Google has added ads on both its search page and Chrome://newtab

[Nephx]

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.

Google has historically been protective of their front page, why now?

[huijzer]

> Google has historically been protective of their front page, why now?

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.

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.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33022768

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32927848

[skrowl]

It's not really a matter of opinion or what people think. We're already in a recession here in the United States, as we've had two negative GDP growth quarters in a row.

Anyone who says otherwise is likely just doing so for political reasons, as it's also an election year here in the United States, but to do so they'd have to literally change the definition of recession (they're trying but it's not working).

[tyingq]

> Google has historically been protective of their front page, why now?

Unreasonable shareholder expectations of continued double-digit percentage YoY growth. Growth that exceeds internet usage growth in general.

The only way that happens is more ads displacing content, or appearing in formerly empty spots. I would guess at this point, they've hit the wall on alternatives like better targeting, placement, etc.

[jonas21]

Google has been promoting other Google products on the home page for over 20 years [1].

I think the only difference this time around is that people didn't realize Fitbit was acquired by Google.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt2iPpJmySU

[ren_engineer]

>most people expect that we are going into a recession

by the standard definition we are already in one, odds are we are actually going to enter a global depression and probably one worse than 2008

[arnaudsm]

I don't buy the SP500 graph argument, economies tend to behave on a log scale.

[tjpnz]

Perhaps all those people claiming to put in two or three hours each day there aren't as productive as they believed themselves to be. I wonder how much that particular brand of hubris will be tolerated now times are tough.

[bushbaba]

I’m not sure I’d call that quick. Quick would be a single deep cut and return to normal operations.

[senko]

Notably, this is not Google showing random search/display ads.

Those look like ads for Google's own product.

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.

[londons_explore]

I'm surprised they advertise their own product in those places... It's such an obvious thing for the EU to go after. "Google has a monopoly position in Browsers/Search, and (ab)used their homepage to advertise their entry into a new field of business, immediately giving it free advertising the competitors could never access."

If I were Googles legal team, I would immediately put an end to such cross-product advertising (at least from Search/Chrome/Android).

[mrweasel]

While slightly dirty, I got the ad for Chrome, that made sense in the context. Advertising for Fitbits is weird and seems desperate.

My sense is that it's a test. If Google decides it went well we'll see ads for other Google products. That's a dangerous path though, at some point some one will make a nice offer for that spot, and I'm not sure the current management at Google have enough integrity to say no.

Side note: It might be Fitbits, because Fitbit is a subsidiary of Google LLC, and not Alphabet directly.

[BiteCode_dev]

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.

This is textbook "how empire falls" and why things that seem indestructible eventually dies like anything else.

This will be the mile stone people will remember as the first sign of google decline.

[Euphorbium]

The first sign was when they killed google reader, like 10 years ago.

[jhoechtl]

These days Bing is increasingly my goto search engine, my switching costs are essentially zero

[marcus0x62]

How would they +1 this? Require users to watch two ads Youtube-style before rendering a website? Place a persistent banner ad along the bottom of the browser window?

[glcheetham]

If this harms their business then why would they keep doing it

[thih9]

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.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled-chromium

[Caboose8685]

It's worth noting that UGC has some significant security regressions

https://qua3k.github.io/ungoogled/

[unity1001]

I use both Chromium and Chrome. Chromium is of course not affected.

[mort96]

I woke up to ads in my new tab page in Firefox yesterday; sponsored links to Amazon and Nike.

Browsers don't seem to serve users anymore. They, like everything else, are mostly ad delivery mechanisms.

[dsomers]

Funny you say that, I just opened Safari, no ads.

[nicbou]

Software still serves its users... to advertisers.

[HKH2]

Well that's a new low for Firefox. I'm a little surprised because I didn't think it'd be that quick.

[sophrocyne]

Annoying, yes. But you can turn them off in the settings page.

[marcosdumay]

I'm on 105.0.1 on Linux, and just checked because of this discussion. Firefox announced ads on the new tab a while ago, and I used about:blank by that time, but I saw the switch to turn them off in the settings. Now there are no ads and the switch is gone.

Firefox seems to be going everywhere at once, so it wouldn't surprise me to discover there is a 105.0.2 with ads, or that ads exist on a few regions only. But at least for me, the trend seems to be on the other way, they are backing down from that decision.

[wintermutestwin]

Whenever I open a new tab in Firefox it is a blank tab because I set New Tabs to Blank.

Wake me when I can't do that anymore (and point me to a decent fork).

[Schroedingersat]

Librewolf

[bertman]

This is not "unprecedented" at all, see e.g. here: https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/lf9egy/comment/iivz...

[spoiler]

I am not sure why you're being downvoted. Both the newtab (at the bottom of the page) and the search page have had subtle "ads" for google's new product launches. I remember seeing it for Stadia, and I remember seeing it for "Google One"

[kuschku]

Wasn't the Nexus 7 (2012) the first such ad? Aside from chrome itself bring advertised this way, that is.

