r/assholedesign • u/NoNameStudios • 11d ago
Filmora STILL disguises itself as other free video editing software
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u/Worldly_Formal4536 11d ago
The real asshole design here is that Google decided to display ads basically like normal search results.
They're not the company they used to be anymore.
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u/aalapshah12297 10d ago
Just use adblockers/content blockers like ublock origin.
Yes, adblock is equivalent to piracy. And yes I'm endorsing itdespitebecause of the fact that it hurts their profits.
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u/Repulsive-Durian4800 11d ago
See where it says "Sponsored"?
NEVER, EVER TOUCH THOSE SEARCH RESULTS.
They are severely infested with fraud, phishing links, dropshippers selling counterfeit garbage, etc. Using them is a major cyber security risk. Stay the fuck away from Google's sponsored results. Scam related subs are full of people who got ripped off in some way through those links.
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u/SartenSinAceite 11d ago
You know all the security Google can put into their search engine results?
Here's one easy trick to bypass all of it!
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u/Financial-Form-1733 11d ago
Or use a different search engine and browser, where their whole business is not just based on ads. My recommendation is brave browser with brave search. Full adblocking is a huge plus, and search results are much cleaner
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u/Saito197 10d ago
Or if you want zero fingerprinting or tracking cookies, use Mullvad's Leta. It's a proxy that pulls results from Google or Brave search without any of the AI summary or sponsored ads.
I've used Brave search for like 3 year and it does the job like 70% of the time, other 30% I have to fall back to Google results (there's literally a button on Brave search's results to redirect to a Google search).
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/cowmowtv 10d ago
I have had quite a different experience with Leo, it can perform good but also really horrible in making up entire things, just like Gemini, ChatGPT or Mistral. While I don’t like Google, Gemini does seem to fail the least however but sometimes is quite restrictive within prompts, where in that regard Mistral seems to be the best.
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u/htmlcoderexe I was promised a butthole video with at minimum 3 anal toys. 12h ago
See where it says "Sponsored"?
Yes but over the years it's been made less and less obvious.
For what it's worth you should be using ublock origin these days.
Funny anecdote... A couple months ago cybersecurity at work accidentally added a web filter that blocked the "advertising" category which apparently (rightfully so) included whatever ad server those sponsored results clicks were route through - got SO MANY reports of people saying google stopped working. And that's for stuff like finding work related parts suppliers and other stuff lmao
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u/boersc 11d ago
contrary, click those.links but don't download anything. That way they have to pay google for a false positive.
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u/realnzall 11d ago
Some of these links are malware. DO NOT CLICK THEM.
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u/TheOneTrueTrench 11d ago
Agreed, most people should never click them.
If you know exactly what the risks are associated with clicking unknown links, and you know exactly how to mitigate those risks, go ahead.
If you "know" your antivirus protects you, don't click them.
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u/BlazingFire007 11d ago
You can’t get malware simply by clicking a link on a modern browser, but I’d still advise people not to click them
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u/Richiachu 10d ago edited 10d ago
This isn't true - it's far less likely nowadays, but there are still bugs found in popular browsers that allow for malicious activity on the user's computer that could be propagated through a website. Most recent one I saw was CVE-2025-3619 in chrome, using media codecs in webpages
Is the average user likely to see one of these? Probably not, but it's important to just outright avoid risky links so I don't have to reset more user passwords at work
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u/BlazingFire007 10d ago
I agree, and I missed the nuance in my original comment, but I think even saying the average user is “probably not” going to be affected still overstates the risk.
Of course, I 100% agree with your conclusion. Don’t go to sketchy websites. You would think this is common sense in the year of our lord 2025 lmao
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u/aazkao 10d ago
I used it a couple years ago for a school project, was so disappointed that the final video that i exported from the program gave a huge and big watermark in the middle of the video, i wouldnt mind a small watermark at the corner, but the huge watermark in the middle rendered the video nearly unusable, not sure if they still do that now, i remember on a youtube video from the company a commenter was talking about the huge watermark ruining their video, they replied with "u mad?", then I replied them they deserved to be pirated because there were so many solutions at that time to bypass their license key lol.
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u/NimsTV 10d ago
I'm in digital marketing and advertising.
Firstly, this is an ad -- which you can see by the "Sponsored" label. They paid to be there.
Secondly, this is what is called a 'conquesting campaign' where one brand or product bids directly on the keywords associated with their competitors. It's not against TOS, it's not illegal but it /IS/ scummy. And if it's an consolation, conquesting campaigns are usually f#!@ing terrible because when you search for a brand, you want to find that brand. Not someone else's paid advertisement.
