Yep, this.

Adding to this, I want to follow channels and subscribe to creators, without making an account registered on youtube. I already have sponsor block and you block and a bunch of other enhancements for youtube, but it’s hard for me to curate the content that comes my way without having an account signed in.

So I just renamed FreeTube app to YouTube on my desktop machines, and slap the YouTube logo on it, and now it’s logically partitioned from everything else.

I actually do the same thing with a handful of other sites that I traffic frequently, instead of just making a profile for them or a sandboxed container for them. Facebook and Reddit both get summoned either from the start menu or from Mac OS spotlight and at least in theory those browsers that have been renamed and re-icon’d won’t be able to interact with any of my other browsers in any way.

Next step is to learn how to block those domains from my other browsers, and the block all of the domains from those specific rebadged browsers.

But for now, FreeTube is hands down the best game in town if I want to watch, say, the five most recent episodes from Hank Green or Level1 Techs, in a row.

Takes 45 seconds, even in mobile.

One screen to enter email, one quick confirmation, one screen to establish password.

No clue gore much data the correct from browser, but at least the registration is swift and seems private.

I absolutely could launch the calculator app by keyboard shortcut when I’m on a desktop. And I kept a calculator widget across an entire full screen in my Android phone’s home menu, for many years.

These days, I really value the ability to just open a new tab, belt out my instructions, hit enter, and see the result though - - it is mostly things like calculating the total cost of buying something across a year, or calculating currency conversions, or estimating battery capacities and consumption rates.

In this regard, without wanting to buy into an entire AI ecosystem, I do require my search engines to do at least one function beyond mere searches: Pre-algebra.

I very much want to use KAGI but their basic tier isn’t enough querying for me in any given month. I have to rephrase, or correct my own typos at least 300 times a month, in my searches.

This is exciting to hear! Last I heard, Ecosia just wrapped Google’s results. KAGI is pretty upfront about doing the same.

This will sound silly, but an absolute need-to-have for me is the ability to throw basic math problems into the search bar as a calculator.

I never reach for a calculator or spin up a separate app for it, or want to widget on my desktop… instead, I just press the keyboard shortcut for a new tab in my browser and then just belt out whatever parentheticals I need.

This pretty much serves as the basis for my evaluating different search engines, if it won’t handle the algebra for me, I have to move on.

I can agree that value proposition was a siren song, and that I backed a Fistful of POS coins POST coins during the second and third crypto waves , but I fully exited that space because I believe it is inherently exploitable and that the technologies will not be a net benefit for humans.

I get that a few of the tech firms I like including MullVad VPN company accept Monero as payment and I too want there to be financial networks which the US dollar and its interests can’t lock people out of. But seeing the radical swings of Monero valuation, and it being the best example you and I have got, means the landscape is pretty disappointing for me because it will be pretty inaccessible for others.

At this point I’m just trying to learn how to get an intl bank account which will allow me to interface with BRICs.

The problem with all of that is the “and other crypto” bit nestled in there.

You KNOW crypto on-the-whole is bad for humans, because the Orange Menace is promoting it.

It’s weird how hostile we are to reading, and how malleable we are to video.

I’m the same way about expecting people to cite real sources; incidentally, I caught a bunch of flak last week on Lemmy for asking for literally any other source than one self-aggrandizing vlogger.