it is as if Google thinks "news" only happens in English. Perhaps there is some "simple" UI element I could click on to change this but it is not at all obvious (and their main search results are similarly only in English and mostly utterly useless.

I speak French. I'd like to see results in both English and French - especially when the TOPIC is something happening IN FRANCE.

"old" Google (of decades ago now) would do this without a problem - current Google is actively hiding useful info

so does anyone know how to get Google to show you search results in languages other than your default?

(ideally forcing it to French for this specific search)

I'd like to find articles or videos IN FRENCH about Sithamparappillai Jegatheepan who is a Sri Lankan baker who just one the best baguette IN PARIS competition.

Google (even with personalized searches turn off) only shows 4 results all in English - two of which are the same video from Reuters (that is dubbed in English annoyingly)

and I should be clear here - I'm not just speaking hypothetically - I've been online since BEFORE the "web" existed (first account on the internet was in 1990, and even before then had partial access). In the 1990's and early 2000's I was a fairly active seller on eBay (back when it was all auction listings) and while their site even then made researching past sales harder than it should have been the data was better in many respects than the current mess is.

it actually used to be possible to get good data from Google searches (and from sites like eBay that almost certainly does have real data from past sales of similar and likely actually identical products - but their tools (and Google's search) have gotten so bad at their basic job that what gets returned is not just useless but actively bad in most cases

(I've seen very few cases where eBay's research prices tool shows accurate matches - even when sold item searches do return better matches)

latest oddness as an eBay (small scale) seller - tried their "research prices" tool on one item I have listed (complete unopened copy of Reaper Bones III Core set from backing it on Kickstarter)

Their pricing tool only shows prices for Reaper's series 6 kickstarter core set (as sold listings).

options to see "active" listings - only one shown - my own listing.

Search on Google shopping for comperables - only actual match, again is my eBay listing.

sigh.

@Seandar16 @meldar16 my wife who is an artist and pattern designer (and who does NOT sell her products on Amazon) had them list all of her inventory - including items she has actually removed from her webstore on Amazon's "shop direct" feature without her permission and without informing her (she has, we think, managed to get them removed) but yes its not just creepy its actively bad.

this meant they listed items she no longer has (sold out) and she wouldn't get customer details for orders

and unless it is upholstered we're fine with buying used/vintage pieces (provided they come from smoke free and ideally pet free homes and/or have been very well cleaned.) so yes I'm browsing places like FB marketplace these days and have seen some possible options for some of the stuff we want but I'd prefer to look at places where we can get one delivery that might solve a bunch of our new (or used) furniture needs instead of trying to find each piece individually

we liked past purchases from Living Spaces but at the moment they don't have a lot of options that work for our new space (and for our preferences around things like table / chair height for the dining table)

online the wayfairs/amazons (and all other online "marketplaces" seemingly have infinite variety of unclear quality options all of which I'm very reluctant to order without feeling/seeing in person first (been burned by past cases of damaged/missing parts)

also need a very specific sized kitchen island/utility cart, three bar height (but ideally adjustable bar stools - comfortable for a large variety of body sizes), a desk/ttrpg gaming table, solid (i.e unlikely to be stolen) benches for a front porch as well as nice but not too large yet comfortable for nearly 6' not small individuals to sit in chairs & tables for a balcony plus more benches? etc.

harder than I expected to find good shops in person or online to look for such things

in the era of Wayfair (one of their offices is even right across from where I just moved to) as well as IKEA and endless random letters companies on Amazon where do people go these days for high quality, reasonably priced furniture designed for city (i.e. relatively smaller) spaces? Specifically my immediate needs are for lots of furniture all with very specific size requirements (dressers and nightstands that fit in 50" wide space), dining table that goes from 48 to 70" w/leaf inside etc)

so in the ongoing decline of Apple (at least iOS / iOS apps in this case) just had a very weird situation - playing a podcast (via the podcast app) with my iPod Pro's - audio was only playing on my left ear - but both AirPods were detected as it was showing stereo and noice canceling active.

on a whim I lowered the volume - and immediately the sound returned to both earbuds (and was immediately much better)

so odd (and not the first time this has happened)

Who at Google thought that having emails just display as blank if you open them in the gmail app on your phone go to another app and then a while later return to the gmail app was at all acceptable let alone at all useful.

So so so annoying. Randomly when I return to the gmail app it blanks out emails I had opened. So I can’t go back to reading them and have to reopen then (and even then sometimes it decides not to show the email or cut off parts of it). So utterly useless.

something many people may not realize is that eBay has for quite a long time now been mostly fixed (if negotiable) prices on most items - gone are the days of most of eBay be actual auction listings with an end time. Many sellers (like myself) almost never list anything on eBay as an auction listing.

instead nearly everything I list I list with a fixed price (and then eBay offers some tools for buyers to make offers - as well as for sellers to offer discounts)

(eBay live may have auctions)

and this is far from atypical eBay seems to have trouble matching exact editions (for items where say a "first edition" matters and it is common for them to show items that are very different from the item you are trying to list when suggesting prices. But their suggestions also become somewhat self-fulfilling in that many people just list things at whatever price eBay suggestions if it seems reasonable (I've done it many times myself) in turn that drives sold listings that then inform prices

for example I recently listed a duplicate copy of the Dnd 5e campaign guide for Eberon - the one published in 2019 not the more recent less expensive one published more recently.

Many copies of the exact book I listed are currently for sale on eBay and there have been recent sales.

But their price "suggestion" was nearly entirely based on sales of the more recent book (at close to the msrp price) instead of the 7 year old book with far fewer sales and higher msrp price (my copy is new)

I have a relatively active eBay account (sell a few items most days - likely ramping up my inventory and sales in 2026) but I've noticed that not at all surprisingly (given how bad eBay has been over the years) their technology has a lot of major weaknesses especially in areas where you would think they would have the data (and demand) to do far far better.

For sellers they suggest prices based on past sales - sounds good. But they are, in fact, quite bad at actually matching many items

@volkris @jeff perhaps - but given that 4 Supreme Court justices dissented (and see the quote I cited) I don't think it is as clear cut as you are arguing. And yes who has standing to sue who is an important technicality - but it also very unusual to not allow a remedy in the case of malicious reasons - in general at least historically courts were very reluctant to put anyone or any institution above the law especially for malicious actions - that this is happening today should not be celebrated

but broadly while I understand why they do that it is a consumer unfriendly to force updates on everyone on your schedule instead of their schedule. At it is one more reminder that increasingly we don't actually own or control many of our own devices - that they only "work" to the extent that we continue to pay rent on them and adhere to to the policies of various other parties. This can be acceptable as a tradeoff but it is not ideal and it forces people to accept risks

this is also why I don't enable "automatic updates" on most of my most critical devices (like my phone or laptop) I want to know and schedule such updates myself - at a time and place where I know that if they go badly I can recover (from backups or at least have alternatives I can use as necessary until I resolve any problems). It is a balancing act - companies increasingly assume that people will just always apply every update (and they often force this by breaking old app versions)