Google's search quality has been in steady decline for years, and Google assures us that they're working on it, though the most visible effort is replacing links to webpages with lengthy, florid paragraphs written by a confident habitual liar chatbot:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/15/paid-medical-disinformation/#crisis-pregnancy-centers
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https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/15/paid-medical-disinformation/#crisis-pregnancy-centers
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Cory Doctorow
•https://twitter.com/jathansadowski/status/1625245803211272194
But the declining quality of Google Search isn't merely a function of chatbot overload. For many years, Google's local business listings have been *terrible*.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/4
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html
Google is clearly losing the fraud/spam wars, which is pretty awful, given that they have spent billions to put every other search engine out of business.
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Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too
David Segal (The New York Times)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/5
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/how-a-google-antitrust-case-could/
But there's an even worse form of fraudulent listing on Google, one they *could* do something about, but choose not to: ad-fraud.
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How a Google Antitrust Case Could Determine the Future of AI
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/6
There are so many top searches that go to fraud or malware sites. Tech support is a favorite.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-search-ads-infiltrated-again-by-tech-support-scams/
This is true even when Google has a trivial means of reliably detecting fraud.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/8
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/9
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/10
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security
Google doesn't do this. Instead, they accept - and make a fortune from - paid disinformation, across every category.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/11
This paid medical disinformation comes from "#CrisisPregnancyCenters": these are fake #AbortionClinics that raise huge sums from religious fanatics to buy ads that show up for people seeking information about procuring an abortion.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
These con artists try to trick their marks into consenting to sexual assault - a transvaginal ultrasound.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/13
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/heartbeat-bills-called-fetal-heartbeat-six-weeks-pregnancy-rcna24435
If the victim still insists on getting an abortion, the fraudsters will use deceptive tactics to draw out the process until they run out the clock for a legal abortion, procuring a forced birth through deceit.
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‘Heartbeat bills’: Is there a fetal heartbeat at six weeks of pregnancy?
Kaitlin Sullivan (NBC News)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/15
Now, a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate finds that Google made $10m last year on ads from "crisis pregnancy centers":
https://www.wired.com/story/google-made-millions-from-ads-for-fake-abortion-clinics/
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Google Made Millions From Ads for Fake Abortion Clinics
Vittoria Elliott (WIRED)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/16
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/12/google-advertising-abortion-obria
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Google has given $150,000 in free ads to deceptive anti-abortion group
Stephanie Kirchgaessner (The Guardian)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/17
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/21
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/22
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/23
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/06/get-you-coming-and-going/#potemkin-research-program
What are we to make of this? FB claims that it doesn't need or want political ad revenue, which are a drop in the bucket and cause all kinds of headaches. That's likely true - but Facebook's aversion to blocking political ads doesn't extend to spending a lot of money to keep paid political disinfo off the platform.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/25
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/27
In other words, Google doesn't abet fraudulent abortion clinics because they share the depraved sadism of the people who run these clinics. Rather, Google teams up with these sadists out of cowardice and greed.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/eof
Flying Logos (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png
CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
eof/
File:Over $1,000,000 dollars in USD $100 bill stacks.png - Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.orgThis Old Hiker
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
Nancy Williams Painter
•Jargoggles
•This is what happens when we get too reliant on companies to access data. Everyone treats the internet, search engines, email, etc. as public utilities and they should be operated that way.
MarjorieR
•Oddly the accompanying image doesn't match, it's about another example of googles let's be evil (making money out of anti-abortion misinformation).
I would have expected this:
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/google-chatbot.jpg?w=840&ssl=1