On Sun, 8 Dec 2024 07:16:45 -0800, Stan Brown wrote:

Pixel 8a, Android 15

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items, none of which I want. It appears to be the Google app,
not Chrome, though I'm not 100% sure of that.

Is there some way to turn that off?

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover, and it can be turned off in the Google app's own Settings
menu.

https://www.androidpolice.com/disable-google-discover-android/

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

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Pixel 8a, Android 15

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items, none of which I want. It appears to be the Google app,
not Chrome, though I'm not 100% sure of that.

Is there some way to turn that off? In particular, would Settings��
Apps�� Google�� Disable do it, and if so are there any bad
consequences, for instance losing Google's automatic backups? (After
my phone was stolen a week ago, Google saved my bacon by downloading
everything to my new phone, even call history and texts.)

More general question: what in fact is the Google app _for_? All the
things I use: Calendar, Messages, Phone, Contacts -- are separate
apps.

Except for this annoyance, I like the Googleverse on the Pixel much
better than the mishmash of Samsung versions of Google apps on my old
Galaxy A54 5G A. For instance, Samsung's app for photos wouldn't show
anything I had taken on my earlier phone, and Google's wouldn't show
anything else.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

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Stan Brown wrote:

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover

It would be more useful if it showed news articles before they get 36
hours out of date and avoided showing new stories behind paywalls.

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On 08 Dec 2024, Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote in comp.mobile.android:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2024 07:16:45 -0800, Stan Brown wrote:

Pixel 8a, Android 15

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been
dumped into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and
clickbait news items, none of which I want. It appears to be the
Google app, not Chrome, though I'm not 100% sure of that.

Is there some way to turn that off?

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover, and it can be turned off in the Google app's own
Settings menu.

https://www.androidpolice.com/disable-google-discover-android/

Thank you! That has been annoying me for some time now. I've learned to
mostly avoid triggering it but it still happens sometimes. I don't need
or want it. Now gone!

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Nil wrote:

That has been annoying me for some time now. I've learned to
mostly avoid triggering it but it still happens sometimes.

If you don't like/want it, fair enough. But it's difficult to see why
it's a mystery how it gets invoked ... just swipe left from the home screen.

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On 2024-12-08 19:09, Andy Burns wrote:

Stan Brown wrote:

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover

It would be more useful if it showed news articles before they get 36
hours out of date and avoided showing new stories behind paywalls.

When I hit a pay wall after an item in discover, I hit the three dot
menu, then "report this" as "other".

--
Cheers, Carlos.

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On 08.12.24 16:35, Stan Brown wrote:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2024 07:16:45 -0800, Stan Brown wrote:

Pixel 8a, Android 15

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items, none of which I want. It appears to be the Google app,
not Chrome, though I'm not 100% sure of that.

Is there some way to turn that off?

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover, and it can be turned off in the Google app's own Settings
menu.

https://www.androidpolice.com/disable-google-discover-android/

Thanks! One PITA less on my Pixel!


--
"Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

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Carlos E.R. wrote on Sun, 8 Dec 2024 22:27:59 +0100 :

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped
into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover

It would be more useful if it showed news articles before they get 36
hours out of date and avoided showing new stories behind paywalls.

When I hit a pay wall after an item in discover, I hit the three dot
menu, then "report this" as "other".

Thank God I've never seen any of this ad stuff but may I ask what app
people are using that brings up these full-page ads on their Android phone?

When the OP says "Google app" in the subject line, is that the Google
Search App (I don't have it so I can't confirm with a package name).

Andy - is that the app the OP is talking about serving him ads?
What does it do (it's not on my phone so I can't test it out for him)?

Searching in Muntashirakon App Manager, I see an uninstalled app named
"Google" com.google.android.googlequicearch... (it's truncated)

Is that the app that the OP is using?

My phone works perfectly fine with that app uninstalled from the user
partition so I'm curious what it does for the OP that he really needs.

Also are they using a "private DNS" such as the one that I'm using:
Samsung A32-5G Android 13
Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Private DNS
(o)Private DNS provider hostname = adblock.dns.mullvad.net

Also, there's no advertising ID on my phone. Is there one on yours?
Developer options = on
Settings > Google > Ads (the advertising ID does not exist)

Otherwise, why have I never seen an ad on my phone even as I have almost
900 apps on my phone and my bootloader version isn't rootable.

