was treated as a terribly offensive crime.
From the article: “When Google fired Damore, it sent a very clear message. The message wasn’t tolerance, but intolerance.”
Diversity programs have always been about intolerance, specifically being intolerant of any thought that diverges away from leftist philosophies.
From the article: “When asked at a shareholder meeting whether conservatives would feel welcome at Google, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt replied, ‘The company was founded under the principles of freedom of expression, diversity, inclusiveness.’”
This may be true, but that founding principle did not apply when James Damore freely expressed his opinion of Diversity and inclusiveness, and expressed it only within the company. Google believes as leftists believe: freedom of expression only extends to those who express leftist ideology, such as Diversity philosophy.
Thanks to Robert for this link to the controversial Damore document (from a previous post):
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3914586/Googles-Ideological-Echo-Chamber.pdf
A Damore quote showing Google’s tolerance of only one philosophy: “The harm of Google’s biases … ● Reconsidering any set of people if it’s not ‘diverse’ enough, but not showing that same scrutiny in the reverse direction (clear confirmation bias)”
and:
“These practices are based on false assumptions generated by our biases and can actually increase race and gender tensions. We’re told by senior leadership that what we’re doing is both the morally and economically correct thing to do, but without evidence this is just veiled left ideology that can irreparably harm Google.”
As predicted by Damore, the revelation of Google’s leftist ideology is harming Google.
Finally, conformance to the uniformity is mandatory. Any contrary thoughts are punishable by termination. So much for inclusiveness and so much for “Do no evil.”
When a company has to remind its people to not be evil rather than remind them what the company actually stands for, the company’s employees are likely to become confused. Which explains why 1) one employee thought it would be a good idea to point out some problems of the company’s Diversity program, and 2) a second employee decided Google should prove its Diversity and un-evilness by firing the first employee. That action demonstrates the company’s commitment to Diversity, or lack of commitment.
Which is not the commitment that Google would like for the rest of us to believe that it has.
As noted by Damore: “unfortunately, taxpayer and Google money is being spent to water only one side of the lawn.” The Diversity philosophy side.
Edward-
Good stuff.
Google is free and best and has never stopped me from being offensive online.
Yet…
Google never stopped you from posting comments on sites not run by google? That’s nice. Try using one of their services and see what you can say.
To understand how Google can abuse you, you have to understand Google’s products and services. Policing comments on sites they don’t control isn’t one of their services but perhaps it soon will be.
When a company has to remind its people to not be evil rather than remind them what the company actually stands for, the company’s employees are likely to become confused.
Too many people have a wishy washy view of what evil is and what actions become permissible to achieve certain ends. This is especially true of progressives and of Google.
Diane/wodun-
Good stuff!
Internet Download Manager (IDM) is the best for managing downloads. Been using it for years.
Chris R–
Good deal!
Nothing beats physically possessing the complete File! (especially from YouTube)
I managed to download practically everything in the Prelinger “Ephemeral Films” sub-collection, at the Internet Archive, using only dial-up and IDM.
Highly recommend the folks at the Archive. Everything is free, no registration. Pick your quality-level and download at will. Huge collection of music and books as well. (Not to mention, they archive the entire Internet… 300 Billion web pages and counting.)
https://archive.org/details/prelinger
Referencing Linux and download-managers-
I am seeing a lot of these type Programs specifically written for Linux.
I quit using Google for searches years ago as their results were consistently inferior to those of Bing. Perhaps that “shaping” of results business has been going on even longer than we thought.
Duck duck go anyone?
I’d be interested in a stand alone thread on “Search” in general.
I trend toward thinking a “lot” of people have become infinitely lazy and non-critical, as far as looking-stuff-up on-line & just being capable of evaluating the “truthiness” of the information source to which they are directed.
We used to say, “don’t believe everything you read.” Our modern technological age however, imparts an aura of exactitude on search results that are simply the product of instructions & algorithm’s, that have been written by people, who have a [darn] Agenda and do not want to admit it.