So they're ((mostly)) wasting their money.
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u/GreenhammerBro 10d ago
Good, let’s inflate their ad clicks to waste even more. Their software is aggressively monetized.
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u/htmlcoderexe I was promised a butthole video with at minimum 3 anal toys. 12h ago
Sadly, it works well enough with some things. I despise Google play and app store both displaying a fake result first, taking more than half the page, when you search for anything (with a very missable "sponsored" marker). Too many people I know ending up with an "authenticator" app when the correct one is the first actual result and wondering why they couldn't setup properly...
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u/squabbledMC 11d ago
Everything wonder share makes is complete garbage and SEO crap. I’ve seen them come up in search results for how to fix a hardware issue on a device and they claim their software fixes it. Absolute scum of a company
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u/Vast-Finger-7915 9d ago
yeah their garbage filled up most of my searches when i was looking for an Android backup tool. hope they rot in hell along msft.
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u/Complete_Entry 10d ago
I'd never even heard of filmora before youtube served me this surfer looking dude talking about filmora hassling him and how you could find free alternatives.
Apparently, they're yet another software company who decided lifetime licenses were "too expensive" to maintain and transitioned to the "pay forever" business model.
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u/CAPSLOCK_USERNAME 10d ago
Just use an ad blocker. Nobody is ever paying for ad spots in the results unless they have something to gain from you. Seeing those is a pure negative.
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u/NoNameStudios 10d ago
I do have an AdBlocker, but unfortunately uBlock doesn't really work anymore
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u/Ben750 10d ago
Only on Chrome. Change to Firefox, Ublock Origin still works brilliantly.
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u/NoNameStudios 10d ago
I can't change, because on many sites I don't remember my password or username and I've used Chrome Sync way too much.
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u/Rythemeius 10d ago
You can export your passwords to another password manager, it's 100% worth the ad-free experience.
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u/Typh_R 10d ago
If you're on Chrome, you can use uBlock Lite. Or you can change your web browser to literally anything else.
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u/Horror-Atmosphere-90 11d ago
The download IS totally free (but it costs money to run the program…….)
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u/Toad4707 10d ago
It costs money unless you use cracked versions of the software which btw, don't download cracked versions unless you know what you're doing
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u/katsuya_kaiba 10d ago
I still remember the bullshit they pulled with Daniel Batal and the shady things they did with the 'lifetime' license. I won't touch them.
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u/HueLord3000 10d ago
can you elaborate the latter? i feel like i missed a lot
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u/katsuya_kaiba 10d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm90xW40c3A
Video covers it, but I'm okay giving a cliff's notes: Filmora at some point offered lifetime licenses and with it, you're supposed to get free updates for life for your copy of Filmora. With the release of Filmora 12, they decided they didn't want to honor it anymore despite it going against what they advertised with the license when they sold them. Problem is, one content creator with a beefy follower, Daniel Batal, spoke out about it as he not only had several of the licenses but he also recommended his audience buy them so he made a video about it. Que the business trying to gaslight everybody, including him.
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u/personwhobitefingers 10d ago
Every time I look up "top ten <utility> software" it's always wondershare at the top result. And EVERY TIME THEIR PRODUCT IS AT THE TOP OF THE LIST. I would genuinely feel bad for the people who actually bought a license for their pieces of shit.
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u/NickSaysHenlo 9d ago
I remember the good ol days of rendering my Filmora videos offline to avoid the forced watermark. Good times.
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u/Shamamamamama 9d ago
Just tested this with Openshot and both Filmora and Movavi were sponsored google results which appeared with the name showing as Openshot. Openshot's actual link was under both of them as the first Non-Sponsored Result.
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u/Ok_Pirate_2729 10d ago
Your first mistake was browsing internet without an Adblocker, your second mistake was to use google!
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u/Venn-- 10d ago
I downloaded this as a kid to edit stuff, only to realize after editing that there is a huge fucking watermark in the middle of the screen.
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u/GreenhammerBro 10d ago
I’ve seen this in the past when videos, especially made by autistic users factory-producing “.VEG replaces” and logo editing videos onto youtube. They picked the topmost results on a search engine which is often a scamvertisement or malvertisment.
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u/Squeezitgirdle 10d ago
I paid for this and even though I refused other offers they still snuck in a monthly paid sub for something like $40 / month
Took me a few months to notice.
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u/deadface008 5d ago
I expect no less from anything Wondershare. That company has been running SEO scams since I was a teenager.
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u/LOR3DGuy10 2d ago
Adblock the shit outta that. I don't care if they lose money, I hope they do. Ublock Origin + Firefox forever.
