zlacker

Become Ungoogleable

submitted by pabs3+(OP) on 2023-07-20 14:16:36 | 291 points 192 comments
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1. superk+ji[view] [source] 2023-07-20 15:26:01
>>pabs3+(OP)
It's a fine idea. But what I'm taking away from this post is the link to the Google/Chromium web DRM prototype and summary ... yikes. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environ...

>- The web page executing in a user's web browser

>- A third party that can “attest” to the device a web browser is executing on, referred to as the attester

>- The web developers server which can remotely verify attestation responses and act on this information.

Chome only for now but I imagine after it's pushed to Chromium and all the browser based on that Mozilla will implement it too (just like all the other DRM FF has now).

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6. 38+Ym[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 15:44:52
>>superk+ji
actual link:

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/...

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13. exlurk+At[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 16:08:36
>>twelve+Nq
I wonder if Michael Jackson would have even more success with his beer guides if he chose a pseudonym. https://www.beerbooks.com/cgi/ps4.cgi?action=enter&thispage=...
39. nobody+VH[view] [source] 2023-07-20 17:08:34
>>pabs3+(OP)
I have a pretty common name, with a number of famous folks with the same name (mostly dead) and others who are listed on various sites.

It used to be (>ten years ago), Google would return information about me, specifically, on the first page of results.

I made an effort to remove specific references to me and it's been mostly successful. I can still be found on whitepages.com/yellowpages.com and various background check sites, along with a bunch of other folks with the same name.

If you know where I live or my age, you can probably work out who I am from those, but otherwise I'm not googleable (or bing/ddg-able).

Every few years I go and do some ego surfing[0] to make sure things stay that way.

This post caused me to do so again and I was pleased to see that I'm not in Google or Bing results (except as noted above) at all.

Even my pseudonymous handle here is used by other folks on various other public sites, although mine is reported on the first page of searches.

Other pseudonyms I use are likewise mostly not reported either.

Which is just the way I like it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egosurfing

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69. buro9+tT[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 17:58:40
>>Aurorn+8Q
Google don't fully remove you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lfgss

That will return the website as a first result (I run https://www.lfgss.com/ )... but no description or metadata. Lots of tangential results talking about it... the first result is more like a shadow profile, a more fact an exact domain match exists but nothing more.

Two months ago I had almost 7 million pages indexed from that site.

For this community, it was their objection to their content being used to train AI that caused them to request me (the owner / admin) to exclude bots. I surveyed more widely, presented arguments in a balanced way, then when the result was overwhelming I hard blocked all known bots and useragents and pretty much everything that looks like a bot and user agent.

It's early anecdata, but sign-up rates have not been impacted at all.

Several other communities I've run have taken similar decisions.

Defensively with the UK Online Security Bill some of the other communities I run are considering similar things.

Feels like the end of an era, communities seeking to protect themselves from external threats, and search engines providing as little value as search pre-Google.

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79. distor+yX[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 18:19:05
>>distor+DV
I want to point out - if you get to the seventh page of Google, it's been known for some time that those results are... specious at best. Check out this xkcd from almost a decade ago:

https://xkcd.com/1334/

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1334:_Second

If you're really going to page 7 of Google... man, that's a desperation I've never known.

80. coding+7Y[view] [source] 2023-07-20 18:21:46
>>pabs3+(OP)
It's better to ask chatgpt instead of google now.

tell me something interesting about joeyh.name website

https://chat.openai.com/share/5497fc90-006a-47be-bf80-786a7e...

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82. mikae1+YZ[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 18:30:14
>>buro9+tT
> I run https://www.lfgss.com/

Let me take the opportunity to thank you. This is a rather amazing forum. Kudos to you for listening to what the community wanted. This is probably my all-time favorite thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/172374/

83. thih9+011[view] [source] 2023-07-20 18:34:13
>>pabs3+(OP)
About DRMing the web, related HN discussion from 2 days ago about web environment integrity: >>36778999
85. 50+b11[view] [source] 2023-07-20 18:35:20
>>pabs3+(OP)
what about the robots meta tags[1], e.g., noindex, nofollow, noarchive?

1: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/...

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89. tenplu+x21[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 18:40:27
>>50+b11
This is actually the correct way. Robots.txt only stops google from crawling your website, but it might still appear in the index. If you search for the site, then it is shown in the search results, but without any of the content of the page. If you want to prevent indexing as well, you'll have to do this.

Also explained here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/...

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95. margin+V81[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 19:01:38
>>deltar+IT
Not really sure what organic content you expect to find for that query.

Maybe you'll find a blog post from someone who bought a gaming laptop and found it pretty good? Or an old forum thread like this one[1]

Not a lot of actual human beings sitting around buying and comparing various gaming laptops. It's much more likely the content you'll find is from some content mill.

[1] https://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61296

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107. Jeremy+ve1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 19:29:35
>>superk+ji
Yeah... I don't think the original post is the best. This blog post doesn't add much context. Maybe the URL should just be updated to the github document the blog post links? [0]

[0] https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/...

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112. g_delg+Ai1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 19:47:46
>>bachme+O91
The majority of the world is still using Google to search the web [0], including high school students (let's also think about high school students outside of North America).

[0] Sources:

- https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-... - https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share - https://kinsta.com/search-engine-market-share/

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125. buro9+Wr1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 20:35:14
>>mikae1+YZ
for those following that link to the first page... all the images are dead, they were hotlinked.

read the end of the thread to get an idea about it: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/172374/?offset=27000

126. runjak+Ys1[view] [source] 2023-07-20 20:40:00
>>pabs3+(OP)
Didn't work.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%253Ajoeyh.name

PS: lfsgg.com is neat! Wish we had this for my area.

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132. nullc+Aw1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 20:57:45
>>picome+ow
It's not like it helps, if she did have a presence online the malicious stuff will still totally wipe it out.

Take me, for an example. Google Greg Maxwell. You'll get a smear piece written by the associates of the fraudster that claims to invented bitcoin title "Crypto Crime Cartel: Greg Maxwell" several pages ahead of my own webpage (https://nt4tn.net/) which shows up only on the sixth page where essentially no one will see it. (hey, at least the smear piece not #1 anymore-- It was for a long time.)

(You could add 'bitcoin' to the search to get rid of most of the people who aren't me-- the "crime cartel" article is result #2 then, and my page is at the bottom of page 4-- again where few people are ever likely to see it-- after several other smear pages.)

So I think the threat of negative material is mostly orthogonal. You're probably better off invisible, you're screwed either way if someone well funded wants to trash your name.

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155. Karell+cV1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-20 23:27:10
>>yankpu+HR
"Every pirate wants to be an Admiral"

-- Cory Doctorow

https://nitter.net/doctorow/status/1387098297282621442

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169. userbi+Km2[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-21 04:09:34
>>superk+ji
Remote attestation is the true enemy of your freedom.

People were suspicious of TPM and the "trusted computing" initiative and were fed plenty of propaganda about how it will make things "safer" and more "secure". There are corporate mouthpieces spreading that FUD on any article that's even just slightly critical of them and their plans.

>>32234022

>>29859106

Start revolting against these hostile technologies before it's too late. They're slowly boiling the frog and hoping we don't notice.

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192. Techne+opi[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-26 00:23:15
>>oAlbe+Mk1
Well, there's this: >>32703995
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