I asked a relative to look for RealVNC on the Play Store and install it. Once they were done, I asked them to fulfill a basic task inside RealVNC and they were really confused by my instructions. I took a look at their phone, lo and behold, they had installed a different app. I asked them to repeat the install procedure while I watched. They punched in “realvnc” in the search box, two identically formatted results appeared. Their finger instinctively clicked the Install button on the top result. It was an ad. 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
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Pffft, the young generation, not hardened by the 6 different download buttons on a torrent search engine… /s
This, but unironically. How can you be so blind to click on something called Zoho, when RealVNC (the thing you searched for) is right below it?
Google play shouldn’t confuse users just because some company pays more for ads
Google being evil and assholes doesn’t remove the fact that this person literally didn’t spend a second to check what they clicked.
Digital safety starts with everyone, despite if we need laws to regulate the asshole companies trying to mess with people’s lack of attention.
They didn’t click anything. This is just a post about the annoyance of ads.
Just as a PSA:
For things only on PlayStore use Aurora Store or other apk downloaders like APKMirror/APKPure.For everything else ofc Droid-ify, Obtanium, F-Droid/G-Droid, Neo Store, Aurora Droid, etc.
This seems like a case of user error, considering the sponsored result is clearly not the application you asked them to install. However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones. Performing the same search in Aurora, that Zoho Assist app is not even in the first 20 results while RealVNC Viewer and RealVNC Server are the top two results.
A few months ago I needed to install Google home for something Chromecast related, so I quickly searched the play store and installed it. Loaded it up and I see an ad, what the hell. App opens and I realise it isn’t Google Home, it’s something made to trick me into thinking it was when I wasn’t paying attention.
Google is letting their ads steal their own users from them.
No, fuck that. The ads being listed before rhe first result are intended to cause people to misclick. That isn’t all on the user.
Don’t excuse predatory business practices.
Are you illiterate? My very next sentence was:
However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones.
If the practices are predatory, blaming the user is excusing the predatory practices. Bragging about how you use something else in that context is doubling down on blaming the user instead of the practices.
So no, I am not illiterate. You ahould have just left off the sentence blaming the victim.
