Ditched Google

[Airbozo]

Now using DuckDuckGo.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/01/duckduckgo-google-privacy/

[mDust]

Meh. I'm not a face or a name to Google. I'm a MAC or IP address to them...anonymity secure... Plus, why get upset about Google telling a retailer that your search for "athlete's foot" sent you to them? The retailer probably had some idea of your condition as soon as you bought the athlete's foot cream...:rolleyes:

[Airbozo]

Meh. I'm not a face or a name to Google. I'm a MAC or IP address to them...anonymity secure... Plus, why get upset about Google telling a retailer that your search for "athlete's foot" sent you to them? The retailer probably had some idea of your condition as soon as you bought the athlete's foot cream...:rolleyes:

Not really upset about that kind of stuff. I just like the idea of people not selling my search info. No ones business but mine.

[Lothair]

I actually like that my web browsing experience is personalized. It's more of a service than a disservice. Theyre also pretty good with what they do with and handle that information.

Now Facebooks privacy agreements, that's an issue I could get behind.

[msmrx57]

Not really upset about that kind of stuff. I just like the idea of people not selling my search info. No ones business but mine.

This. More importantly google isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread no matter how many times they claim to be. :whistler:

[x88x]

I'm all for privacy, but honestly, if that's your only reason for dropping Google... *shrugs* If you don't want them to send referral data, use the https interface. If you don't want to ever have any referral data sent any time you do anything on the internet...well, you're out of luck. Like one of Google's reps pointed out in that article, pretty much every website sends referral data when you click on a link. Heck, I would be willing to bet that the news sites that picked this up all send referral data with their links as well. I bet links here send referral data too. It's not this big, bad thing, all it does is say what page you were on that linked you to the page you are on now. It's how online advertising works. The only reason anyone's upset about this specific instance of it is because (just like every other search engine in the world) your query is part of the url. Besides, like mDust mentioned...is it really that big a deal if a website knows what search term brought you to their page? The whole point of a web search is to find pages relevant to your search terms..it's not like you're going to search for (using the example on Soghoian's blog), "HIV testing", then click on a link for..idk, some website that you would care if they knew you were researching HIV testing. Oh no, I searched for 'computer case modding' and clicked on a link for TBCS...who then learned that I searched for 'computer case modding'... IDK, do what you like, I just think the whole thing is a bit silly.

[mDust]

This. More importantly google isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread no matter how many times they claim to be. :whistler:

When was the last time you heard someone say "I don't know, let's 'AskJeeves it." or "Let's 'yahoo' that." Google, Inc didn't make 'google' a verb, the users did because it revolutionized internet search. I remember how terrible searching the web for relevant information was 15 years ago... If you've forgotten, you could always search for such topics on lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)or altavista (http://www.altavista.com/).

If I had to choose between google.com or sliced bread, I'd choose google every time...and I'm hungry for sandwiches while typing this!

[Airbozo]

I'm all for privacy, but honestly, if that's your only reason for dropping Google... *shrugs* ...

TBH, it is not necessarily about privacy (although I know they are not really tracking me). Lately the google results have been less and less useful due to the way web sites try and get elevated in the search engine. Having to wade through 30000 results where the first 2 pages have nothing to do with what I searched for is the most irritating issue.

[Diamon]

Set up a script that routes your internet through a different proxy or tunnel every time you start the computer.

Alternatively you just pay for a VPN tunnelling service.

Privacy issue solved?

[Lothair]

Does anyone else not like the instant results feature or how it just gives you an endless page of images?

Just curious to see if it's just me or not. They're such gimmicky and unhelpful features, IMO.

[TheGreatSatan]

I've never understood the draw of Google, it's actually not that good of a search engine. I have been using Bing ever since it premiered

[Lothair]

It's not that good? lol

Bing and Google give nearly the same search results, as has been compared multiple times throughout the interwebs. There is a difference, but it's minute. The primary difference is Bings awesome video search features and that it just looks different.

Basically, people were tired of Yahoo and it's cramped mash of linkage, advertisements, etc. It's the same thing with whats been happening to Myspace. People like simplicity. So people use Google and Facebook.

For me, it's part that and also that I love Gmail. It's a great basic email service, which is all that most people need, including me. And the Gmail link is right there on my homepage when I open my browser. Although I also have the addon for Chrome and Firefox.

But let's be honest here, Google is a great search engine. Bing is too, considering it's almost exactly the same once you strip it of it's eyecandy.

I think you just like to say overly controversial things. Having a preference, sure okay, but saying it's not that good? Compared to what? Bing and only Bing? I guess it's just widely used and has had some of the best people in the world work on it, costing a ridiculous amount of money, for no actual reason. :/

[Trace]

I guess it's just widely used and has had some of the best people in the world work on it, costing a ridiculous amount of money, for no actual reason. :/

Sig quote

[BuzzKillington]

They don't track you... yet. If they ever catch on I'm willing to bet they'll sell out.

[mDust]

Does anyone else not like the instant results feature or how it just gives you an endless page of images?