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On 08 Dec 2024, Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote in
comp.mobile.android:

Nil wrote:

That has been annoying me for some time now. I've learned to
mostly avoid triggering it but it still happens sometimes.

If you don't like/want it, fair enough. But it's difficult to
see why it's a mystery how it gets invoked ... just swipe left
from the home screen.

On my Pixel 6a you swipe from the bottom. It would often get triggered
just by handling the phone or while doing something else in that area.

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Andy Burns wrote on Sun, 8 Dec 2024 18:54:25 +0000 :

If you don't like/want it, fair enough. But it's difficult to see why
it's a mystery how it gets invoked ... just swipe left from the home screen.

I just tried swiping left from "my" home screen, and it just goes to
another home screen (in a circular fashion) so I think the launcher matters
(as likely does your settings for how you want the basic UI to work).

BTW, swiping right does the same thing - only in the other direction. :)

Swiping down brings up the tile menu and notifications.
Swiping up brings up an App Drawer app of some sort.

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Andrew wrote:

Thank God I've never seen any of this ad stuff but may I ask what app
people are using that brings up these full-page ads on their Android phone?

It never shows me adverts, let alone full-page ones, some of the news
stories are thinly veiled promo stuff scraped from news websites or
paywalled articles from the same. It acts as an extra "page" to the
left of the home screen.

When the OP says "Google app" in the subject line, is that the Google
Search App (I don't have it so I can't confirm with a package name).

I can reach a similar app by launching "Google" from the app drawer,
it's not identical, it also has a search bar and some buttons to do lens
image search, lens translate, song ident and lens homework question search.

Andy - is that the app the OP is talking about serving him ads?
What does it do (it's not on my phone so I can't test it out for him)?

Searching in Muntashirakon App Manager, I see an uninstalled app named "Google" com.google.android.googlequicearch... (it's truncated)

Yes, that is the name of the non-home screen version mentioned above,
the full name is com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

It looks like a mega-launcher for every Google activity going, if you've
got the APK look at the massive list of activities/services/providers etc

My android launcher is the standard "Pixel Launcher", but it shows some
history in the app name com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher

Here's a "long" screenshot from the app version (not the launcher version)

<http://andyburns.uk/misc/googlequicksearchbox.png>

It does have an option to "use without an account"

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Nil wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

it's difficult to see why it's a mystery how it gets invoked ...
just swipe left from the home screen.

On my Pixel 6a you swipe from the bottom. It would often get triggered
just by handling the phone or while doing something else in that area.

Swiping up from the bottom gives me the home screen

Swiping up from the bottom, but stopping short, gives me the app switcher/killer

Swiping up from slightly above the bottom gives me the app drawer

It's been like that on pixel3, pixel5a and pixel8a, maybe it varies
depending whether you have gesture navigation enabled or the 3-button
bar? I have gestures ... I don't think I used gestures on the nexus5x

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On 2024-12-09 01:12, Andrew wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote on Sun, 8 Dec 2024 22:27:59 +0100 :

More than once, I've swiped left or right on a screen and been dumped >>>>> into a page with the Google header and a bunch of ads and clickbait
news items

Sorry, I should have Googled (!) before posting. It's called
Discover

It would be more useful if it showed news articles before they get 36
hours out of date and avoided showing new stories behind paywalls.

When I hit a pay wall after an item in discover, I hit the three dot
menu, then "report this" as "other".

Thank God I've never seen any of this ad stuff but may I ask what app
people are using that brings up these full-page ads on their Android phone?

When the OP says "Google app" in the subject line, is that the Google
Search App (I don't have it so I can't confirm with a package name).

I am talking of "Discover".

--
Cheers, Carlos.

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Carlos E.R. wrote:

I am talking of "Discover".

I don't have anything by that name ...

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On 12/9/24 7:37 AM, Andy Burns wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:

I am talking of "Discover".

I don't have anything by that name ...

I have "Discover" on the search page of many of my Chrome browser apps on my
various Android tablets. Some of my past toys had Discover built in.
Swiping right on the home screen would access it. I have found many
interesting articles there. Since they're scraped, the original ads come
with them...

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On 2024-12-09 15:37, Andy Burns wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:

I am talking of "Discover".

