Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens Google is making some changes to how its products, including search, will work in Europe. The reason? It is preparing for the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules scheduled to come into play in March. Under the DMA, Google is a classified as a "Gatekeeper," meaning it holds "considerable market power." Changes to search …
Hotels usually have agreements with the likes of Booking.com that prevents them from offering lower prices on their own websites than those shown on the agent sites. however they can offer lower prices if you call them.
I normally find hotels using Booking or Trivago, then search for the hotels contact details and ring them. This often results in a better deal as they can cut out the middleman.
Same here. Also has the advantage that if things go wrong and you do a credit card chargeback then it's got a better chance of success. I've had one declined by the CC because the agency claimed it had satisfied its contract (booking a room) and wasn't responsible for the problems I had with the hotel.
Yeah, that's what it used to do. Now you just get fed personalised crap. Google will be DMA compliant up to its ass but unless you agree to allow Google to give you a good butt fuck, bet pretty much nothing will work.
Sorry, but I'm still pissed because my English device language phone showed me a completely different set of results (useless crap results) from a Spanish device language phone (exactly what I was looking for) for the same effin query.
And dont get me going on about different results for the same query on a different tab.
Mind you, Bing still cant find me and I have a unique name combo.
Yes. I understand that, and I accept that.
What I want is the choice. Let me see what I get when you're not raping my personal life first. If that's not good enough, then I'll think about giving you more, but it will become my choice, my privilege.
My decision, not yours.
What I want is the choice. Let me see what I get when you're not raping my personal life first.
No. Otherwise you might notice that having your personal data doesn't improve search at all. It's only there to help us charge advertisers slightly more to populate your searches.
It's only there to help us charge advertisers slightly more
yes, but what I don't understand is *why* do companies not realise that too ? Why does a company spend money on something with no return value ? The only rational explanation I can come up with is Ark-2: the same nutters who are marketing responsible in client companies are *also* the same nutters at Google selling advertisment space. It's only a parasitic behaviour, we could cut it out entirely and we wouldn't even notice the difference.
What part of your choices being reduced do you not understand? Since we can't eat your personal life and absorb it into the hivemind, we won't know that you went next door to the Big Gay Manhole Bar last Tuesday, and can't recommend you similar places at random when your wife searches on your PC.
Given the decline of Google in recent years, where searches are stuffed with spam, it just stops trying after a few pages of results, and it's unable to "see" a phrase I'm looking at in another tab...
...I think choices have already been reduced. It's like "take this SEO junk and stop hassling me".
"I thought Google had no presence or commercial operations in the UK ?"
They've got locations in Manchester and London. I guess for government contracts they need people with clearance and can't use +91 talent.
Interestingly if you're a Google user in the UK, your data controller is in the US now:
Unless otherwise stated in a service-specific privacy notice, the data controller responsible for processing your information depends on where you are based:
Google Ireland Limited for users of Google services based in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, located at Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Google LLC for users of Google services based in the United Kingdom, located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, USA.
>Google LLC for users of Google services based in the United Kingdom, located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, USA.
You wanted to be free of Brussels - at least you got a vote there.
ps. Don't bring up 'no taxation without representation' in the USA, they are still a bit touchy about it
I don't use Google search since it stopped being useful a while back due to ads.
But maps recently took a huge turn for the worst. At least in Spain where I am. They now don't show businesses which they don't have ads for, however close. Clearly monopoly abuse, but also makes maps useless since it only has big bizz that pay the Google tax. That's passed on so I try to avoid any bizz who uses Google: I know their rates.
They vary rates, (despite this being illegal) essentially taking all the area under the supply curve, so pretty much any bizz that's in bed with Google for marketing is as expensive as it could be.
“The banners will be presented to users to make a choice to opt in or not."
WTH does that mean?
Being forced to make a conscious choice, e.g. an unskippable banner is presented with no option selected at all and you must select either "opt in" or "opt out" before it allows you to proceed - no way to just 'cancel' or 'close' it without making a selection would comply with that statement.
There will be extra consents for linked services – European users can expect to see some additional consent banners regarding data sharing.
I've already been presented with the linked services "consent" box earlier this week, so the deployment is under way.
According to Google, opting out of linking services could result in limited functionality or some features stopping working altogether.
That's fine. YouTube doesn't need to know where I've been yesterday, or Google Play doesn't need to know if I've been searching for info on how to dispose of a body.
In fact Google doesn't list any benefits for the user in keeping your data linked:
When linked, they [Google services] can share data with each other and with all other Google services to:
• Combine data to help personalize content and ads
• Develop and improve our services
• Measure and improve the delivery of ads
• Perform other purposes described in Google's Privacy Policy at g.co/privacypolicy
The listed benefits all work in Google's favour, not yours.
If you're in the EU and haven't seen the dialog box yet, you can access your "Linked Google services" page directly here:
https://myactivity.google.com/u/3/linked-services
More info on the "Manage your linked Google services" support page:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/14202892
I'm in the EU and can access it through both of my personal Google accounts. If you're in the EU and can't see it, maybe it's being rolled out on a country-by-country basis or Google thinks you're not in the EU?
People in the UK aren't going to see it because they're not the intended audience.
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