Just curious to see if it's just me or not. They're such gimmicky and unhelpful features, IMO.

I'm still not used to the instant results yet. I habitually hit enter after typing a request and it reloads it all anyway. :facepalm:

The endless pic page has helped me out quite a bit though. There have been quite a few times I was searching for something I didn't know the name of but knew what it looked like. While searching for obscure terms, the endless page made it a LOT easier on me.:)

[x88x]

Does anyone else not like the instant results feature or how it just gives you an endless page of images?

Just curious to see if it's just me or not. They're such gimmicky and unhelpful features, IMO.

As long as I'm on a fast connection I don't really have a problem with the instant results...except that sometimes it decides that I meant to type a word that I didn't actually type... -_^ On a slow connection (like my phone) I turn it off.

The new images search, I love. I find it a lot easier to navigate than the old style, and it actually performs decently on a slow connection as well. The overlay on click-through is a bit annoying though.

[Lothair]

I was surprised at how fast images load even when the connection was being bogged down.

I think I'd probably like it more if it was side scrolling with like a little timeline with notches in it to help kind if keep a general reference to where things are/were. That'd be cool.

[dr.walrus]

it's actually not that good of a search engine.

what?

As for privacy data, who cares what I search for?

[msmrx57]

When was the last time you heard someone say "I don't know, let's 'AskJeeves it." or "Let's 'yahoo' that." Google, Inc didn't make 'google' a verb, the users did because it revolutionized internet search. I remember how terrible searching the web for relevant information was 15 years ago... If you've forgotten, you could always search for such topics on lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)or altavista (http://www.altavista.com/).

If I had to choose between google.com or sliced bread, I'd choose google every time...and I'm hungry for sandwiches while typing this!

I'm not saying it isn't popular, just that it doesn't always do the best job. I also tend to not be a bandwagon kind of person (I use opera as a web browser). More often than not when I use google no matter how carefully worded the search I get 1-2 pages of useless or sponsored links.:( Most of the reason for this is the way the search engines work and the way people are wording and coding their sites. Or paying to be higher on the listings.

[mDust]

I'm not saying it isn't popular, just that it doesn't always do the best job. I also tend to not be a bandwagon kind of person (I use opera as a web browser). More often than not when I use google no matter how carefully worded the search I get 1-2 pages of useless or sponsored links.:( Most of the reason for this is the way the search engines work and the way people are wording and coding their sites. Or paying to be higher on the listings.

I used Opera for a while after I got pissed at FF for constantly bugging out, but I missed the plugins that I was used to and fell back in love with FF. But not wanting to jump on the Google bandwagon is a terrible reason not to use the most accurate search engine to date. I google various topics (very likely) over a hundred times a day on average and I haven't had to scroll to page two in months. Generally the first 3 results are adds...they are are in a light blue box that says "Ads" in the corner. After that it should be exactly what you're looking for...if not, you could try searching on Bing (the #2 engine) but it if Google didn't find it chances are nothing else will either. For example, I was recently searching for a rare aquatic fern by its latin genus and species...there were 6 results total in google. None of them were relevant but bing and yahoo returned nothing either, so it just means that if relevant info on the topic exists on the net, the crawlers haven't found it yet.
Depending on what you're looking for you could try WolframAlpha, but I think that is still experimental.
As for companies paying to be listed higher in search results, that simply isn't true. You or a company can buy an add in that blue box, but you can't buy your way to the #1 result. Google rankings have never been for sale, and likely never will be. The algorithms they use to determine those rankings are one of their closely guarded secrets.
I distrusted google over 10 years ago when it was still new. They didn't offer a whole lot and I wasn't a fan of their minimalistic site. I thought it was cheap and would eventually fizzle out. A few friends liked it though and got me to try it. After I had there was just no going back to the dumb altavista or yahoo searches that were practically useless. Plus, I much prefer the simple layout these days as the news feeds and other clutter on yahoo and similar sites is just garbage. If something comes along that works and feels better than google, I will likely switch to that engine as I'm not a narrow minded fanboi. But until that day, it's hard to deny that google is on top of the game.

[dr.walrus]

I use opera as a web browser

LOLOLOL

[Mark_Hardware]

hehehe some of the things I've punched into google.... I'd like to know who they're going to refer that too :D

[Airbozo]

hehehe some of the things I've punched into google.... I'd like to know who they're going to refer that too :D

lol!

We sat in a meeting once and for about an hour we tried every obscure thing we could think of. We were amazed that some of that stuff actually got hits.

The system administrator raised a stink a couple days later when he went through the logs and found all the search terms we tried (he didn't know it was us, just that "someone" in the conference room was really perverted).

[crenn]

If you didn't search furries, you didn't think of everything :P

[Airbozo]

If you didn't search furries, you didn't think of everything :P

hehe, yes we did.

[x88x]

What's also really fun is to play with the 'auto-suggest' stuff. Presumably, at some point, someone has actually searched for those without it being suggested... :eek: My favorite is "do midgets". :P ..there are some weird people in the world. :P