Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?

Subject: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Feb 12 - 02:52 PM

I am suddenly having new results when using Google...and also seeing ads I didn't used to see. (I 'usually' run a webfilter proxy, and turn it off for certain situations.)

This morning, I did a Google search on a couple topics, and got the usual long list of hits. But when I began to click on them, I got a continuous string of "page not founds". Puzzled, I said to myself.."hey..I think Google is messing with me!". So... I turned off my controlling filter/proxy, and VOILA!, the links all worked!

So.. I am assuming that Google has found away to rewrite their scripts to defeat such naughty toys like *I* prefer. Curious, I went to the Ixquick search engine and found that it did NOT impede my searches in any way....and did not record my IP address, either!

Yeah... I know that they have to make lot of billions selling ads to do all the stuff they do, but sheesh! That's too much!

They are making a big point of combining ALL the 'services' that you are enrolled in thru Google (email, Google+, etc...) so that they can track everything you do and...ummm... 'make it easier for you'. As of March 1, there will be NO way to opt out except by not using any Google services..... right....

But I have not seen... so far... any mention of the search control system that requires ads to be visible if you want links to work. I will do some searchs... thru Ixquick... to see if I can clarify exactly what may be going on.

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Feb 12 - 11:41 PM

Bill -

I have also observed a significant change in results returned by Google. Previously Google used a "Safe Search" mode that would exclude certain results; but in rare instances it was helpful to "Turn Off Safe Search," especially, in my case, when I wanted to look at medical information. With the "new?" Google toolbar there is no place that I can find where you can choose any change in the nanny-filter, and results have begun to portend the day when only bunnies and kittens will be permitted in results (and maybe perhaps "personalities" who've "been nice?")

Microsoft has been pushing their "Bing" search, and claims have been made that they've blocked some Google functions in Windows generally and especially in IE. Nobody appears to have any hard evidence.

The HTML5 pseudo-standard is at least three to five years from adoption, and hence it contains many "speculative" functions that are widely misused, even if one ASSumes eventual adoption. The "experimental" functions that various people "hope to see" in the eventual Standard are being widely used because they let the programmers "do something cute." In many cases what is done isn't in any way helpful, and in other, or sometimes the same, cases simply doesn't work except for those who use exactly the same OS (including versions), ISPs, browsers, option settings, and "Favorites" as the designers.

Sun Microsystems recently won a copyright lawsuit, and as a result Microsoft is now prohibited from distributing Java, or of "tailoring" any Java functions to be more specific to MS uses. Microsoft now sends everyone directly to Sun for Java downloads. The prohibition apparently applied only to Microsoft, however, and numerous others now appear to be releasing their own versions of Java, or misnamed Java applets. Some of them may be merely mirroring the Sun download site, but others appear to actually "work different" or do only specific and limited functions.

Although there's no explanation or proof, the flap over Java may be a reason why Microsoft now seems to be pushing a "Runtime C++" module. I've hit a couple of dozen sites that demand download of a RT C++ module in order to get a page to open or download, but Microsoft has additionally issued multiple "updates." A week or so ago, I found 11 different C++ modules on my machine, all added within the past three months or so (and all disabled as soon as the immediate use was done), but they've all disappeared now, probably due to a MS Update two days ago.

I'm also encountering multiple "pdf downloaders" with each site demanding use of their own downloader. (I've identified at least 5.)Most of these politely delete themselves when the download finishes, but at least two apparently popular ones simply don't work with Windows.

It's really hard to keep up, when people play games instead of being productive.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 18 Feb 12 - 02:30 AM

Try - www.scholar.google.com

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

It should lead you to a higher ground.

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Tootler
Date: 18 Feb 12 - 05:22 AM

I've just seen an item on the BBC news website about Google bypassing settings on the Apple Safari browser which are intended to prevent cookies being set by advertisers unless the user permits.

There is need for regulation on the gathering and use of data by advertisers and others (including governments) on the web.

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Feb 12 - 05:36 AM

Gargoyle -

I hit scholar pretty regularly, and have the scholar button on my toolbar; but in the subjects I've been looking for about all you find are abstracts, and full articles that would tell you whether a paper actually says anything run $18 each, or more, with many over $30.

It puts a real crimp in my measly retirement check to look at even a few, and what I have been able to find indicates you buy about 8 to get 2 or 3 that are useful, if you're lucky.

Occasionally there are isolated papers I can get at the local library, but it's a real hassle getting there, and the building's not handicap accessible. Their indexing is still on file cards, with lots of errors and omissions, and they don't subscribe to the Journal index issues. If I can identify a paper, I have to go to the library to see if they might have it, since the people at the front desk can't pronounce most of the medical terms so it's hopeless trying to get them to look up whether they might have it. ...and they usually don't.

The local med school branch might have more, but they won't let me in. The nearest decent collections that I might be able to buy my way into are about 180 miles away.

Scholar also suffers from the "Google curse" in that what they show is ranked by "popularity," so if an illness that's news now uses terms similar to those found in the stuff I want, all I find is papers about the new stuff, and there's no good way to search past the first hits that they list. In one particular subject little was published since about 1950 on what I want, but there's been massive amounts of research on similar but different subjects since then that use similar terminology, and I can't get a Google Scholar hit on anything prior to about 1970, even with 140 Boolean excludes to try to cut off the later stuff.

I really need access to a dungeon where the old stuff is, but the dungeon owners are afraid of the alligators and won't go down there, and they won't let me in to do it myself.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 12 - 06:08 AM

www.worldcat.edu - for academic material

Join an alumni club for 20 dollars. Research on line at home. Phone and the items will at the desk to pickup. Or do in person and use the duplicating machine.

