Enshittification

Thanks :)

I never saw any evidence in anyone's post histories. Everyone seemed like they were typical Lemmy users.

I wouldn't have hidden my disclaimer in a spoiler if I had seen anything that suspicious, but I also wouldn't have been suspicious in the first place if I didn't get a weird gut feel. As I've said in an earlier thread, I myself have sounded like an ad before - there is a non-zero chance every single post about the surface I have ever read has been 100% legitimate. Genuine enthusiasm for a product can be entirely distinguishable from manufactured enthusiasm.

I did use the trial, and it is legitimately an excellent experience. It's not like, oh wow, the results are so much better than Google's, but the results are better than every single provider except Google, plus you don't feel dirty when you use it.

There's a chance this is the last time I complain about this suspicion I can't prove. After all, I'm rooting for them.

Semi-tangential: The status quo is more or less acceptable today, but if price discrimination kicks in hardcore someday thanks to data mining, it will cost a lot of people a lot of money, and by then it might be too late. (That’s probably my big fear. Advertisers don’t care about you or me specifically, I’m not paranoid in that sense, but they do salivate at the thought of learning enough about us they can do custom pricing on everything and charge each of us the absolute maximum we’re willing to pay.)