this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
596 points (97.2% liked)

Technology

61227 readers
4210 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 45 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

I'm slowly moving away from Gmail and Google Docs/Drive, but in the meantime entering this into uBlock Origin seems to help:

mail.google.com##div[jscontroller][jsaction]:has(> span > button[aria-label="Try Gemini"])

drive.google.com##div[jscontroller][jsaction]:has(> span > button[aria-label="Try Gemini"])

docs.google.com##div[jscontroller][jsaction]:has(> span > button[aria-label="Try Gemini"])

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Where are they putting it, chrome? Just use Firefox instead.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I use gmail at work and I see the logo in chats, email, drive, docs, and I'm not sure where else. Its annoying when I'm typing an email and it tries to get me to use it. I don't know how to get rid of it either.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

My employer is switching from Microsoft to Google for office tools next month and they’ve been championing its availability to all of us. I’m not looking forward to it…

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago

Thats nothing, the Play Integrity API is trying to block usage by other operating systems like CalyxOS and Graphene. Imo much more insidious and opaque.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

Is it bad that I stopped using Google docs and plan on moving to OpenOffice instead?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Open office. Or libre office. Also. Don't give Google your data like that bro

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Try OnlyOffice instead

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I'd recommend libreoffice, because oracle also kinda sucks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Kinda?

I view Oracle as worse than Google.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

Worse but less powerful

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago

Why would that be bad?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago

Every Google Drive action I do now is shifted over 20% for ✨

[–] [email protected] 7 points 14 hours ago

I tried to ask it how I could remove it, Gemini told me that in order for me to help it I needed to active some of the "smart" features I didn't have active on my account, essentially helping do the opposite. It follows the ever increasing practice of trying to shove basically illegal behavior into "it's just the algorithm, bro, there was no intent!"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 14 hours ago

The good news is that this may cure my laziness. I've been preparing to leave most of google service for a while now.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 day ago (6 children)

to be fair, Microsoft is also shoving Copilot down our throats. They keep adding unremovable Copilot buttons to Outlook.com

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

They replaced the "M365" app icon with "M365 copilot" and the copilot icon on android the other day. I Uninstalled it.

It's nice to be able to use copilot in some of these apps, it is shit to be forced to have it everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

I would say that neither corporation forcing AI on us is fair by any stretch

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Oof, luckily I don't have to use o365 at work anymore.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago

They just slapped an LLM which tried to replace Google Assistant where the said LLM could not even do the most basic functions like setting up an alarm.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

I love the dedicated piracy folder lmao

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

Or I ask to go to Costco, and where Assistant previously would route me to the nearest one, Gemini sends me to one 80 miles away

[–] [email protected] 22 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 29 minutes ago) (3 children)

This is probably the most 'old man yells at cloud' thing about me but I hate voice assistants and they have yet to work consistently enough to be worth my time.

It is completely insane to me that something simple like "Add ____ to the grocery list" has worked and stopped working multiple times for years now. How hard is that to get right? Cannot believe such a simple action is so inconsistent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 58 minutes ago

Nah dude you're right. I have mine disabled and nuked as best as possible on my phone. I have no nest. No Google assistance puck. No Alexa. My home is not a smart home. There is a gun and a bottle of wild turkey next to my printer, and sometimes I make threats to it to ensure all my machines stay in line.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

My Google smart speaker used to integrate with my shopping list app. The loss of that integration and other features makes it basically a glorified white noise machine now.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 22 hours ago

I think a lot of that has to do with that Google used to be a company with engineers wanting to make the best software.

Now it's an ad agency that happens to have some software to make money, and they don't care about the software anymore. Money is not only bottom line, it's all the lines. You see the results in the quality of their software, it's all gone down hill.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's my biggest gripe with Gemini; it's not a proper replacement for Google Assistant and yet it's still treated as such.

Feels like Google took at least two steps back when it comes to Gemini on Pixel devices...

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Google was "cool" 2 decades ago... or before they combined both monetization (through ad) with power (through monopoly) they inexorably transformed EXACTLY to Microsoft the same way Facebook/Meta did the Google playbook.

Those huge tech corporations are pulled by the market to follow the same, sadly successful, strategy playbook and keep no uniqueness.

Google has been the new Microsoft for years already but through careful marketing consumers somehow believe they aren't.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Google is slipping. Duck duck go is a better search engine. There are better mail systems as well. Meta is done as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Some of my non-techie friends were complaining about how rubbish Google search is now and I suggested Duck Duck Go. They couldn't get past the name. I know it's based on some childhood game in the US but it makes no sense to anyone here in the UK.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 day ago (2 children)

We don't "get" tech anymore. Tech happens to/at us. We are already getting AI generated ads. Where are the AI based ad blockers?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 23 hours ago

Already happened. It died because it turns out the AI was funneling all of your browsing data to the servers running the AI instead

GPT-AdBlocker for Chrome promises to block all ads, including ads in videos - gHacks Tech News - https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/19/gpt-adblocker-for-chrome-promises-to-block-all-ads-including-ads-in-videos/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago

They'd be useless. Unless you trained it yourself there would 100% be a whitelist you couldn't see, or it'd be gobbling up all your data.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

there is nothing forcing you to keep using google though

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Apple Intelligence too. Thankfully you can still disable it

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

disable it

Un install, delete, remove 👀

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago

When AI appeared in my android text messaging app was the day I relented and installed GrapheneOS. Between Graphene and Bazzite on laptop/desktop, and NixOS for homelab/self hosted tools,.couldn't be happier to be free from all big tech BS while still getting tech benefits on my own terms

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (12 children)

I'm being serious with this comment. In no way have I felt like Google has forced Gemini on me. I barely notice it exists. Can anyone give me examples?

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They’ve stuffed it into every page in Google cloud and workspace.

I tried it in sheets one time and it literally made up fake data for my analysis. Never trusting that again.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It "messaged" me in Google Messages today introducing itself and how it could summarize text messages on my phone for me

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

if a human sends me a text long enough to benefit from a summary that's a human that is being removed from my contacts.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Gemini 'messaged' me in google messages introducing itself a couple months ago. Just appeared like a normal text conversation with any other contact, but as soon as you click on it you're presented with a wall of T&Cs.

Deleted the 'conversation' and it's stayed gone; though there's an option for it in settings.

The only other place I've see it is an on-screen reminder every time I use Google Assistant. (usually just triggering home automatons)

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All of it is. Or pushing copilot into all Microsoft products like anyone is using this shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›