Spyware Interest Has Disappeared

The concept of "spyware" has disappeared from the common internet lingo after it became the case that the word could now be used to describe nearly every major website and a huge percentage of the most commonly-used software. Spyware Search term COMPARE United States, 2004 - present Interest over time 100 75 50 25 0 Jan 1, 2004 Note Note Note Jan 1, 2012 Jan 1, 2020

A screenshot shows a post claiming that the term “spyware” has vanished from common internet vocabulary, alongside a Google Trends graph showing searches for “Spyware” collapsing from 2004 onward. The joke is that spyware became so widespread across major websites and everyday software that people stopped treating the word as a distinct concept, making the decline in searches ironically appropriate.

• @gentoomemes / 10569 2024-04-13