In the past, Google Inc has been a welcome relief to those Surf-Junkies attempting to find anything from the latest pair of vogue shoes, to the inner workings of the Universe! But lately things have suspiciously started to change!
When searching for past sites, technical insight, alternative news, provocative images (with the exception of porn - I'm told), it would appear that the overall wealth of independent choice has diminished some how.
For example, when searching for say apples, oranges and pears (for an ML project I'm working on) a large proportion of the images were from Pinterest! Again, when seeking images, information or text NOT for commercial / retail reasons I struggle to find what I'm looking for.
“Just try harder!” I hear you say. So I press-on, attempting to pin-point the exacting information necessary and then my eyes begin to fail me; for some reason, I'm unable to distinguish between which links that I've clicked previously and those I have not!
“Well, that's just their black-ink experiment!” I hear you explain.
So I persevere, using the new tabs function as a reference. After being faced with numerous requests to identify 'sign-posts and cars', then presented with a list of omitted sites due to security reasons; the choice of breadcrumbs at the base of the page dwindles to nothing and I'm then forced to change my search criteria. 'Well it must be me', I'm obviously looking for the wrong thing!
But seriously, try it for yourselves! Try searching for something as benign as 'man smiling' or ' girl shouting' without being faced with a copyright ban from 'ShutterStock' or pre-screened images from Pinterest. I'll be keen to obtain your stats on this. In an attempt to not harp-on about all these miner idiosyncrasies, I'd like to boldly mass them together into one word and shout "CENSORSHIP!!"
Technology is so advanced today, that large corporations, governments and global powers no longer need to stick massive red crosses over a sites and / or highly redact large sways of text from a web-page; they merely need to gently guide you away for that of which you are seeking and plaster you with enormous amounts of pop-ups, fake re-directs and unsafe site warnings etc..
It was suggested that T. Roosevelt said "Complaining about a problem without proposing a solution is called whining"; therefore, I would like to suggest people merely skip-over to https://www.ecosia.org/.
Though I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't merely more of the same and just a carbon copy of the Google big brother; mass adoption of this new and progressive search engine will certainly send the right signals to the Brainiacs at Google and help to save the trees in the process.
Supplement to my previous years prediction, regarding the reduced release of open source software; I will make a firm prediction, that a BlockChain search engine will soon to emerge; possibly a inter-wallet search feature which allows for true unfettered access to real information, news and concepts void of corporate intercession.
If you agree with this article and like to highly how you feel that your choices are being curtailed, then please add your comments below. When or if I receive enough valid entries, I'll develop a 'Google' review web application to illustrate precisely where this thing is going - then publish my findings. Until then, have a wonderful New Year.