[perihelions]

Not entirely unprecedented:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18800175 ("Mozilla: Ad on Firefox’s new tab page was just another experiment" (2019))

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30608022 ("Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?") (2022)

[cr3ative]

Annoyingly, the new tab page used to have an exclusion for these "announcements". The flag was removed.

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.

[LoganDark]

Both in Chrome and Firefox, I always set my new tab page to `about:blank`, or in other words, absolutely nothing. Why? Because the address bar is all I need to get where I'm going. I type faster than I click.

[ecuaflo]

I like the earth view one [0] and you get to keep your data with goog

[0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/earth-view-from-go...

[ghotli]

It's a tiny amount of code to write your own new tab page. I like mine, it's nice, it's custom to me. This whole story made me feel like it's great that I control what makes it to my eyes when I open a browser or a new tab

[henry_flower]

use this one: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blank-new-tab-page...

it's just an .html file with an empty body, no tracking & 5 lines of JS:

    window.addEventListener("load", () => {
      if (chrome.extension.inIncognitoContext) {
        document.body.style.background = "#53718e";
      }
    });

[sensanaty]

I use one that just lets me use some custom HTML, I just have some plaintext bookmark type links

[exabrial]

Who still using chrome? Use safari, brave, or Firefox.

[qzx_pierri]

I'm so tired of seeing people recommend Brave. Firefox is what the web needs. Organizational shenanigans aside, Firefox is the best browser on the market right now.

[misnome]

Firefox has had ads on its "new tab" page by default for ages now.

[thih9]

> Who still using chrome?

According to statcounter[1], Chrome had 65.52% of the browser market share in August 2022.

[1]: https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

[wintermutestwin]

I have no choice but to use Firefox because I have switched to vertical tabs (with Sidebery) and it seems that every other browser besides Edge(?!) is stuck with horizontal tabs.

Horizontal tabs are objectively inferior - why are vertical tabs so rare???

[arnaudsm]

Brave is way worse. They have product ads everywhere, pushed a weird crypto scam, and even injected affiliate codes in URLs.

Firefox has ads on their new tab too.

We need better and more respectful competitors.

[worldmerge]

It would be cool if Firefox supported modern browser APIs like Chrome does, but they’ve decided not to (web serial).

[Markoff]

Brave is not customizable at all, Vivaldi is much better.

On the Android phone it's easy choice since only Kiwi Browser supports extensions.

[zinekeller]

Can confirm (https://i.ibb.co/ygp2x49/Fitbit-Ad-Google-com.png).

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.

[dsign]

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."

[shadowgovt]

What's the full text of the ad?

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.

[sjaak]

Stop using Chrome

[sp332]

Firefox has ads too. At least you can turn them off, until they add another category and you have to go figure out how to turn off the new ones.

[monlockandkey]

The entire internet discourse is filled with "Chrome evil, use Firefox". Go to any browser discussion on the internet and 99% of the thread is "just use Firefox or Firefox is the best". You would think that everyone uses Firefox.

The internet is a bubble. Reality is Firefox usage is pathetic. 32 MILLION people have *STOPPED* using Firefox in the past 4 years. The browser only has a 3.16% market share.

https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity

https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

Chrome is a good browser. Can be considered objectively better than Firefox given its superior performance, equivalent if not slightly better resource usage, web compatibility and integration with the Google ecosystem (which the vast majority of internet population use (excluding niche tech circles)).

I have no vendetta against Firefox. At the end of the day, it is just a browser and that is a personal preference. But people act like it is some sort of saviour that will bring them to the light. There is such an aggressive tribal mentality with browsers. It makes no sense as all browsers look the same, feel the same and have the same functionality. Just a matter of preference given your needs, and for 70% of the population, Chromium delivers.

[atesti]

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?

Even creating a custom search engine in chrome settings, pointing at google does not work, they detect the google url.

I have yet to create my own "search engine" url which would redirect to google, to put this search engine in the chrome settings!

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.

[RektBoy]

Or don't use Chrome? Lol

[vehemenz]

There has been a blank new tab extension in Chrome for ages.

[glcheetham]

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

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

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

All of this will benefit content creators. If you have an ability to create video content, this will give you a competitive edge.

[mysterydip]

> All of this will benefit content creators.

Could they do something to benefit the users instead?

[avian]

I hope this means that all the SEO bullshit will move to videos and the textual web will become usable again.

[whywhywhywhy]

> They are changing their natural listing results to be multi media photos and video content

I’ve been unfortunate enough to see this, it’s absolute hot garbage and made it way harder to find what I wanted.

Is this a knee jerk response to TikTok kids using TikTok as their generations google?

I don’t think many understand how much Google land is up for grabs right now. Google Images is right there for the taking if you just supply the same experience as 10 years ago Google Images.

[rany_]

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

[Jemm]

Proves the saying, "If you are not paying for the product, you are the product"

[ceejayoz]

You're still the product for a whole bunch of paid services. The line has blurred significantly since that saying became commonplace.

[andrewinardeer]

Not true for self hosted open source software.

[freediver]

Not much choice with browsers!

