So, I’m sure we all know about the WEI thing at this point, which is bad and weird enough; and also the sudden move to block ad-blockers on YouTube. I don’t know how that’s going to work out, but it’s pretty irritating. Not to mention, going to the gym, coming home, and suddenly getting loads of fitness-related ads piled on top of you… so I’m clearly being tracked.

Now I’m hearing that YouTube, which seems to just want to pile AI-topic-related tabloid TV on me in its recommendations, is now increasing its price per month for premium by a whopping two bucks, to $13.99. That’s as much as Netflix. So I can be ad-free on freakin’ YouTube, with contented created basically for them, for the same price as a network that actually takes responsibility for its shows.

The clear problems with Netflix notwithstanding, that’s another subject for another day.

It’s one thing after another these days. It’s been a while since I was a web designer/developer, but what does it look like from the front lines? Exactly how much hot water are they in?

On a further note, I’m reading the writing on the wall at this point and am wishing to begin to entirely remove myself from dependency on Google services. Docs, Drive, Mail, everything. Not easy, I know. Is there a list of competing (and possibly fediverse-ish) products out there somewhere?