Hacker News Reader

decryptthis_NSAon Google Off 5%: Q2 Misses as ‘Cost-Per-Click’ Falls 6%

There was a discussion on "How Google is Killing Organic Search" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5971560 by essentially having all ads on the first page. I wonder for how long can Google keep doing that, before users and site owners revolt and leave /promote another engine?

Looking at their press release, ad clicks increased by 23% over the last year and 4% over the last quarter. What are they going to do for the next quarter when search already looks like this http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/1... and https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/28762... ? Add even more ads?

Google, as a company, desperately needs new sources of revenue, Google Search is already over-monetized. I wouldn't touch Google at current stock prices.

Edit: Turns out that most people do not even realize that they clicked on ads, given how similarly they are displayed. FTC warned them and others to distinguish results from ads http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-26/ftc-tells-google-le...

decryptthis_NSAon TSA searches valet-parked car

IANAL, but it seems like there is so much precedent against vehicle searches that it's staggering that TSA thinks this is acceptable. Every case I've read related to vehicles indicates that probable cause is required for a car search

Maybe you have given up those rights by entering a special zone near the airport? Not justifying it, but maybe explaining it.

This is expected of the TSA, every bureaucracy will seek to justify and expand itself.

decryptthis_NSAon The Drone that Killed my Grandson

The government repeatedly made accusations of terrorism against Anwar — who was also an American citizen — but never charged him with a crime. No court ever reviewed the government’s claims nor was any evidence of criminal wrongdoing ever presented to a court. He did not deserve to be deprived of his constitutional rights as an American citizen and killed.

Surprised he wasn't charged, just as a formality. At least then they would have said he "refused to answer to an arrest warrant...blah blah...plan to kill Americans." Unless the matrix is playing tricks on me, he did admit to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki a lot of stuff that we call terrorism. Generally speaking, if you refuse to surrender, they can't take you in and are plotting to kill someone, the police can kill you.

But to throw a freaking bomb from 10000 feet in a cafe just to kill a person...that's a huge no-no. It just doesn't win you any friends. If it was his car, I could see it, traveling with dangerous people, is dangerous.

decryptthis_NSAon Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files against government demands

This sounds like an ad for Google, including the Microsoft and Verizon bashing. The truth is that Google 'needs' to see the messages, all you other info and documents in clear text to serve ads and mine them. That's their business model and they aren't about to change it.

Oh and as other said, NSA can force them to do what Microsoft did.

decryptthis_NSAon Confidential Microsoft brief: 'We're toast if we fight Google on price'

*'We're TOAST if we fight Google on price'

Assuming the offering is just the same, but for many it may be good enough

decryptthis_NSAon Simple tests can overstate the impact of search-engine advertising

The most obvious ones are the "eBay shoes" type of searches, but probably they cost less than "shoes". Still it's a cost. Expect Google, Yahoo and even Bing to fight this tooth and nail, data or no data.

decryptthis_NSAon Reasons to Choose Opera over Chrome

I use Firefox and love it. I suppose it depends on what plugins people use. Or they may have had a bad experience once and let it at that

decryptthis_NSAon About the Reuters article

don't think it's hyperbole. Snowden planned this for a while and looks like he had access to and knew where to find everything. USA probably spends $100+ Billion in intel and knowing what foreign leaders, generals and business leaders say and write can be more powerful than a few aircraft carriers.

Of course then there is the trust issue, many world leaders will be pissed to learn that their "friend" has been reading their emails and monitoring their phone calls, even private ones.

decryptthis_NSAon DuckDuckGo: illusion of privacy?

DuckDuckGo: illusion of privacy?

His point is that if NSA wants they can do this and that. I suppose they can also take you to a Romanian black ops site and beat you bloody till you cough up your passwords. The idea is for average Joes and Janes to have a little bit more privacy. When you search on Google, they try everything possible to have you search while logged on and save your search history. All this is linked to:

your real name, location (Android)

maybe credit cards (Google Play, Adwords)

emails sent

videos watched

books read

sites visited (Google Analytics, sites visited that serve Adsense, Google hosted jQuery)

your private docs (G Drive, Documents)....

This is of course to make more money off you, they can charge more money to advertisers, and all this info is ready to be siphoned by Booz Allen and Hamilton employees and to be added to your file.

What do they get from DDG? Relatively speaking, nothing. The idea is to split your activities to make it harder for them, which is great for an average user. By using everything Google, it's even better than sending them a memo detailing everything you did each night.

If you're a target, long live TOR, which is not really usable on Google.

decryptthis_NSAon Switching to DuckDuckGo and Firefox

Less data-points for Google /NSA the better it is. Firefox managed quite fine even without $300 million a year and the idea is not use Google for everything, not to ensure that FF has billions in their bank account

decryptthis_NSAon Switching to DuckDuckGo and Firefox

I, too, do not like the omnibar and can speculate Google did it to drive traffic to its search engine, not to help you. They judge that this (highly profitable) annoyance is not enough to drive from Google.

I wonder if the recommendations are however slightly linked to CPC of the terms, wouldn't surprise me.

decryptthis_NSAon AT&T To Acquire Leap Wireless (Cricket) For Around $1.2B

It's cheaper and better to buy off all but one competitor and then both jack up prices and provide no customer service. AT&T i hell bent on getting back together

decryptthis_NSAon Leading Australian Telco storing data on behalf of US government

Big Telcos are at the mercy of big governments for anti-trust issues, contracts so this is not a surprise. DOJ and FBI can cause them many headaches.

This should bite them though when trying to buy foreign firms, cable links etc. No rational and influential country would let them do it after these leaks.