One more reason to get off the net.
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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i noticed they already restricting google reviews for locations, to a login popup.
This dystopia is terrible.
Next: AI knows your income level so it automatically raises prices to match.
Then: someone comes up with an income spoofing service for shopping. For a fee, of course.
Then: you have to add an income verification to browse internet shopping.
All of that is already in play and more.
They know your income, spending habits, outstanding credit balances, browsing history, etc. They know if you are employed, had a child, had a divorce or death in the family. They know your health and how active you are.
With all that data, AI knows what you are willing to spend on an item or service.
There are HR services that use AI to look at all of this meta data to determine how desperate you are for a job and how low they can offer a salary/wage.
You’re the product.
They want one giant walled internet that is nothing more than a giant company town. You own nothing. Every dollar you earn is consumed by the system thar knows how much it can take.
This isn't just google; it's a new grift using the internet overall. I look something up online at the grocery store website, they put a lot of focus on you should order online and pick it up. I go to the store and it's cheaper than the online price for the same store. We're all getting played.
Groceries I haven't checked out because I just go out and buy food when I need food, delivery costs more money than moving my ass for a kilometer, but for other things, in-person stores are still more expensive than online-only. If I want oil, filters, etc for cars, it's twice as much in physical stores compared to online.
I don’t understand. When you click through to buy something from the retailer, does the price then show as normal? Google Search isn’t a storefront, so I don’t understand how this is actually impacting people’s pocketbooks, outside of anchoring items at a higher price in their mind or something. Either way it’s shitty on Googles part and fuck them, but i don’t understand.
They’ve also ruined Google Maps by attempting to “optimize” it with AI
I use a navigation app constantly for work.
A month or two ago Google Maps started doing this thing where it would take me to the incorrect address on the same street as the address I was actually looking for.
Yesterday I put in an address, and it named the destination pin the correct address, but the pin wasn’t even on the same side of the city as the street I knew I was going to.
It used to work flawlessly. What the fuck are they thinking?
Anyway, I deleted that shit. Using Apple Maps until I find a FOSS navigation app I like.
I use organic maps: https://f-droid.org/packages/app.organicmaps
I recommend switching over to Comaps. Community members raised concerns about transparency & governance with shareholders of Organic Maps. Community members have since left & forked it https://www.comaps.app/about-us/
The whole internet is slowly getting ruined by AI optimization.
I also rely on navigation ever day. I downloaded the map quest app after Google changed the name of lake ontario and it's been working pretty well for me.
Oh shit, I didn’t even realize Mapquest was still in the game
It's just yet another client for openstreetmaps, it doesn't have its own maps anymore. There are non-proprietary clients available for OSM tho
Nor sure if it's FOSS but HERE WeGo is pretty okay.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look into that one
Oh look, they finally found a way to make AI profitable! (It’s just scamming people again)
When your prompt doesn't include "no scamming", that's your fault, obviously.
Google discovering that AI search may quietly steer shoppers toward higher prices is a fun twist: first search results became ads, then ads became recommendations, and now recommendations apparently have a concierge fee. At this rate, AI powered shopping just means your wallet gets the hallucination.
Discovering?
i would have thought this was exactly the intention
All AI is to big tech is a way to swindle and control you. Cast them into the sea.
tenbluelinks.org solves that pesky AI problem. Load up the google web search and then use the element picker in uBO to remove the ai links on the search page and presto! Better searches and results.
Or just don't use Google. At all.
This is the way. There are a lot of Google search alternatives now that shows what you are looking for in the 1st or 2nd item, not under all the "recommended", "sponsored" or random promoted posts.
That's what I'm doing. They have proven time and time again they aren't to be trusted.
I cannot believe Google hasn’t been broken up yet. I haven’t used their services in years and block them on my home network. I used to use their search and other services all the time, until 2022 when I saw several news articles come out about them locking people out of the accounts because their AI accused people of being child abusers, but when those people were found innocent, Google refused to return their data or accounts. That is disgraceful behavior for a company. Plus many many other issues. Glad to see that they are killing their brand with AI, meaning they are not driving traffic to other websites anymore, but raising energy costs for those sites. And that now this. Glad to also see that people are moving away from their map system in the latest round of news. AI needs to be regulated. Our data needs to be protected. Privacy (digital and in the real world) should be a basic human right.
They didn't expect this one weird trick!
Q: How can people find the lowest $/unit on groceries and not spend so much?