Am I surprised? No.
Solution: don’t use Google anymore
duckduckgo.com - it’s my second attempt at switching over from google and I can finally say it works just as good - if not better than - Google, for me. It may not be there for others yet but I feel like I can start recommending it now.
I’ve been using it for a while and is usually good except for when you actually want to find something really specific. another option is use google via a selfhosted proxy like searx
Well, they do it because they have to, they have no choice, it’s not that they care about it.
Legitimate question: is there any practical reason why an average user would continue to use Google search?
You’re constantly dealing with popups about changes to the license agreement, the first few search results are always sponsored and now this. Even if I didn’t care about privacy, I would be pulling my hair out.
If someone is relying on Big Tech apparatus to resist the subscription leechers, I would say that is a very stupid idea.