I don't have anything by that name ...

Try searching for it in the system setup.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

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AJL wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:

I am talking of "Discover".

I don't have anything by that name ...

I have "Discover" on the search page of many of my Chrome browser

OK yes, normally I use firefox/fenix, but if I use Chrome I get a set of similar scraped results under a Discover heading ...

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On 12/9/24 8:53 AM, Andy Burns wrote:

AJL wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:

I am talking of "Discover".

I don't have anything by that name ...

I have "Discover" on the search page of many of my Chrome browser

OK yes, normally I use firefox/fenix, but if I use Chrome I get a set of >similar scraped results under a Discover heading ...

Out of curiosity I installed the Google app on my Fire 8+ tablet (Android
fork OS) and the Discovery search page looks pretty much the same as the
Chrome browser. Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by
monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

Interestingly I haven't yet figured out how to get Discovery on this Chrome
tablet I'm posting with. It has a desktop Chrome browser with no Discovery
on the search page and when I try to download the Google app it says it
won't work on this device. C'mon Google. Ah well I'll try again after
lunch...

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Andy Burns wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 22:42:25 +0000 :

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure out what
it is that you like to read and then presenting you with similar
offerings....

I told my launcher pane to not use my google account, and refused all cookies, that way it game me more news stories, from more sources (not
just .uk) including cat vids and stuff ...

I do the same (conceptually) when, on a PC, I use a privacy-based web
browser to read the Google News web page which collates articles for me.
<https://news.google.com/home?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en>

Since it asks me every time to accept or reject cookies, I reject them.
Then it gives me whatever it thinks is a generic page for people in the US.

For World News, I have a similar bookmark which serves news alphabetically.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=world+news+today>

Interestingly, the good stuff (such as BBC & CNN) show up early (due to the accident of alphabetics); but then the utterly fantastically atrocious
garbage is soon listed thereafter (e.g., Al Jazeera & Hindustan Times).

Obviously I pick some (e.g., the BBC) yet I ignore others (Al Jazeera).

With those two pages alone, I pick through today's news WITHOUT anyone correlating my reading choices so as to "Discover" what it is I like.

Everything you do, every second of the day, is one of planned privacy.

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AJL wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 17:24:42 -0000 (UTC) :

Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by
monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure out what it
is that you like to read and then presenting you with similar offerings....

I have a free Amazon Vine account which allows me to order from Amazon
three items a day of up to $100 each without cost, shipping or taxes.

For *that* account, Amazon also monitors my purchases, and then it offers
me free stuff (up to $100 per item, 3 a day) that fits my buying patterns.

Surprisingly, that's a kind of monitoring & offering that I actually like!

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Andrew wrote:

AJL wrote:

Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by
 monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure out what
it is that you like to read and then presenting you with similar offerings....

I told my launcher pane to not use my google account, and refused all
cookies, that way it game me more news stories, from more sources (not
just .uk) including cat vids and stuff ...

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Andy Burns wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 09:02:46 +0000 :

the full name is com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

It looks like a mega-launcher for every Google activity going

Thanks for all that confirmation as I was faithfully trying to understand
the OP's original problem and the answers provided thereafter.

You helped me understand the issue better, where with respect to the
specific package <com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox>, I can see how
it could be useful for those who wish to make one-tap homescreen shortcuts
to (some of the many) Google Activities that it seems to call up.

For those who don't know what we're talking about, with Muntashirakon App Manager you can make a shortcut to any public Activity in an app.

Since the <com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox> lists those (presumably public) Activities, you can use Muntashirakon with that app to call them up with a one-tap homescreen shortcut.

Thanks Andy for helping clarify the OP's situation. Much appreciated.

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On 12/9/2024 3:22 PM, Andrew wrote:

AJL wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 17:24:42 -0000 (UTC) :

Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by monitoring
my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure out
what it is that you like to read and then presenting you with
similar offerings.... I have a free Amazon Vine account which allows
me to order from Amazon three items a day of up to $100 each without
cost, shipping or taxes. For *that* account, Amazon also monitors my purchases, and then it offers me free stuff (up to $100 per item, 3 a
day) that fits my buying patterns. Surprisingly, that's a kind of
monitoring & offering that I actually like!

