Web Browser News Recommendations

[Ben]

This may not fall into politics for some, but based on the recommendations that I get, it does for me.

Android Chrome for about a year now, and Firefox (for me) since the 57 update, have the default home page giving me "recommendations". Chrome supposedly from my browsing history, and Firefox gives "Pocket recommendations". I have noticed the vast majority of my recommendations are diametrically opposed to my political beliefs.

Chrome is a little better at throwing me a bone with a few Fox News links and then some actual non-political links like Idaho news, outdoor news, tech news, etc. So it does seem to pay attention to some of my interests, but for political interests, it is biased to showing me progressive articles (Slate, Deadspin, etc.).

Firefox, on the other hand, has so far been running 90% left to far left in its highlighted recommendations.

Maybe tinfoily, but I find it all interesting. I'm certainly not opposed to getting "the other side". and will pop into the NYT, etc. for stories, but I kinda like it to be my idea, versus being force fed. I have to wonder if people that use Slate as their main news source get a majority of their browser URL recommendations for Breitbart and Huffpo.

[TechMan]

Have you tried Opera? (Chrome under the hood)

[Brad Johnson]

Have you tried Opera?

I did but it sucked. Story line is slow to develop, songs in foreign languages I can't understand, and everyone dies at the end.

But seriously...

I haven't found anything yet that isn't laden with sponsored twaddle which caters to left-leaning sources. I gave up a long time ago and just go to a few specific news sites I have bookmarked.

Brad

[230RN]

Have you tried moving to Mars?  The schnooks are getting less and less subtle about their political preferences.

[bedlamite]

I use Firefox, but have all the news disabled, and just pin a few links to the start page.

[Ben]

I use Firefox, but have all the news disabled, and just pin a few links to the start page.

That's how I had Firefox setup in the previous versions. For me, 57 overrode that with their default homepage. I'll probably be going back to my old homepage, but have been finding it interesting to track these "recommendations". The lack of subtlety has been bothering me for a while.

[mtnbkr]

Why have a home page at all?  Just configure your browser start on a blank page.

FWIW, I use Waterfox.

Chris

[230RN]

... The lack of subtlety has been bothering me for a while.

Well, the subtlety was used to mask their true agenda.



Now they're getting obvious about it.

Terry

Pic credit in properties.

[Ben]

Thread Necro.

Just reviving the thread to report on my findings. Yes, I could have just bypassed the Firefox homepage and also disabled the Android Chrome news, but I've been wanting to see if they would ever actually start recommending news and websites to me "based on my tastes and browsing".

I revived the thread today, because for the first time ever, the Android Chrome newsfeed provided me with an NRA story (on a CA farmer arrested for attempting to register his AR - another topic all together). The phone, over the last few months, has also started showing me Fox News stories, as well as local news from Idaho. Which I assume it's getting because it's tracking my location and sees I travel there a lot. Though I also get local news from back East, which may be because I have VPN going on the phone whenever I'm in hotels while traveling, so it's likely picking up the VPN IP.

Firefox on the desktop is an entirely different story. I have not once, since I started this topic last December, seen a "recommended by Pocket" link that was not for very progressive sites. The least biased sites they want to link me to are the NYT and The Atlantic. Firefox is where I do most of my browsing, so it's certainly not picking up my news preferences, which may be good because maybe it means they're not tracking me. On the other hand, it certainly shows their bias in news sources.

I've clicked on stories there a few times, but if it does track "my preferences", it's tracking the limited sites it's providing me as "my preferences". It's like someone trying to find out my favorite foods by making me eat at a restaurant that only serves vegetables.

[Hawkmoon]

The ESR channel on Firefox is still on version 52.x.x so I'll keep using that until they stop providing security updates. And I use Duckduckgo as my search engine because they don't track your searches. I didn't even know Firefox had a default home page. Mine is Drudge.