The Google My Business help section is a similar graveyard with people wailing for help but not a single actual Google employee there to be of assistance. That is, unless your thread gets some insane amount of traction but also at risk of being locked
No, no one will. Phone support does not exist except for certain services like Ads. Even then, Ads has a recording that says get lost if you're not calling about ads.
You can find random employees on LinkedIn and email them and they'll respond but it won't go anywhere.
Even for GMB? Because I will gladly pay money to talk to a human the next time I get banned for the vaguest reason and all appeals fail with no additional information
But Google My Business (GMB) is for end users? GMB specifically markets it directly to business owners, mom and pop types. They will look _very_ critically if you're a third party as I've experienced.
And it's not just GMB. There are other products that Google just refuses to support in any meaningful way yet are definitely end user. Less consumer, but still end user. One example, Google Analytics. There's GA360 with 24/7 support, but it's $150k/yr. GA360 is also the only way to download historical GA data after a year or so (last time I checked?). Another example, Google Data Studio. which is now... Looker? I guess? What a clusterfuck that was. It and Firebase were so glitchy and lost so much of our analytics. Once I finally got it into BigQuery and then into DataStudio, which I spent way more time on that it should've they wanted to charge us up the ass to continue doing it. So I was told to turn it off.
It's been infuriating how fast this has been taking off. Pretty much every major website has it enabled now.
First we had pop-ups driving us crazy for years, and we beat them down with pop-up blockers. Now we've got modal after modal overlaying each other and blocking out the content more than any popups ever did... and we can't get rid of them (other than separately, each and every one targeted via ublock/etc) because the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us too.
Actually I only see this with Firefox and not Chrome, probably because I disabled "Allow Chrome sign-in" in Chrome. I am not sure if there is a similar option for Firefox without resorting to addons.
I’m sure it isn’t, but it feels like it should be illegal to create public nuisance and then use your monopolistic power to hide that nuisance from the portion of the public you have control of.
I’m sure Google displays those prompts in every browser. What I responded to was this though:
> because the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us too.
The way I read that is the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us on their domains inside their browsers, so the equivalent would Apple doing something equivalent in Safari or Mozilla doing something equivalent in Firefox. Google does this though, I’m unsure about others but inside the browsers I listed I’m not seeing the equivalent behavior, and in those browsers, Google is just another domain, not the browser vendor per se.
Though I should correct myself on this front since I’m here: Arc required an account for me to use it and I just plain forgot. They’re very upfront about this during setup though, so I wouldn’t call that harassment, and I don’t know if they still do for the final release.
I never ever sign in with google. I don’t trust a pop up asking me to input one of my most important passwords and logins. Maybe there is a way to make sure I am not being duped but I just don’t like it.
It's more of an abbreviation than a truncation: the link still points to the full URL, but outside of a code context there's not much reason to display excessively long URLs in their entirety as part of a regular comment.
I worked these out a while ago. I think on some sites, an iframe will still show, but will be empty. My second rule and this one probably do the same thing.
That won’t really solve this problem, the problem is due to these websites uses Sign In with Google, so it’s out of your control.
However if you’re just looking to de-Google in general, I’d recommend Fastmail for email provider. It’s surprisingly cheap for the value it offers.
Has anyone put together a resource - or better yet, an automated service - for migrating away from Google (Gmail in particular)?
I’m curious if anyone else here can anecdotally confirm, but in the past 6-12 months a huge majority of the “normies” I originally setup with Gmail accounts (way back when they first came out with 2gb of storage) have been contacting me saying they’re getting dire warnings about storage space resulting in them not being able to send/receive emails “soon” unless they start paying Google. The timing coincides roughly with the crackdown on edu storage space fwiw.
It’s already difficult enough for a tech-savvy person to seamlessly switch emails, but for the avg Boomer getting literal hundreds of spam emails per day I don’t even know how to tell them to begin. I spent a good hour at my parents’ house at least trying to cut down on the spam/newsletter subscriptions and mass deleted tens of thousands of emails - but within a month the “pay up” warning returned.