How many reviews do you do a month?

My Amazon story is kinda funny (and sad). I ordered a Google Pixel
tablet ($400US) about 2 months ago. I received a toy football. Yep, you
heard me right...a toy football...in a box with a 'battery inside'
warning. I returned the football the next day (almost 2 months ago now)
and have been trying for a refund ever since. The lady on the phone
today promised the charge back would now occur in 5 to 10 days. We'll see...

Why don't I just dispute the charge with my credit card you ask? Cause
Amazon would then probably cancel me and unfortunately I can't live
without Amazon. Sad, huh. For example I needed a new part for my shower
last week. Do I drive down to the store, hunt for a parking spot, fight
the crowds, and look for the part, only to find that it may not be
there? Nope. I just whipped out an (on topic Android) tablet toy,
brought up the Amazon app, ordered the part and it was on my porch the
next morning. I just can't go back to my prior life...

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On 12/9/2024 3:42 PM, Andy Burns wrote:

Andrew wrote:

AJL wrote:

Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by
monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure
out what it is that you like to read and then presenting you with
similar offerings....

I told my launcher pane to not use my google account, and refused
all cookies, that way it game me more news stories, from more sources
(not just .uk) including cat vids and stuff ...

I've always enjoyed the Discover selection so Google does a good job
picking stuff for me. I also read other aggregators like Flipboard,
Yahoo News, Slashdot, The Register, and Smartnews. With my Chrome stuff
I use a read only extension to get rid of the ads, popups and moving
stuff. Likewise the Reading mode app on my Android stuff...

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On Mon, 9 Dec 2024 23:06:56 -0000 (UTC), Andrew <[email protected]>
wrote:

Andy Burns wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 22:42:25 +0000 :

On that topic alone of Google monitoring your reading to figure out what >>> it is that you like to read and then presenting you with similar
offerings....

I told my launcher pane to not use my google account, and refused all
cookies, that way it game me more news stories, from more sources (not
just .uk) including cat vids and stuff ...

I do the same (conceptually) when, on a PC, I use a privacy-based web
browser to read the Google News web page which collates articles for me.
<https://news.google.com/home?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en>

Since it asks me every time to accept or reject cookies, I reject them.
Then it gives me whatever it thinks is a generic page for people in the US.

For World News, I have a similar bookmark which serves news alphabetically.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=world+news+today>

Interestingly, the good stuff (such as BBC & CNN) show up early (due to the >accident of alphabetics); but then the utterly fantastically atrocious >garbage is soon listed thereafter (e.g., Al Jazeera & Hindustan Times).

Obviously I pick some (e.g., the BBC) yet I ignore others (Al Jazeera).

Well, if you choose to pick the garbage, that's up to you.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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AJL wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 16:55:14 -0700 :

How many reviews do you do a month?

I order three items a day, every day, from Amazon Vine, which is about 90 reviews per month. Amazon has rated me as one of their best reviewers.

But remember, this is all free stuff (up to $100 each) that NEEDS reviews.

They don't give you free stuff that doesn't need a review.

My Amazon story is kinda funny (and sad). I ordered a Google Pixel
tablet ($400US) about 2 months ago. I received a toy football. Yep, you
heard me right...a toy football...in a box with a 'battery inside'
warning. I returned the football the next day (almost 2 months ago now)
and have been trying for a refund ever since. The lady on the phone
today promised the charge back would now occur in 5 to 10 days. We'll see.

Funny thing about Amazon Vine is you can't return anything. It's yours.
<https://amazon.com/vine/about>

Once in a while we get a broken vase or something like that where they
simply take it off our list of things to review. But that's it.

You can't return anything.

Why don't I just dispute the charge with my credit card you ask? Cause
Amazon would then probably cancel me and unfortunately I can't live
without Amazon. Sad, huh. For example I needed a new part for my shower
last week. Do I drive down to the store, hunt for a parking spot, fight
the crowds, and look for the part, only to find that it may not be
there? Nope. I just whipped out an (on topic Android) tablet toy,
brought up the Amazon app, ordered the part and it was on my porch the
next morning. I just can't go back to my prior life...

Are you on Amazon (amazon.com) or Amazon Vine (amazon.com/vine)?

Amazon is where people order stuff using money.
Amazon Vine is where people order stuff for free.

