Related discussion as linked in article: ("users on social media")

Google.com search now refusing to search for FF esr 128 without JavaScript

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42719865

"In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson claimed that the change is intended to "better protect" Google Search against malicious activity, such as bots and spam, and to improve the overall Google Search experience for users."

How does Javascript protect against bots. For example, Javascript does not protect against Googlebot. Javascript will not stop bots, spam or improve the overall experience for users ("ad targets"). There are reasons Google is pushing Javascript that have nothing to do with "protecting Google search against malicious activity". The change is for Google not for its ad targets. The spokesperson will not mention the reasons and how they benefiot the company at the expoense of ad targets. The question is why she won't mention them.

Undoubtedly this is related to the incorporation of generative ai responses in search results. Compute requirements to create that little answer box have to be astronomical, so this is the way they can shed bot traffic to keep their costs down and avoid… providing training data for rival llms?

Ironic then that the only way llms were trained were through mass scraping of web content through those same bots ……

A company spokesperson claimed that the change is intended to “better protect” Google Search against malicious activity, such as bots and spam, and to improve the overall Google Search experience for users. The spokesperson noted that, without JavaScript, many Google Search features won’t work properly and that the quality of search results tends to be degraded.

“Enabling JavaScript allows us to better protect our services and users from bots and evolving forms of abuse and spam,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch, “and to provide the most relevant and up-to-date information.”