🎃 Nora "haunt(1)" Tindall @tindall@cybre.space

@tindall a generous answer would be that the access point for existing users is typically something other than the front page. for example, if you try to access your dashboard, and you aren't signed in, it will prompt you to sign in, whereas if you navigate to the front page it will ask you to sign up.

another answer is that people have a negative emotional reaction to being asked for things they don't have (like an existing login). if your sign in is more prominent than your sign up, new users will be discouraged and feel like your website isn't interested in them. so there is an interest in only asking for an existing login from people who you know HAVE an existing login, hence a separate page.

however, the most realistic answer is that some popular people started doing this, and most designers are programmed to always favour convention, so everybody followed suit without really thinking through the ramifications. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@tindall Maybe they operate under the assumption that anyone that actually uses their service will never come back to log a second time.

RT Lock (with permission):

Ok so, I just read through all 173 pages of the unredacted Google antitrust filing and I have to say that either Google is screwed or society is screwed, we'll find out which.

Unordered list of fun things I learned:

- google has a secret deal with facebook called "Jedi Blue" that they knew was so illegal that it has a whole section describing how they'll cover for each other if anyone finds out
- google appears to have a team called gTrade that is wholly dedicated to ad market manipulation
- Google had a plan called "Project NERA" to turn the web into a walled garden they called "Not Owned But Operated". A core component of this was the forced logins to the chrome browser you've probably experienced (surprise!)
- Google is willing to do almost everything to prevent people from circumventing their ad exchanges
- This is what AMP is about
- Google habitually insider trades on their ad exchanges in every way you can think of and every way you can't. Too many ways to list here.
- The exchanges are also rigged so that google wins on bids where they aren't the highest bidder.
- A large amount of people inside google are aware of all of this
- If Google ever tells you some change will increase your ad yield, run. In fact anything they tell you is a lie
- Google has worked with Facebook and Microsoft to discourage them from increasing user privacy, lamenting occasions where they prioritized their reputation over their collective business interest

You can read the full unredacted document for yourself here:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903.152.0_1.pdf