> Has anyone put together a resource - or better yet, an automated service - for migrating away from Google (Gmail in particular)?
1. Set up a new mailserver/register an email somewhere else;
2. Google Takeout your existing data;
3. Redirect all your incoming mail from GMail to your new email address;
4. Change over the email address of all services you use.
FYI, GMail will not forward mail messages sent by Gmail - security alerts, "you logged in from a new device", those dire warnings, and possibly any warning that they are about to delete your address, or turn off forwarding. Caveat usor.
GMail will let you set "backup emails" for those security alerts, however. Setting up new accounts today it will even sometimes require backup email addresses.
If you use labels extensively then you should look at removing before migrating. When using IMAP each label acts as a folder, and if an email has 5 labels then IMAP has 5 copies of the same email.
[√] Disable third-party login
[√] No, I really don't want to "login with Google"
[√] No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter
[√] and I don't want to join your Discord server
Edit: apparently Google believes that I'm lying about my preferences for web browsing. Who'd have thought? ;-)
tick to don't not un re subscribe to not redo reminder to not de subscribe (we will send a one time pass code to mt Kilimanjaro, you must hike there and return with the code in 10 minutes or your ability to no un re subscribe to not redo reminder to not de subscribe will be locked for 10 minutes and you will need to fill out a form containing a blood sample and your grandmothers ashes to re-enable)
It’s funny how google and other sites just can’t imagine a world where people don’t want their crap.
I’ve been in product design meetings where it seems product managers earnestly say “it’s better for users, so we’ll just prompt them until they realize it’s a good idea.” It was odd to have a conversation where they couldn’t contemplate user wishes contrary to their own.
This is a pet peeve of mine. You even see the same thing expressed in the comments on HN from time to time.
Underpinning the mindset is the idea that users are idiots who are incapable of perceiving the unvarnished brilliance of devs and PMs. When, more usually, it's that the devs and PMs aren't understanding something that's very important to users.
People are suggesting ublock and other browser extension based blocks, I just wish there’s a DNS level block that won’t have unintended consequences. Mainly because of iOS devices.
In one of the article that a commenter posted, it suggests blocking “smartlock.google.com”, I’ll try it for a while and see how broken things are.
In settings, blocking “Annoyances” is off by default. By toggling it to true, the Google login banner will be blocked, along with the “Chrome is the best!!11” banner and others.
Because uBlock Origin is better. Wait, purchase a license for AdGuard? Pfffffft.
... this website, I can't comment more than twice in a hour. And fuck me for continuing to come back, time after time. If only there wasn't simultaneously such a circlejerk about how supposedly great the moderation is.
I'll just add that every single time it appears, I'm reminded Google actively wants to take and own every single part of my life. Instead of a handy convenience thing like they intend, I just hate the brand more and more. `googleHate++` every time I see it.
88 comments
[ 6.3 ms ] story [ 165 ms ] threadThe Google My Business help section is a similar graveyard with people wailing for help but not a single actual Google employee there to be of assistance. That is, unless your thread gets some insane amount of traction but also at risk of being locked
You can find random employees on LinkedIn and email them and they'll respond but it won't go anywhere.
All you need to do is subscribe to Google One for a nominal annual fee. I've found it pays off easily, and I'll be renewing again.
I am sure that if you subscribe to Google Workspaces for Business/Enterprise that they will be responsive in that regard.
And it's not just GMB. There are other products that Google just refuses to support in any meaningful way yet are definitely end user. Less consumer, but still end user. One example, Google Analytics. There's GA360 with 24/7 support, but it's $150k/yr. GA360 is also the only way to download historical GA data after a year or so (last time I checked?). Another example, Google Data Studio. which is now... Looker? I guess? What a clusterfuck that was. It and Firebase were so glitchy and lost so much of our analytics. Once I finally got it into BigQuery and then into DataStudio, which I spent way more time on that it should've they wanted to charge us up the ass to continue doing it. So I was told to turn it off.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37024236
edit Apparently by asking a 2nd time. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37041047#37042474
If your desire increases, Google deletes it. That's a new level of microcontrol.
https://superuser.com/questions/1773208/how-can-i-block-the-...
https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/wiki/How-to-work-in-hardc...
