Mike @ Pirata @lemm.ee Posts 4Comments 302Joined 1 mo. ago
I understand your view. It's just, I don't see what other choice they have/had.
Search engine backends are remarkably scarce, and very expensive to run. And if you're trying to build a front-end search engine today, you're pretty much limited to:
- Google (US)
- Bing (US)
- Baidu (China)
- Sogou (China)
- Mojeek (UK)
- Yandex (Russia)
Between these choices, and before the US decided to become a fascist state, realistically which of these engines made more sense to pick? Being honest. US tech has always been seen as trustworthy and the golden standard for all things tech, until very recently.
Sure, they could also use metasearch engines, but those are remarkably consumer-UNfriendly and would require tweaking beyond the capabilities of the common tech company.
The only thing I cannot explain here is why they didn't use Mojeek as their backend, and here we can only speculate..
Maybe it would have made Ecosia financially inviable if they had to pay for their API. Maybe they were concerned Mojeek's finances were too uninspiring compared to the colossal capacities that Google/Microsoft have.
Or maybe they thought people didn't want to have a radically different experience in results from what they are used to, and so decided to basically just give these two platforms a green makeover and promise to plant some trees. I don't know.
My point is, I wouldn't necessarily hold it against them. If anything, I am glad they agreed to join forces with Qwant in building a true EU-based search engine. Its sad that it took us so long to realise we need the basic infrastructure that other big economies have, but I suppose better late than ever.
I'm optimistic.
Yeah. Basically all the email settings have been automatically set by my email provider. I think it might be a matter time before it fixes itself.. I hope 😬
Same. I had no idea we were this developed, but man. Europe is doing great things. Even the most beginner-friendly Linux distributions are European based.
Can't wait to close all doors on US services and products.
Does it work well? I just bought a domain and am struggling to receive email. But maybe they are still moving settings around.
It's a Russian shell company.
I always think it's just a shell for some Russian company
Oh boy do I have some news for yooooooou.
Seriously, just use Mullvad DNS. Free and Swedish (also very trustworthy brand).
Permanently Deleted
BREAKING NEWS: "CIA unveils China's plot to just sit back and relax while the US diamantles itself."
Why would Europeans pick small US businesses to shop? Do Americans give priority to buying from small EU businesses? No.
You buy from the US first, big or small, and only then do you look for alternatives outside if something doesn't exist in the US (which means, never).
Because it doesn't matter if its big or small. If it's American, it pays taxes in the US, it's boycotted.
Do you think the current US regime is being selective about the size of EU companies that are being hit by their unwarranted tariffs? Of course not.
Nor will we.
Some people are just starting to get their first iPhones and Macs TODAY. We're not all old farts on the internet as much as we'd like to think so.
Well, maybe you don't understand the context of the OP, but we Europeans are leaving US tech behind due to your current president starting an unwarranted trade war with all of the US's (former) allies.
I was praising you, or any american really, who's sabotaging the current administration instead of just living life as usual. That's how my comment follows.
Are you me? Lol. Ever since I started bootinf Linux (through a standard speed pendrive, mind you) I barely boot into windows.
In fact, I'm pissed whenever I accidentally boot into windows because windows is too the automatic option when booting, haha. I foresee that changing very very soon.
Nice list. Why KMail over Thunderbird, I wonder?
Not exactly misleading since they do donate money to plant trees, that's the only claim they make.
Yes, they use Google/Bing frontend, but they have also shown interest in changing by teaming up with Qwant to build an EU-based indexer.
I don't use Ecosia BTW, I use Qwant, but I'm trying to be fair here.
There's an annoying meme that Europe doesn't do tech things and it's infuriating. The world would be a very different place were it not for companies like Raspberry pi, ARM, Arduino and Prusa.
Believe me, I was guilty of this. I think the US propaganda as the best tech creators ever is strong (or maybe ours is too weak/nonexistent).
This trade war started by Cheeto President has been a wake up call on many levels, this being one of them.
So far I've managed to get rid of pretty much all US tech (including adopting Linux and a mostly deGoogled phone). Better late than never.
Its good to see that Americans are just following Dear Leader into the abyss.
It really wasn't.
You tried to make it about the US when the topic is about a company that operates internationally, that's what.
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised is breaking national law in many countries with their one-size-fits-all approach.
But I'd rather just not give a crap about that and just keep pirating my books.
What's good to the user is what the user wants its device to do. Simple as.
Yes, thank you for that. It really is a Godsent for low vision readers or people who get screen fatigue easily.