News Forum - What changes did Google notice in Thailand’s web searches last year?

[Thaiger]

US multinational Google last year identified a substantial change in consumer trends in Thailand based on web searches conducted last year. The world’s favourite web browser discovered a change of direction in Thailand’s search engines which were split into three categories or trends in Google’s “Year in Search 2022 – Thailand” report, which opened a …

The story What changes did Google notice in Thailand’s web searches last year? as seen on Thaiger News.

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[TWS60]

Don't like the confidence Google exhibits when they make their sweeping statements, "Thai people are____________", based on internet search data.  You are more than the sum or your Google Searches, but that's not how Google sees you.  We are green goo growing in their digital petri dishes.  Spied on 7/24, collated, categorized, manipulated and predictable.  Dogs to Pavlov. 

I know we sign away our expectation of privacy when agreeing the Terms and Conditions of Use, but this article creeps me out anyway.  We are being increasingly conditioned to overlook intrusions as an acceptable trade-off for instant gratification.  There's a more insidious angle, and we've seen it play out, including by the boys in extra tight brown uniforms down in BKK.  You've got nothing to worry about as long as you don't have anything to hide.   

Want to remove the battery from your phone to get off the grid for a while?  Not anymore.  Why did we get internal batteries that are more difficult to access?  According to a Google Search , it was to make our devices more slim/compact to carry around all the time.  They did it for "us".   For our convenience.  Including laptops, which I've never tried to put in my pocket.  In the late 1990s/early 2000s, there was a competition to see who could make the smallest phone, so clearly it wasn't about the battery.  The trend soon shifted back the other way, making phones bigger and more unwieldy, with internal batteries and embedded functions you can't disable/delete/uninstall. 

[Soidog]

20 minutes ago, TWS60 said:

Don't like the confidence Google exhibits when they make their sweeping statements, "Thai people are____________", based on internet search data.  You are more than the sum or your Google Searches, but that's not how Google sees you.  We are green goo growing in their digital petri dishes.  Spied on 7/24, collated, categorized, manipulated and predictable.  Dogs to Pavlov. 

I know we sign away our expectation of privacy when agreeing the Terms and Conditions of Use, but this article creeps me out anyway.  We are being increasingly conditioned to overlook intrusions as an acceptable trade-off for instant gratification.  There's a more insidious angle, and we've seen it play out, including by the boys in extra tight brown uniforms down in BKK.  You've got nothing to worry about as long as you don't have anything to hide.   

Want to remove the battery from your phone to get off the grid for a while?  Not anymore.  Why did we get internal batteries that are more difficult to access?  According to a Google Search , it was to make our devices more slim/compact to carry around all the time.  They did it for "us".   For our convenience.  Including laptops, which I've never tried to put in my pocket.  In the late 1990s/early 2000s, there was a competition to see who could make the smallest phone, so clearly it wasn't about the battery.  The trend soon shifted back the other way, making phones bigger and more unwieldy, with internal batteries and embedded functions you can't disable/delete/uninstall. 

I agree with your comments on Google and other large software companies. There is little we can do if we want to use their products other than to accept our activities and preferences are being monitored. There are some steps you can take such as not always allowing cookies, using a VPN or installing other protective blocking software on the device. In the end however, many of these “protective” tools can slow down or even hinder the functionality of some applications. 
 

Im not sure I fully agree with the comments on batteries. While it’s true the “reason” often quoted for non- removable relates to space, there are also other benefits. Not least of which is water resistance or water proofing which is far easier with a sealed battery. The obvious disadvantages being the inability to totally turn off the device and easily replace an aging battery.