Which is the worst big tech company?

[dead0man]

my vote goes to Apple, as I use the other 4.  FB/Meta is a close second.

[dead0man]

One big issue with google search is that SEO has completely gamed the system, ensuring page 1 will often be crap and ads. (This has been worst for Google News search and, most disastrously of all, the YouTube search function.)

I refuse to click on the "ad" link, and will scroll down and click on the same link that doesn't have "advertisement" over it.

[dead0man]

I am not sure how to interpret this post but if anything I would enjoy a tip on how to make Reddit disappear from my Google search results.

You can use a userscript like this one to maintain a list of ignored sites:

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/1682-google-hit-hider-by-domain-search-filter-block-sites

Thanks, although my comment was sort of tongue in cheek. I'll be about as likely to use that function as I am to use ad blockers. Speaking of which, an actual nuisance I have noticed with YouTube recently is inexplicably different amounts of ads on the same video from the same account but different devices.

I've watched YT on different TVs, phones and PCs regularly for a long time, there has always been weird ad differences between the devices.  More interesting is the "bleed over" (that's what I call it) with YT on a TV.  Me and the wife have different accounts to keep our algorithms not too screwed up, but scrolling through on her side we will see videos that are clearly "mine" and on my side I will see videos from YouTubers she is subscribed to.