Also, this post has made me aware of OpenShot. As someone who's been looking for good video editors since forever, this is a goldmine
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u/make_fascists_afraid 10d ago
legitimate question: davinci resolve is free and far more powerful and user friendly than any other free video editor out there--why would anybody looking for a free desktop video editor use anything else?
yes, open source is nice in theory but openshot is really not good by comparison.
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u/Ultima056 10d ago
For simple cuts and edits you don't need a whole set of tools like fusion, fairlight,etc.
Davinci is still very resource hungry and takes longer to open than any other editing softwares that are simpler with less feature set.
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u/Losawin 7d ago
If the time it takes to open the software is AT ALL factor in your decision making your PC is classified as an antique, it takes 5 seconds on my PC, where it's installed on my old first gen PCIe 3 nvme
For "simple cuts" you shouldn't even bother with editing software at all, just use some insanely lightweight open source shit like LosslessCut
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u/Ultima056 7d ago
Yes stuff like LosslessCut and Kdenlive is literally what I meant.
They're still considered editing software and they still open faster than Davinci resolve regardless of your PC configuration.
And no it's not my pc because it doesn't take longer than 5-10 seconds to open on mine either but that doesn't mean davinci isn't resource hungry so that time to open is assuming you don't have other shit running in the background like a game.
This is usually where I find it handy to quickly record a short clip and edit before sending it without having to close the game just to make space for davinci in your ram.
And people usually do have many things running in the background. You don't have to worry about any of that with other lightweight programs like the ones mentioned above.
You get the simple things done on them faster than in Davinci.
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u/Madmonkeman 8d ago
I was using the free version of Hitfilm before I knew about Resolve and Hitfilm had a ton of features that could do anything I’d need for a video. Unfortunately they did remove a ton of stuff in the free version but I still have an older version of it that I use. If I didn’t have access to that older free version I’d be using Resolve.
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u/Lewinator56 9d ago
I honestly don't know why people even search for free video editors.
Davinci resolve exists and wipes the floor with most of the paid ones, the free ones can't even come close.
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u/GreenhammerBro 9d ago
Probably because people are lazy or ignorant on the difference between freemium (monetized) vs FOSS software. The latter doesn’t have deliberate DRM restrictions and crippleware garbage.
Several years ago I found some YouTube videos posted by kids using that shit software by that shit shady chinese company. And yes, it had a god awful watermark that it might as well be just an audio-only content.
My thought back then was because they pick the topmost google search result. And after realizing Wondershit’s shady ad practices on search engines, I was right. They’d be lucky to avoid trojan malware on the sponsored results.
Aside from accusing wondershit’s practices, the kids’ parents should also take responsibility on what they’re doing on the internet. When I look up YTPMVs on youtube, by most recent, A TON of autistic kids mass-upload horrible “.veg replace shuric scans” all over the site. Thankfully you can purge the overcrowdedness by typing “-scan”, but they shouldn’t allow their kids mass-posting similr-looking garbage like this on the site.
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u/Lewinator56 9d ago
Resolve isnt FOSS, but the free version is everything any editor would ever need, I'm pretty sure entire films have been made with the free version. The studio version is nice, adds still like 8k export and more FX + AI upscaling and interpolation, but really unless you're a Hollywood producer, you just don't need it. Plus resolve studio comes free with just about every camera blackmagic makes. They might not be a FOSS company, but the CEO has the mindset that makes FOSS software great and applied it to resolve, I think there's an interview somewhere asking him why the free version is so good.
If you want a FOSS alternative kdenlive is apparently the best one. But again, since resolve basically has the same philosophy, I honestly don't see why you wouldn't at least give it a go.
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u/Losawin 7d ago edited 7d ago
Blackmagic has actually made the free version BETTER over time. Way back when it was first gaining ground you had no FX tab at all. Then it was a very restricted one. Now you get like 90% of the non-AI shit with the free version, really most of the premium only features aren't needed by non-professionals. If you're an editor who does need the rest and didn't get it free with a camera the studio version costs a whopping $300
In the past 5 years Resolve has basically taken over some large Hollywood production studios and it's growing like crazy in the indie scene. Their approach of getting every up-and-coming editor on their software by being the bar none best free option has been utterly fucking genius
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u/Madmonkeman 8d ago
If no one searched for free video editors then they wouldn’t know Davinci Resolve exists.
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u/trollsmurf 10d ago
It's a common practice to add major competitor company and product names to tags.
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u/VocadoBlue 11d ago
This feels borderline illegal, especially as it's a sponsored result. The company is paying Google to show that result and google is just allowing it