For medical use www.pubmed.gov If you require a full citatation also visit the university for professional journals.

Not all librarys have the same collections available free on line. I learned French through Rosetta Stone - on line. - through a Minnisotta public library 2000 miles away. (That door is now closed since Rosetta went public) .

I have never been challenged when using a hospital medical library. Just dress nice with a tie and polished shoes. Have a respectable note book and pen.

Inter library loan is quite fast if it is in their shelf. (It tells you on -line).

The Essay Verification Engine (lifetime 20 dollar fee) is an obscure route to pick up primary sources. You just need a unique phrase, some imagination, and tracking skills.

Lexus Nexus is available at law schools for free. All court cases are at the courthouse. Very fun to read cases.

Sincerely, Gargoyle

skills to research the original document scan.

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Andrez
Date: 19 Feb 12 - 07:18 AM

Hey there JIK, I'm currently doing a Masters at Uni. If you want help finding a particular article, I'd be happy to do the occasional lookup on you behalf and forward whatever I can download. They have a serious medical library and I assume I can access pretty much anything that is in electronic format. Up to you but I thought I'd offer anyway.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Artful Codger
Date: 19 Feb 12 - 02:30 PM

The Google account unification and big-brotherism is why I recently gave all my Google accounts the heave-ho. If more people bucked the buggers like this, they'd revamp their policies again in short order.

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Feb 12 - 03:02 PM

I appreciate the offers, but I've not found "remote controlled searching" particularly useful. The problem is that most of the individual articles are unlikely to provide what's wanted, simply because the language used in technical work is too generic and terminologies overlap many different subjects. If you know of a specific report that you think is essential, odds are you're trying to prove a point and you've indentified the only one that takes your side. That's not educational, and you end up just like the propagandists at the NIH, parroting a party line. (The government sources in the US do have some stuff available for free download, but much of it is somewhat "dated," and in some subject areas it is pure propaganda, with counter opinions expunged.)

The original subject here was "what's happening to Google," so my first post was meant to be fairly specific to changes in Google searches. The second post was similarly directed, but was also in response to Gargoyle's first post, and I did wander off into the "excessive exclusivity" of the professional journals. This is a fact of life in quite a few areas, from med research to real specifications for the flanges on carburetors (we're not supposed to use those anymore) fuel injector pumps. The "societies" who control technical publications like to think they're the exclusive keepers of their stuff, which is a very real barrier to their half-assed claims that they want the "public to be informed."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Feb 12 - 01:53 PM

Update.... today I tried again, making note of the address that 'shows' when your mouse hovers over the desired link:
on most links I get something like this:
http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/portraiture/bacon/francis_bacon.htm&sa=U&ei=DoxCT-PxFsf40gHDk-3YBw&ved=0CDIQFjAM&usg=AFQjCNHPf3-GbjO2DmVLqvUE4uRdAhyKXw

When I turn off my proxy/filter, I get just the part before the &. If I do NOT turn it off, I get, as I mentioned, different forms of "we ain't go no pages like that"

And.... as before, the Ixquick search engine doesn't put all that stuff in.
I have found that Ixquick.com gets 'almost' as much as Google, and I am putting a permanent link to https://ixquick.com/ in all my browsers (of course I have several browsers.. ☺.. doesn't everyone?)

This situation is similar to other situations where a page will show you a small (thumbnail) image with a clickable link to the full sized one, but requires javascript to use it!! Perhaps 5% of pages tell you specifically that javascript is required! I have no idea why Wikipedia insists on javascript to simply load a larger image.

I have 'sort of' adapted to enabling javascript when something doesn't work, but this Google search bit is over my tolerance limit!

NOT ONLY THAT... but the ads that appear between the top & bottom of the Mudcat areas.... my filter (Proxomitron) used to always blank them out except when *I* manually allowed them in order to do some clicks and make Max some $$$... I mean ¢¢¢. Now, Google ads appear no matter what I do! If one does a CTRL U ("view source") and studies the code there, one (me in this case) can find the offending script and actually edit it out, then going back to Mudcat, leaving those 2 lines with no ads between them- temporarily- but of course, when the page is refreshed, they are back again.


This is what is found in "page source" (with [] instead of<>

[div align="center"]
[script type="text/javascript"][!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8949422757641224";
/* square */
google_ad_slot = "5997379675";
google_ad_width = 200;
google_ad_height = 200;
//-->
[/script]
[span class="Prox" id="p-js" style="display:none"][center>• Ad Script: List=Ad Domains Match=googlesyndication[/center][/span]



once again, I have this silly notion that *I* should have the right to control what happens on *my* computer. For those who don't care, or can't figure it out, I don't know what to say.... except that I hope more people go to Ixquick .

Subject: RE: Tech: Google javascript affecting ads/search?
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Feb 12 - 03:00 PM

It's getting stranger....

I followed a link in a Mudcat thread and swiped some text to copy a few lines. When I had finished my swipe, and even before I hit ctrl-C, up popped a little magnifying glass icon with pop-up message in it which said "Suspected Terms of Service abuse..please see http://code.google.com/apis/errors.

Curious, I typed that in...and was redirected to:

https://developers.google.com/errors/

where I read this: "You received this notice because Google has blocked or throttled this website's access to the Google API.
If you are a user of this website, please forward the URL of this error document (http://code.google.com/apis/errors/) to the site administrator.
If you are a developer, please keep reading to diagnose the problem and reinstate the API.

We blocked your website from using the API due to one of the reasons cited below. To reinstate your account, you need to take action so your site complies with the Terms of Use."

and it goes on with explanations about what to do to "reinstate API"...... I have NEVER seen this before, and wonder if it's related to all the other stuff going on.