As far as I know, Orion browser is the only browser on the market today that you can pay for with your wallet instead of your data.

[charcircuit]

No website I have worked for has ever called users the product. The products are what is being built by various teams. For ads the product at a high level is everything from the parts that show ads to users to the tools that allow advertisers to create ads.

[tech-historian]

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"

Anyone have a screenshot of said banner ad?

[omgmajk]

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.

[JakkDTrent]

I can't believe how many people here still use Google search and Chrome browser.

[insightcheck]

Why is this so surprising? Google search gives me better results than DuckDuckGo for my purposes (especially when using the "site:" search syntax). Some web apps and websites are buggy on non-Chrome browsers or a lot faster on Chrome (e.g. Google Workspace apps like Google Sheets are often a lot faster).

If I want to submit high quality work on time, it makes sense to use the best (most performant) tool for the job. Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and other alternative tools are helpful for personal use, but I have less to worry about when using Google and Chrome for work.

[vehemenz]

Well, Chrome is inexcusable because of ungoogled Chromium and Chromium Web Store. But Google search still delivers more complete results and will be hard to switch from until Bing or other competitors improve.

There are entire categories of search I perform on a daily basis in which Bing ignores the most relevant result (usually from a domain that just doesn't appear on Bing for some reason).

[monlockandkey]

I can't believe people don't use Google search and Chromium.

Google search does the job well. Chromium browsers are faster than Firefox, equivalent if not better resource usage, excellent web compatibility and ecosystem integration.

People want to get stuff done. Yes Firefox and DDG will not handicap you, but for the general population, search and Chromium do an excellent job over competition.

[hetspookjee]

Unfortunately quite some things only work entirely on Chrome. My default is still Firefox but it’s no getting around it at times.

[scarface74]

I also don’t understand “why people still watch TV. I haven’t watch TV in 20 years” (tm Slashdot 2002)

[bla3]

It's not unprecedented, they did that when Google+ launched too.

[vannevar]

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.

[netsharc]

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.

[not_enoch_wise]

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???

Now shut up and watch the ads.

[anvic]

I've already seen ads like those, some even pushing their political stuff.

https://techdows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Chrome-dismi...

[thih9]

> 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.

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?

[tinyhouse]

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.

[LoganDark]

The more ads they put in, the more people get an ad blocker, so they have to add more ads to compensate.

[graderjs]

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...

[zagrebian]

> Google has added ads on both its search page

Google Search has had ads since the beginning. What do you mean?

[_xivi]

It looks like they're testing it on a small portion, but not sure what's the pattern

[quyleanh]

Lol, the advantage of domination?

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...

[bborud]

Another incentive to switch to Firefox.

[exikyut]

I think I've been seeing ads for things like the Nest and Pixel phones in AU for a few months now.

[rkagerer]

In the early 2000's I used to love Google.

Now I daily find myself saying "Fuck You, Google".

[nipperkinfeet]

I've seen widgets on the bottom of Google search home page. I used uBlock to hide them.

[TheAlchemist]

Seen it too !

It's strange how our brains work - I actually never look there, but somehow I did notice it.

[aliqot]

Stop hitting yourself. Get Lynx.

[princevegeta89]

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.

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

[hulitu]

Stupidity is contagious. If MS does it, why should't Google ?

[twawaaay]

I wouldn't say it is stupidity.

MS seems to have stopped innovating and exploit as much of their business before it dies.

Possibly Google realised the same?

[traveler01]

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.

[shultays]

Unprecedented how? I am sure most browsers do such crap on their home page. Even firefox had its "experiments" and pocket

[urthor]

Vivaldi time!

[hownottowrite]

Don’t equate precedent with morals.

[cantSpellSober]

uBlock filter for some ads on google.com:

    ##[class*=slot-promo]

[pcsalad]

Have you seen this banner by yourself? Tried from a few different locations with no luck

[Nephx]

Yep, Fitbit smartwatch ad for us in Sweden, no Chrome plugins (even shows up in incognito).

Might be exclusive to a portion of users or locations.

[cantSpellSober]

uBlock filter for ads on

[kgbcia]

pulling for Firefox

[zinekeller]

Nope, it's really there: https://i.ibb.co/ygp2x49/Fitbit-Ad-Google-com.png

[rany_]

But add-ons cannot run on pages in chrome:// namespace

[Nephx]

No addons, same behaviour in incognito.

[chatterhead]

The internet doesn't work without advertising. Almost as if the money to build all this infrastructure has to come from somewhere.

If only we could create a digital token that would be in such demand it would generate its own network and infrastructure effect.

Oh wait... they ruined that, too.

[beej71]

In the good old days, the money came from your job. And you used that money to create free content out of the kindness of your heart.

[noodles_nomore]

> Almost as if the money to build all this infrastructure has to come from somewhere.

Yes, things need funding to survive. That's the core of the problem. I bookmarked an interesting older HN comment to that effect.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20231960

[falcor84]

>Oh wait... they ruined that, too.

I lost you there, who is "they" referring to?