Deselect everything except 1st-party CSS, image, and media.
No ad or popup in years.
First we had pop-ups driving us crazy for years, and we beat them down with pop-up blockers. Now we've got modal after modal overlaying each other and blocking out the content more than any popups ever did... and we can't get rid of them (other than separately, each and every one targeted via ublock/etc) because the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us too.
We can be more specific than that: Google wants to harass their users too. Between Safari, Firefox, Brave, and Arc, I’m not seeing that anywhere else.
> because the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us too.
The way I read that is the companies controlling the browsers want to use them to harass us on their domains inside their browsers, so the equivalent would Apple doing something equivalent in Safari or Mozilla doing something equivalent in Firefox. Google does this though, I’m unsure about others but inside the browsers I listed I’m not seeing the equivalent behavior, and in those browsers, Google is just another domain, not the browser vendor per se.
Though I should correct myself on this front since I’m here: Arc required an account for me to use it and I just plain forgot. They’re very upfront about this during setup though, so I wouldn’t call that harassment, and I don’t know if they still do for the final release.
You subscribe to lists and let the developers of those lists worry about finding out what has to be blocked.
Google employees should be ashamed of this garbage.
##iframe[src^="https://accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe/select"]
||accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe/select^$third-party
And DavX5 because I don't want my calendar to be a tab in email.
Has anyone put together a resource - or better yet, an automated service - for migrating away from Google (Gmail in particular)?
I’m curious if anyone else here can anecdotally confirm, but in the past 6-12 months a huge majority of the “normies” I originally setup with Gmail accounts (way back when they first came out with 2gb of storage) have been contacting me saying they’re getting dire warnings about storage space resulting in them not being able to send/receive emails “soon” unless they start paying Google. The timing coincides roughly with the crackdown on edu storage space fwiw.
It’s already difficult enough for a tech-savvy person to seamlessly switch emails, but for the avg Boomer getting literal hundreds of spam emails per day I don’t even know how to tell them to begin. I spent a good hour at my parents’ house at least trying to cut down on the spam/newsletter subscriptions and mass deleted tens of thousands of emails - but within a month the “pay up” warning returned.
1. Set up a new mailserver/register an email somewhere else; 2. Google Takeout your existing data; 3. Redirect all your incoming mail from GMail to your new email address; 4. Change over the email address of all services you use.
Otherwise DNS proxy or simple /etc/hosts might work I imagine.
[√] No I don't want to share my location
[√] No I don't want to get notifications
(Note: brave might work - I haven't tested it enough though.)
- Hush,
And
- Stop the Madness
Will solve about 90% of these annoyances
AdGuard [1] Hush [2]
If you use Reddit: Sink It for Reddit [3]
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adguard-adblock-privacy/id1047...
[2] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hush-nag-blocker/id1544743900
[3] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sink-it-for-reddit/id644987363...
Mu.
I’ve been in product design meetings where it seems product managers earnestly say “it’s better for users, so we’ll just prompt them until they realize it’s a good idea.” It was odd to have a conversation where they couldn’t contemplate user wishes contrary to their own.
Underpinning the mindset is the idea that users are idiots who are incapable of perceiving the unvarnished brilliance of devs and PMs. When, more usually, it's that the devs and PMs aren't understanding something that's very important to users.
|https://accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe/select*
In settings, blocking “Annoyances” is off by default. By toggling it to true, the Google login banner will be blocked, along with the “Chrome is the best!!11” banner and others.
... this website, I can't comment more than twice in a hour. And fuck me for continuing to come back, time after time. If only there wasn't simultaneously such a circlejerk about how supposedly great the moderation is.