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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[–] lemmy_in@lemm.ee 147 points 1 year 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.

[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 41 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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.

[–] ayaya@lemdro.id 37 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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[–] LameName3000@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year 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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[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 85 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Gmail has had ads for at least a decade.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.ca 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's been like that for a long time.

[–] tristan@aussie.zone 15 points 1 year 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

[–] maxprime@lemmy.ml 55 points 1 year 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@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year 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@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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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[–] archomrade@midwest.social 9 points 1 year ago

They've been picking up the density, for sure. I think adblock has also frequently worked on the webUI if you've used firefox, i'm not sure if they've updated it to get around ublock.

FAANG and the other high-cap tech companies have been cashing in on their market dominance these last few quarters - they're all getting bad. That's not a good sign if you're an average joe; it means you'll be bombarded with tracking and ads (even more than now) AND I think it's a bad sign for market stability. People have been predicting another recession for a while, but that signal is getting louder I think.

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[–] ashley@discuss.tchncs.de 54 points 1 year ago (4 children)

were these not always in gmail?

[–] JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year 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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[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] uid0gid0@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year 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@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year 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@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

They have been for years now.

[–] Swarfega@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

alwayshasbeen.jpg

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 15 points 1 year ago

Do you go to school in 1998?

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[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year 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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[–] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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

[–] CentreForAnts@aussie.zone 10 points 1 year ago

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

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

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[–] dyc3@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 25 points 1 year ago

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

Years ago.

More at 11.

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

Pay for email, get no ads.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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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[–] trk@aussie.zone 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] eruchitanda@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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

Both are great.

[–] TalesFromTheKitchen@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

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

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[–] Cosmocrat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago

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

[–] DingoBilly@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Protons self-promotions are even more intrusive.

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[–] BattleGrown@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bruh your real name is on the image

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[–] joshhsoj1902@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year 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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[–] rockhandle@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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

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[–] oh_gosh_its_osh@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year 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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[–] DanglingFury@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year 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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[–] shalva97@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

That's what Google is

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year 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.

[–] Noedel@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

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

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

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[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (6 children)

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

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