iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 29/06/2026

Now, in Google's defense, the "open internet" kind of sucks these days. Any piece of useful information you seek out on the open internet is liable to be buried under half a dozen pop-ups, pop-unders, and dickovers: daringfireball.net/2026/05/what... 21/

daringfireball.net

What Is a Dickover?

dickover — a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction; e.g. ask...

21119

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 29/06/2026

Even after you clear these away, the actual information you're seeking is further buried in word-salads that anticipated insipid AI prose by half a decade. Think of all those omelet recipes that appear beneath 2,500 words of cod-Proustian remembrances of "the first time I ate an egg." 22/

215011

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 29/06/2026

The major advantage of AI search summaries is in shielding you from all this nonsense. But where did all that nonsense come from in the first place? It turns out that this is largely Google's fault. 23/

11012

chrisvls.bsky.social @chrisvls.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Important to remember that the big platforms made the word salads happen: YouTube introduced a rule that you only get monetized if people watch >2 min of your video (don't remember exact length)... thus ruining the best part of YouTube: the 30 second how-to that clears the error code on your washer.

24910