Here's more information about getting 3 items a day for free from Amazon.
Each item can be up to $100 so that's up to $300 per day if you max out.
In one year, for example, that's $300x365 = about a hundred-thousand bucks!
<https://duckduckgo.com/&q=what+is+amazon+vine>

I'm only Silver but if I get gold, then it's 8 items a day of any price. Completely free of initial cost, sales tax, and shipping.

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On 12/9/2024 10:37 PM, Andrew wrote:

AJL wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 16:55:14 -0700 :

How many reviews do you do a month?

I order three items a day, every day, from Amazon Vine, which is
about 90 reviews per month. Amazon has rated me as one of their best reviewers.

Do you get to choose what stuff you review or does Amazon? If you order
it, it sounds like you do.

But remember, this is all free stuff (up to $100 each) that NEEDS
reviews. They don't give you free stuff that doesn't need a review.

But that sounds like Amazon decides what to send you?

Funny thing about Amazon Vine is you can't return anything. It's
yours. <https://amazon.com/vine/about>

What do you do with the stuff you don't need? Yard sale?

Are you on Amazon (amazon.com) or Amazon Vine (amazon.com/vine)?

I'm on plain old Amazon. I didn't even know that Amazon Vine existed. I
had to Google it.

Here's more information about getting 3 items a day for free from
Amazon.

Dunno where I'd put all that extra stuff. I've been retired 32 years now
and would hate going back to work.

Each item can be up to $100 so that's up to $300 per day if you max
out. In one year, for example, that's $300x365 = about a
hundred-thousand bucks!
<https://duckduckgo.com/&q=what+is+amazon+vine>

Sounds lucrative. Also sounds like a lot of work.

I'm only Silver but if I get gold, then it's 8 items a day of any
price. Completely free of initial cost, sales tax, and shipping.

Is it even possible use 8 items long enough to review them each day?
Perhaps I'm missing something...

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On 2024-12-10 07:46, AJL wrote:

I'm on plain old Amazon. I didn't even know that Amazon Vine existed. I
had to Google it.

You just have to type the url. I tried on my local one: https://www.amazon.es/vine

It asked for my login, then it explained what it is and that you enter
by invitation.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

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AJL <[email protected]> wrote:
[...]

Out of curiosity I installed the Google app on my Fire 8+ tablet (Android
fork OS) and the Discovery search page looks pretty much the same as the
Chrome browser. Google claims to make the articles interesting to me by
monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid, huh.

I had never used the 'Google' app, nor the 'Discover' part within
Chrome. This thread triggered me to try the 'Google' app and the funny
thing is that the kind of articles Google presents to me, seems to be
largely, but not solely, based of my activity on *Microsoft*'s *MSN* in
the *Edge* browser. So different company, different news platform and
different app/browser, but they seem to be 'linked' anyway. *Double*
scary for the paranoid! :-)

[...]

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On 12/10/2024 6:37 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

AJL <[email protected]> wrote: [...]

Out of curiosity I installed the Google app on my Fire 8+ tablet
(Android fork OS) and the Discovery search page looks pretty much
the same as the Chrome browser. Google claims to make the articles
interesting to me by monitoring my usage. Scary for the paranoid,
huh.

I had never used the 'Google' app, nor the 'Discover' part within
Chrome. This thread triggered me to try the 'Google' app and the
funny thing is that the kind of articles Google presents to me, seems
to be largely, but not solely, based of my activity on *Microsoft*'s
*MSN* in the *Edge* browser. So different company, different news
platform and different app/browser, but they seem to be 'linked'
anyway. *Double* scary for the paranoid! :-)

And I suspect things will only get worse (better?) with evolving AI...

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On 12/10/2024 5:08 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-12-10 07:46, AJL wrote:

I'm on plain old Amazon. I didn't even know that Amazon Vine
existed. I had to Google it.

You just have to type the url. I tried on my local one: https://www.amazon.es/vine

It asked for my login, then it explained what it is and that you
enter by invitation.

Thanks. Andrew's link in his last post <https://amazon.com/vine/about>
pretty well explained it for me. Probably good cause your link gave me a Spanish page and besides English the only other language I speak is Pig
Latin. Do they have Pig Latin in Spain? I used to have fun with it as a
kid but now my great-grandkids look at me like I'm nuts when I try to
get them to learn to converse in it... :-/

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AJL wrote on Mon, 9 Dec 2024 23:46:30 -0700 :

How many reviews do you do a month?

