How is it sarcastically impressive that I hit cmd-space and typed "it" for iTerm, like I do every time I start up my computer and have for the last two years? How is it sarcastically impressive that I just start typing into Spotlight, because I know that's what Spotlight is? And what makes you think I've gone to Spotlight preferences since upgrading to Yosemite? I had my preferences the way I wanted them, why would an OS upgrade make me psychically know to go there?
Going further, what makes you think I give a material shit about Apple's PR materials? I don't read about OS X releases, I upgrade when they show up because I trusted (past tense) Apple to do the right thing. Something you can bypass without even acknowledging it is at best sneaky. If Apple thought this was seriously all that and a bag of potato chips, an opt-in is real easy.
The functionality changed dramatically and extremely visibly. If you are intent in completely ignoring the obvious changes, both to the aesthetics of the functionality, and to the actual behavior, that's your prerogative. But you can't turn around and claim Apple is behaving badly when you intentionally blinded yourself to the numerous ways that you could tell something is different.
And besides all that, apparently this issue doesn't even affect you. If you launch Spotlight, type "it", and hit Return, in order to launch iTerm, to the best of my knowledge, Spotlight won't have even sent your query to Apple. It had a local application result to deliver, and you accepted it without waiting for more results. From playing with it myself, and from watching patterns of network traffic, it appears to me that it doesn't even initiate the search unless it thinks you don't want the first result.
The only thing dirty here is your desire to publicly accuse Apple of bad behavior when you blindly installed a brand new major OS upgrade without reading anything about it, ignored the blatant message they gave you, ignored every single visual cue about how the functionality you were using has been radically changed, and then read on the internet that there was a possibility that your search queries might be sent to Apple and freaked out.
The entire OS changed how it looked. Shifting Spotlight to be a window instead of a dropdown doesn't imply a change in functionality. Do you stop and frigging gawk at every change in an OS?
And I don't know what they're not asking me to opt into sending. That's the fucking problem. You can play with it all you want and fiddle with it however you like to determine you're okay with it, that's fine. I am blanket not okay with remote services receiving local anything by default. I got pissed when Ubuntu did it, I'm pissed when Apple does it.
You know what kinda did "imply a change in functionality", though? This text that you see, writ large, when you open Spotlight:
"In addition to searching your Mac, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, App Store, movie showtimes, locations nearby, and more. To make suggestions more relevant to you, Spotlight includes your approximate location with search requests to Apple."
Seems pretty clear to me. It also might be a subtle clue that you are getting various kinds of search results from the Internet.
There's also very easy-to-understand hand-holding built right into the UI to help you disable it, if you want to.
It's pretty obvious, for the non-obtuse at least, that if you extend the functionality of a feature such that it searches the Internet, that means it's going to actually search the internet, which means sending your search terms to external services.
But that's the thing: you don't see that text when you hit cmd-space and immediately start typing, as somebody trained to use Spotlight is naturally going to do. Therein lies the problem. It's not that they added the feature--sure, go nuts. It's that they enabled an internet-facing feature without the courtesy of something modal to ensure that a user who has been trained--by them--to just go will understand the ramifications of what they chose to do.
I just tested this out on my Mac. When I type comand space and then begin typing text actually stays for about a second befor results are shown. This gives you enought time to notice the text. If you then back space the text will reappear. This really feels like apple is going the extra mile to make sure that people understand what is going on.
Really what would you do with the UI to make this feature prominit enough to the user?
Have you actually even looked at Spotlight? You seem to be claiming all they did was move it around on the screen. It pretty obviously changed a lot more than that. That should be especially obvious the first time you actually get a Spotlight Suggestions result.
> And I don't know [...] * That's the fucking problem*
Yes, that is the fucking problem. You're arguing very loudly about something you don't know anything about.
Dude. I'm well aware of what it's doing. I've since disabled it. That I had to disable it, rather than enable it, is my beef. An operating system upgrade should not start barfing things at their remote servers without making damn sure I know about it and okay it before they do it. Opt-in is cool, opt-out is not, and opt-out that relies on you not using the feature as it's designed to be used (cmd-space and type) is extra uncool. All they'd need to do is create a modal dialog with a yes or no response and there'd be absolutely no problem, none whatsoever, but instead they slid it into a low-friction workflow in which the primary action is unconscious after you've been using it for any length of time.
It was wrong when Ubuntu did it with the Amazon lens crap. It's wrong when Apple does it. They're not special.
Going further, what makes you think I give a material shit about Apple's PR materials? I don't read about OS X releases, I upgrade when they show up because I trusted (past tense) Apple to do the right thing. Something you can bypass without even acknowledging it is at best sneaky. If Apple thought this was seriously all that and a bag of potato chips, an opt-in is real easy.
Be better than defending this, man. It's dirty.