this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Why would anyone use this over Proton Mail or the gazillion alternatives if it treats people like shit.

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[–] [email protected] 145 points 7 months ago (4 children)

These ads only appear in the "promotions" section of Gmail, the section that is by definition for advertising emails. It's not great, but this is the least intrusive place to put ads.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

Whoa, there's remotely tech-savvy people who don't turn off 100% of that "new" inbox sorting stuff? Color me surprised.

That Social/Updates/Promotion shit is absolutely trash shit garbage useless. It does nothing to improve email experience. It exists to serve you ads.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (4 children)

As someone who enjoyed Google Inbox before they killed it, it hurts to read this comment.

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[–] LameName3000 22 points 7 months ago (3 children)

That's weird, I feel like it does improve my experience. I like how it categorizes my emails.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 7 months ago (15 children)

Gmail has had ads for at least a decade.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's been like that for a long time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

It's definitely getting far worse lately. It used to only be in promotions but now I'm seeing it in updates too. In promotions it's about 1 ad to every 2-3 emails now when it used to be 1-2 at the top and that's it

[–] [email protected] 54 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Maybe I’m missing something, but hasn’t this been the case since forever?

I mean, Google is an advertising company. I would be surprised if they didn’t serve ads in their free email service.

[–] charles 22 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I've never in my life seen an ad in Gmail mobile app in-line as though it were something in your inbox. I get really frustrated at the indignance over "ad company does ads and you're mad" as if there's not a difference when things get escalated.

[–] Pwnmode 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's under the promotions tab. Been that way for a while. I just don't use that tab myself so I don't see it often.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 7 months ago (4 children)

were these not always in gmail?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes. They have always been a part of Gmail. Even back when Gmail was invite only they implemented ads (one of my accounts is from 2004).

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've never seen them and have been using it for close to 20 years now

[–] uid0gid0 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

They only show up if you use the tabs. And then I think they are only in Promotions.

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[–] Clipboards 12 points 7 months ago

Yes they've always been a thing in the promotions/else tabs, anyone who says they aren't around simply hasn't clicked those tabs or registered they existed (in fairness, everything in that tab is generally an ad)

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[–] Stoney_Logica1 42 points 7 months ago

They have been for years now.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Wait until you see Yahoo mail.

Edit: Before you say nobody uses Yahoo mail, it's probably the 2nd most used after gmail at my school, afaik, I haven't met another person using protonmail.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Do you go to school in 1998?

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago

alwayshasbeen.jpg

[–] hperrin 31 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Yes it is. It is malware at this point. (It’s trying to trick you into clicking ads.) If I can invite you to try Port87, it’s an email service that I wrote that does the opposite. (Keeps spam out of your inbox, rather than inserting spam into it.)

Full disclosure: I developed and run Port87, and as such, have a financial interest in it.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

It's only in the promotions inbox, which if Gmail is sorting correctly is just full of commercial spam anyways. Doesn't really impact the experience for me since I rarely ever check it

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Turn off your promotions inbox and only have a main inbox and you don't get ads

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry, they're also selling your data on top of that

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[–] dyc3 27 points 7 months ago

Y'all they have been doing this for literally years. Don't act surprised it's not fucking new.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

Advertising company puts adverts in one of few products they didn't shutter two years in.

Years ago.

More at 11.

[–] lepinkainen 25 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If the service is free, you are the product. It's not complicated.

Pay for email, get no ads.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (19 children)

That statement just makes all of FOSS sound bad, and then people have even less of an idea what alternatives they could be using

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Looks like your email account is nothing but adverts anyway, so probably not a huge deal?

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[–] eruchitanda 22 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I'd switch to FairEmail or K-9 Mail instead.

Both are great.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

K-9 is great, nice clutter-free design.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

I remember seeing this at least more than 5 years ago, before discovering the benefits of FOSS.

[–] DingoBilly 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Lol who the fuck uses the promotions tab?

You are just using Gmail poorly.

Like going to a shopping centre and complaining the stores have ads in front of their stores. There's legitimate concerns about Google and then there's just dumb users.

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[–] lemming741 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Protons self-promotions are even more intrusive.

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[–] BattleGrown 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Bruh your real name is on the image

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It is insiane to me that Google shows these ads to google one subscribers.

I already pay google hundreds of dollars a year, and have done so for years. then over the last 2 yesr they slowly started rolling out intrusive ads into my mobile Gmail app.

It was the final straw for me. I've started slowing migrating my email off Gmail, but my goodness is that ever a slow and painful process.

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[–] DanglingFury 13 points 7 months ago (8 children)

The only way to disable them is to disable the inbox sorting setting (where it sorts primary, promotional, and social). As it is, it only puts adds in the promotional inbox. The worst thing is, i swear it knows where your mouse is and re sorts your emails so an ad lands right below your mouse, increasing the number of ad clicks and the ad revenue. I've had this happen to be multiple times.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Use k-9 mail (its a good email client and it supports gmail)

[–] warmaster 16 points 7 months ago (7 children)

They got bought by Mozilla, soon it will be renamed to Thunderbird.

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[–] shalva97 12 points 7 months ago

That's what Google is

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The real culprit here is BIMI and the Marketing folks.

This is just the beginning, with more mail providers probably joining in sooner or later.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yep, getting about time to move the rest of my email over to proton...

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Google has always done this. I wouldn't know though because I've turned off a lot of the personalization settings and always use adblocking DNS.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Adguard must block this because I've never seen these in my life

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (6 children)

You haven't checked your email in how many years?

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[–] RoyaltyInTraining 9 points 7 months ago

They are legally obliged to ~~screw over their users as much as possible~~ maximize shareholder value

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