Google will blur explicit image results for all users, requires login to disable
This is nothing short of puritanistic surveillance state bullshit. It's censorship, and is not okay.
On by default is ok—encouraged, even. Login required? heck no.
(edit: ugh, what if this is just because they're avoiding cookies to store this? because of "privacy")
I don't want my account to be tied with my adult entertainment search history. This is the underlying issue that deeply concerns me. Companies are allowed to make whatever stance they want on how they handle mature content.
But this forces people to stay logged in. Theoretically the two options are either use another service or make a burner Google account just for porn. I know Bing has a habit of making moderation policies similar to Google about things like this. Bing is better for porn and unfiltered results, but it has been becoming worse in the last few years. It's similar to how reverse image search with Bing was even more amazing than Google, but now they're equally terrible because they're doing the same kind of filtering on the backend.
Having to make an account means that account information can be used to track users across the internet. With incognito, at least it was basically a "new" account every time.
Edit: It's possible that this is related to the new Louisiana law requiring people use a digital driver's id wallet app to verify their age in order to use Pornhub.
Google search has been going the way of Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Hotbot... for a while. More junk results, more paid junk content, more work flow breaking changes, can't copy, copy a url returns a google nightmare soup url, etc...less and less customer friendly every day. It's time for a new king.
Been mostly using DDG but excited to start fooling around with the new Bing.
If you told 2013 me I would be binging in 2023 I would have not believed you.
I'm surprised at the cataclysmic response here. I do hate puritanical stuff, but this doesn't seem that bad. I do worry that eventually they'll force people to log in to even see this content eventually, and that'll just be a sad day for the Internet. But just blurring it seems... ok? For me it's a far better setting than "On" even though I'd greatly prefer "Off".
Well, I guess it would be annoying if you were browsing only explicit images, like porn. But, at the risk of sounding crazy, I figured people had moved onto topic-specific sites for that kind of thing.
Yandex completely destroys Google in image search and especially reverse image search anyway.
Even though using it feels almost exactly like Google Image Search was 10+ years ago, it's just that product is way better than today's Google Image Search.
It seems like this will widen the gap with Bing, which is already superior for adult content.
Does everyone know that Bing is the place to go for those types of images or videos? Honestly this is getting to the point where my most used search engines are DDG and Bing. What a thing to say.
> Google turned on SafeSearch as its default for under-18 users in August 2021, having been pressured by Congress to better protect children across its services, including search and YouTube.
This is basically an end around the First Amendment. While the government is not allowed to ban speech, so it pressures corporations to ban speech on its behalf, with an implied threat they will will hurt the corporation in some way if it does not comply.
Any tips on how to divorce yourself from google? I've got too many eggs in their basket.
With the passing of the Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) in the UK and the California Age Appropriate Design Code expect to see this is a general design pattern across the internet.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protectio.... https://californiaaadc.com/
Some late night TV show (Jimmy Kimmel maybe?) used to have a recurring bit where they'd find an innocuous photo and then blur out parts of it in a way that suggested that the original was naughty.
I can't remember more so I couldn't find a link to any examples, but I can't wait for somebody to set up a Twitter account documenting Google's unintentionally funny false positive blurs.
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I imagine this is in response to the recent Louisiana law that requires a website to verify a user's ID/Driver's license before showing any explicit content.
related discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34236632
Oh great. Another corporation which wants to know when I jerk off without at least a little bit of of effort to hide it.
Switch to Tin-Eye search.
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Clever, and when people complain they can just point to their democratically elected representatives with their ID demands ‘to protect the children’.
Hey remember when google's motto was 'do no evil?'
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
When did technology take such a wrong turn?
I would have thought this was already the default behavior.
Does this mean they'll stop blocking those results?
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What are some better image search sites?
Everyone uses bing for that anyway.
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When you use Chrome you're always logged in, so it's not a big difference (for me). Let's see how Bing gets marketshare back.