I order three items a day, every day, from Amazon Vine, which is
about 90 reviews per month. Amazon has rated me as one of their best
reviewers.

Do you get to choose what stuff you review or does Amazon? If you order
it, it sounds like you do.

I can tell from that question that you didn't click on any of the links. Suffice to say, of course YOU choose the stuff to receive for free.

You don't even have to review any of the items that you chose.
But they kick you off the program after 6 months if you don't.

This is the first question everyone asks about it & it's all here:
<https://amazon.com/vine/about>

But remember, this is all free stuff (up to $100 each) that NEEDS
reviews. They don't give you free stuff that doesn't need a review.

But that sounds like Amazon decides what to send you?

Again, you didn't click on any of the links so I'm explaining extremely
basic stuff that is already explained in all the links you didn't read.

Suffice to say that you get offered a different batch of over one hundred thousand Amazon items (EVERY ONE is also on Amazon!) sellers want reviewed.

So what's offered is whatever some seller thinks needs more reviews.
Amazon doesn't choose what to offer. The sellers do.

There are a hundred thousand items every day that you can get for free.

The sellers give the product to Amazon and the sellers pay for shipping.
Amazon just facilitates the sellers because it's good business for them.

Funny thing about Amazon Vine is you can't return anything. It's
yours. <https://amazon.com/vine/about>

What do you do with the stuff you don't need? Yard sale?

Amazon says you have to keep it for six months and then you can do whatever
you want with it. In truth, your friends & family get lots of free stuff.

You get things you need for yourself, like computers and generators and
solar panels and outdoor cameras and pool equipment and yard tools, etc.

My wife gets jewelry & pots and pans and dishes and rugs and clothes.
My male children get camping gear and jeans and hats and backpacks.
My female children get purses and watches and shoes and decorations.
My grandkids get baby clothes and basinets and cribs and diapers.

There's something for everyone.

Are you on Amazon (amazon.com) or Amazon Vine (amazon.com/vine)?

I'm on plain old Amazon.
I didn't even know that Amazon Vine existed. '
I had to Google it.

Yup. I never heard of it until one day Amazon wrote to me inviting me.

Here's more information about getting 3 items a day for free from
Amazon.

Dunno where I'd put all that extra stuff. I've been retired 32 years now
and would hate going back to work.

The kind of stuff I get is bluetooth receivers and wireless keyboards and wireless mice and USB bricks and USB cables and cases for tablets and
phones and screen coverings and phone tripods and selfie sticks, etc.

My wife gets stuff for the kitchen and home such as an induction cooker, an
air fryer, an induction pot set, special utensils such as garlic peelers, nutmilk makers, blenders, nut cracking tools, spatulas, wooden bowls, etc.

Each item can be up to $100 so that's up to $300 per day if you max
out. In one year, for example, that's $300x365 = about a
hundred-thousand bucks!
<https://duckduckgo.com/&q=what+is+amazon+vine>

Sounds lucrative. Also sounds like a lot of work.

You can do it for six months with ZERO work as you are never committed to
doing a review. You only do the review as a public service to mankind.

That's the kind of kind-hearted people they select (they're not stupid).

Somewhere I saw a statistic that they only invite one out of every hundred thousand people so they *must* have some sort of algorithm for that since they're risking up to a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Actually, if you do the math, they only risk half that $100K because at the half-year mark, they evaluate if you should still be kept in the program.

I'm only Silver but if I get gold, then it's 8 items a day of any
price. Completely free of initial cost, sales tax, and shipping.

Is it even possible use 8 items long enough to review them each day?
Perhaps I'm missing something...

The average is 22 days that people hold onto the items before reviewing
them, but you can hold onto it for six months before reviewing them.

Remember, you do NOT have to review them. There is no contract for that.
If you review fewer than 90% of them though, you don't get any more.

So you can do it for six months and be happy and never be invited back.
Then you're no worse for the wear (& you have up to $50K of free stuff).

Remember, Amazon isn't stupid. They only invite people *they* picked.
If a normal person goes to amazon.com/vine they will not see what I do.

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