Users are reporting banner ads such as "New! Track your health and fitness with the..." below the search box on both google.com and chrome://newtab.<p>Google has historically been protective of their front page, why now?
> Google has historically been protective of their front page, why now?<p>Probably for the same reason that Google is shutting down Stadia [1] and cutting staff [2], and the same reason that we see roughly one announcement of layoffs here on Hacker News every week: most people expect that we are going into a recession. For example, see the price of major indexes like the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ and plot it on a 10+ year timescale.<p>What surprises me the most actually is how quickly Google can adapt to the situation. Basically, they have been giving out candy for free when there was lots of money coming and now that they expect less, they quickly put on extra income streams and cut out money losers.<p>[1]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33022768" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33022768</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32927848" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32927848</a>
Notably, this is not Google showing random search/display ads.<p>Those look like ads for Google's own product.<p>I don't think this is the first time. IIRC, Google used to show an ad for Chrome if you used the search from any other browser.
It was inevitable, you gotta get the infite growth from somewhere. Ane the next move will +1 this and so on, until google becomes less attractive than leaner competition. Because of inertia, legacy and people benefitting from the status quo, they won't be able to correct course.<p>This is textbook "how empire falls" and why things that seem indestructible eventually dies like anything else.<p>This will be the mile stone people will remember as the first sign of google decline.
I suspect ungoogled-chromium[1] is not affected by google's changes to chrome://newtab . If anyone wants to stop using Chrome but isn't drawn to any of the alternatives, perhaps you'll like ungoogled-chromium.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled-chromium" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled-chromium</a>
I woke up to ads in my new tab page in Firefox yesterday; sponsored links to Amazon and Nike.<p>Browsers don't seem to serve users anymore. They, like everything else, are mostly ad delivery mechanisms.
This is not "unprecedented" at all, see e.g. here:
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/lf9egy/comment/iivz2db/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/lf9egy/comment/iivz...</a>
Not <i>entirely</i> unprecedented:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18800175" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18800175</a> (<i>"Mozilla: Ad on Firefox’s new tab page was just another experiment"</i> (2019))<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30608022" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30608022</a> (<i>"Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?"</i>) (2022)
Annoyingly, the new tab page used to have an exclusion for these "announcements". The flag was removed.<p>I've ended up installing one of those "inspirational new tab page" extensions, just so I don't see an ad. I am sure that means someone else is siphoning my data.
Can confirm (<a href="https://i.ibb.co/ygp2x49/Fitbit-Ad-Google-com.png" rel="nofollow">https://i.ibb.co/ygp2x49/Fitbit-Ad-Google-com.png</a>).<p>It actually reminds me of old Google announcing "New! You can now search for images" or such except repurposed for things outside of Search. The first one is reasonable (there are people that do want to search for images or research papers), but the current incarnation reminds me of a corporation solely running on inertia.
I see the ad, and I'm not amused. I would be more at ease if the line said "You know what? We need money after all this browser-making. Give us yours and we will let you go on with your day."
What's the full text of the ad?<p>Google hasn't been above self-promotion via those channels for approximately a half-decade. On my newtab and on google.com, I'm seeing an ad for Google's new search features.
It's notoriously difficult to have a new tab page without ads/Google connections, but still keep the 8 thumbnails.
One can change the search engine and then an alternate new tab page appears which is the right one: Only thumbnails.
Unfortunately there is code in chrome to detect the search engine one confiured and activate the matching new tab page. I think they have one for ddg?<p>Even creating a custom search engine in chrome settings, pointing at google does not work, they detect the google url.<p>I have yet to create my own "search engine" url which would redirect to google, to put this search engine in the chrome settings!<p>It's very annoying, because despite it being Chrome from google, chrome is quite reasonable with data protection and settings in many areas and can be tamed with group policies.
In our company GPO we have to turn off the new tab page, but my goal is to have one without ads.
They are changing their natural listing results to be multi media photos and video content will be prioritised on search results, it is going to be released in America first this month I believe<p>They are also seeing the results will be far more varied and scrolling down will likely give you a result that you are looking for, and the traditional way of looking with the top result, being the one that you wanted may not be the case anymore<p>I think they are maybe trying to replicate the TikTok experience when looking for a result, you will end up scrolling different content relative to your search keyword<p>All of this will benefit content creators. If you have an ability to create video content, this will give you a competitive edge.
I've had something similar happen to me before. Google showed me an advert for Pixel 6a on the bottom of the search bar in both the new tab and Google.com main page
Google has had house ads for its own products on the search homepage since at least 2010. I'd like to see a screenshot of the "banner ad" claimed by OP. Text ads on Google's homepage are nothing new. I don't see a banner ad on the homepage at the moment, I see a text ad for "Learn about the latest innovations coming to Google Search"<p>Anyone have a screenshot of said banner ad?
That thing on the google.com page is really annoying. Google is probably trying this out but I am really hoping that this is some behind the scenes look at the fact that google might be a dying company and are grasping for straws. Not that I think that is really real, but because it would be glorious.
Google has drifted gradually from helping you find things, supported by ads, to actively steering you away from what you're trying to find in order to sell you to advertisers.
Google on Android has already been stupid for a long time. You can swipe right from the home screen of a Pixel phone to get to Google search, which is a Yahoo!-style portal with news, etc under the search bar. And then you click on the search input field, and you get suggestions based on trending searches (a week or 2 ago one of them was something about King Charles). Luckily both idiocies can still be disabled, and I use DDG for my searches anyway.
Inflation means the blood boy’s rates go up, too. Are you going to tell the plutocrat they have to live a normal life span???<p>Now shut up and watch the ads.
I've already seen ads like those, some even pushing their political stuff.<p><a href="https://techdows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Chrome-dismiss-new-tab-promo-close-button-no-flag-needed.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://techdows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Chrome-dismi...</a>
> Users are reporting banner ads such as "New! Track your health and fitness with the..." below the search box on both google.com and chrome://newtab.<p>Do we know more? E.g. do we know if this is an A/B test or a rollout in progress? Where are the users reporting this? Are there any screenshots?
Did you see what they did to YouTube? It's now like watching the Superbowl. Ads ads ads. I guess they are trying to convert as many people as they can to premium. But I think it's also because they don't know how to grow their revenue besides displaying more and more ads.
Come on, man. Go easy on them. They're in a downturn. They're suffering. They're going to suffer more. Facebook is just ahead of the curve. What's happening there will probably happen to many more jumbo tech corps over the next 12 mnths...
Lol, the advantage of domination?<p>Tbh, I really want Apple do something innovation for browser. However, looking back to Webkit on both iOS and macOS, I can see no hope...
Don't know why it's so surprising. Google has had ads for Pixel phones right below the search box. I remember Stadia ads that showed up there too.<p>The newtab on Chrome is not even considered a web page so you can see those ads that show up there as a part of Chrome which is not so surprising either
It's their own product ads though... It's not very problematic, you're using their product and they're announcing they have more products for you.
The internet doesn't work without advertising. Almost as if the money to build all this infrastructure has to come from somewhere.<p>If only we could create a digital token that would be in such demand it would generate its own network and infrastructure effect.<p>Oh wait... they ruined that, too.