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Giving up on Google

robsheldon.com

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Re: Giving up on Google

#51

Post by danilocampos »

dasil003 wrote: post #49

I don't understand the Gmail complaint at all . Sure it has its weaknesses such as the policy to not spend the resources stemming emails causing search to suck, but Gmail pretty much defined the usable webmail interface for power users. The interface on my webmail software feels like a mail client should -- easy navigation, threaded conversations, multiple window panes, and it's fast. Google on the other hand took ye…

I think the big deal there is yeah, Gmail works but it doesn't $50 a year work.

Re: Giving up on Google

#52

Post by alecco »

ggrot wrote: post #33

Maybe a minor quibble, but isn't DDG powered by Yahoo BOSS with features added on top? Yet, Rob then goes on to say "Yahoo can't be taken seriously" and points out queries where Yahoo does a poor job of handing synonyms - DDG has the same problem for the exact same query if you try it. Furthermore, the other queries which he suggests give irrelevant results on Google seem to give me irrelevant results on DDG.

Among the differences, DDG blocks MFA content mills and junk sites. If you report one they add it quite fast.

Re: Giving up on Google

#53

Post by moondowner »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #30
moondowner wrote: post #21

Not going to comment on Google, but about Duck Duck Go, I really like the service! Especially the !Bang feature and the keyboard shortcuts. I'm using it as a secondary search engine (after Google that is ;)) If someone wants to add Duck Duck Go to search engines in Opera, here's how (my own screenshot): http://twitpic.com/24ex2e

Note, you probably don't want that &v=d part.

You're right, with "&v=d" added to the URL it displays "I'm feeling ducky" and "relevant results" whereas without it displays more 'standard' results.

Re: Giving up on Google

#54

Post by yellowbkpk »

danilocampos wrote: post #48
petercooper wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of any good examples now, but in some IDEs in the 80s and 90s they had an "expert mode" you could toggle on and off to extend the number of menu options and the like. A similar setting on Google would be great. I know a little of Google's syntax like the + and " workarounds, but having a literal search as default would be worthwhile for many users. I recall that I switched to Altavista back in the mid 9…

From your mouth to Marissa Meyer's ears. My ultimate Google fantasy: An account setting called "2008 mode." No instant search. No fancy, annoying endless scroll Google image search. No word clustering/auto-substitution. It would be awesome.

I wonder if part of Google's speed increases involve dropping some of the more complex keywords while creating the index so that the search space is smaller.

Re: Giving up on Google

#55

Post by EricBurnett »

danilocampos wrote: post #43
pragmatic wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check your search history: http://www.google.com/history/

Search history is one of Google's creepier features – I disabled it awhile ago. Not that I suspect it helps anything, but at least if someone finds my computer or something, that data isn't two clicks away.

FYI, search history is one of the parts of the account you have to put your password in again to view. So it should be safe from prying eyes.

Re: Giving up on Google

#56

Post by wccrawford »

danilocampos wrote: post #40
arohner wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. I've had this break for me all the time when searching for programming terms. Proof: Google for "what we have here is failure to communicate" http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#3... The first hit is the wiki article on the quote (good), but the exact search string is not present on the page.

No kidding! I thought that the quotes made the term inviolable. I wonder if this is new. A big issue with Google is that, behind the scenes, things change without any outward guidance to longterm users on how to adjust.

It's not new. And + doesn't mean required any more, either. It's treated as increased importance, but not required.

I've been complaining about these changes for years.

Re: Giving up on Google

#57

Post by squidsoup »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #39
InfinityX0 wrote: post #12

I really think this is a case of confirmation bias. We see Google approaching this dominating mass that's impossible to stop, so we begin looking for ways to tear down big brother and look for holes. So, we notice every spam entry. I work in search and I can't recollect a time EVER having been frustrated with what Google gave me - and having to go to another engine. And I live, eat, & breathe the thing. I understand…

I think part of the problem is that for many people google is the internet. Even for me (pretty technically minded) if a few google searches doesn't find what I'm looking for it isn't on the internet, or might as well not be. I don't think I've even tried turning to another search engine in several years.

Which begs the question, are there regions of the web that just simply aren't indexed?

Re: Giving up on Google

#58

Post by clofresh »

zmmmmm wrote: post #13

I've tried several times to give up my Google habit. Once for an extended period with DDG. However each time, despite the correctly mentioned issues with spam, gaming etc, I still experienced severe withdrawal symptoms (and I made myself use the alternatives for 2 weeks at least, so I wasn't just hankering for the familiar). Ironically, of all Google's services, search is the one I could most easily replace and would…

I agree that Google search is the easiest to replace. I've been using DDG for a few weeks now and I've been happy with it. I tried to look for a good competitor to Gmail but every other competitor is just plain bad. It's like everyone just gave up on email after Gmail came along.

Re: Giving up on Google

#59

Post by moultano »

alecco wrote: post #52
ggrot wrote: post #33

Maybe a minor quibble, but isn't DDG powered by Yahoo BOSS with features added on top? Yet, Rob then goes on to say "Yahoo can't be taken seriously" and points out queries where Yahoo does a poor job of handing synonyms - DDG has the same problem for the exact same query if you try it. Furthermore, the other queries which he suggests give irrelevant results on Google seem to give me irrelevant results on DDG.

Among the differences, DDG blocks MFA content mills and junk sites. If you report one they add it quite fast.

Yahoo certainly tries to do that too, although I guess you're getting the union of yahoo/bing's spam-fighting and DDG's spam fighting.

I suspect that of the two, yahoo's has a much bigger impact given the size of the teams involved.

Re: Giving up on Google

#60

Post by thaumaturgy »

blacksmythe wrote: post #18
InfinityX0 wrote: post #12

I really think this is a case of confirmation bias. We see Google approaching this dominating mass that's impossible to stop, so we begin looking for ways to tear down big brother and look for holes. So, we notice every spam entry. I work in search and I can't recollect a time EVER having been frustrated with what Google gave me - and having to go to another engine. And I live, eat, & breathe the thing. I understand…

>> I really think this is a case of confirmation bias. We see Google approaching this dominating mass that's impossible to stop, so we begin looking for ways to tear down big brother and look for holes. I think that this is a case where we were comparing Google to what existing before (Yahoo, etc), and thought "this is great". Now we compare Google only to what we think it 'should' be.

For me, I remember how great Google was when I started using it around 1999, compared to AltaVista or Metacrawler; it was great because it was able to find results that the other two just couldn't, and it did it quickly.

Lately, I've found myself feeling like search is back in 1999 again.

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