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Google Alternatives

justprivacy.org

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Re: Google Alternatives

#71

Post by bogidon »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #58
bogidon wrote: post #52

I feel like all that's ever talked about here as bad about search is privacy. But what about good results? Google search results have an extremely heavy commercial bias. What would the internet look like without that? I would really like to have a say in how the ranking algorithm works. If I could, for example, exclude results from the Alexa Top 100k with a toggle, I bet I'd find interesting content a lot easier. Mos…

Changing the search provider wouldn't matter. The commercial nature of Google's results has almost nothing to do with Google and almost everything to do with SEO. Search results are far too valuable a piece of real estate for rankings to not be correlated with money. I guarantee you the army of marketers and full time SEO ninjas at Conde Nast will always figure out a way to get their content past your "no corporation…

I'm advocating for a ranking algorithm aligned to the benefit to the users, instead of the marketers. I think you're not appreciating Google's ranking algorithms lending a hand to the popularity of SEO. Their rankings are certainly not objective.

As for "far too valuable of a piece of real estate"... I feel like that's an unimaginative view trapped in the commercial state that we're in. Perhaps if Google had beat Wikipedia to online encyclopedias, but had pumped theirs with ads, we'd be saying the same thing about the far too valuable real estate of online information.

Re: Google Alternatives

#72

Post by missedthecue »

blazeWayne wrote: post #43
newusr10121 wrote: post #37

I'll consider Google alternatives when there is a better alternative. Until then I use the best technology. Do we really need these same posts every other week?

> I'll consider Google alternatives when there is a better alternative. Sure, you do you, nothing wrong with that. I'd rather use 'inferior' technology if that means better privacy standards.

In what way does google invade your privacy that has made you worse off?

Re: Google Alternatives

#73

Post by vfinn »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #54
vfinn wrote: post #48

Google is becoming more annoying by the day. It has become customary for it to force the user to accept privacy-leaking features by grouping them together with other useful features. This kind of sneaky behavior I don't like at all.

Telling you exactly what information they're gathering in exchange for asking you to opt in is an interesting definition of sneaky.

That's a very narrow take on the matter. One can be deceitful with perfect information. In general you can use small prints or psychological tricks and conceal your true aim. If you know that by presenting information in a certain manner leads the user to be more willing to accept harmful conditions, then you're being sneaky even though you're technically being open.

Re: Google Alternatives

#74

Post by thewebcount »

> There are other alternatives to Google Chrome like Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge but many of these have serious privacy issues.

Really? I don't anything about Edge, but what serious privacy issues does Safari have? It doesn't send data back to Apple as far as I can tell. I can use ad blockers and tracker blockers with it. Or when they say "some of these" do they mean "one of these two?"

Re: Google Alternatives

#75

Post by edgyquant »

uniqueid wrote: post #32
garyrichardson wrote: post #8

I've tried really hard to not use google for search. But DDG is bad. I have it set as my default search. I find myself either: 1) trying duck duck go and then immediately re-searching in google to actually get relevant answers. 2) skipping the search bar and going immediately to google when I know DDG just isn't going to work. Feels like back in the olden days when you had to try Altavista, Lycos and Yahoo to find wh…

Have you tried the comparison within the last year? You will probably find that while DDG Search is still just as bad as you remember, Google Search is no longer much better. I use Bing quite a bit, too, which is even closer in quality to Google Search.

My problem with bing, and I could be wrong for it, is I’m not looking to replace one data mining company with another. I’d much rather give a smaller, up and coming, company my searches.

Re: Google Alternatives

#76

Post by edgyquant »

newscracker wrote: post #34
woleium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can '!g search' in ddg to search google instead

That adds more time since the query is sent to DDG and then bounces the browser to Google. For searches where one prefers Google, using it directly (which is easier in Firefox for me) is a better option.

What’s even the point of using !g to go to google it just redirects me last I checked so it’s still giving you your personalized searches (thus not a solution for privacy.) Am I missing something here?

Re: Google Alternatives

#77

Post by MacsHeadroom »

thewebcount wrote: post #74

> There are other alternatives to Google Chrome like Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge but many of these have serious privacy issues. Really? I don't anything about Edge, but what serious privacy issues does Safari have? It doesn't send data back to Apple as far as I can tell. I can use ad blockers and tracker blockers with it. Or when they say "some of these" do they mean "one of these two?"

Does Safari sync your data to icloud? If so, it can be secretly subpoenaed.

Re: Google Alternatives

#78

Post by kuzimoto »

edgyquant wrote: post #70
kuzimoto wrote: post #67

All in all a decent effort at providing some Google alternatives. However, if the focus is on privacy I would not even recommend any services that are not specifically privacy-focused (IMO), even with a disclaimer. I would encourage anyone to self-review any services listed. Godaddy is offered as a domain and website host, when they have been known to inject JavaScript tracking code unbeknownst to the user [0]. [0] h…

That’s only if use their name servers right? I’ve used godaddy for 13-14 years on personal sites and I just point the domains to my own ip.

I think that only impacts the website hosting.

Re: Google Alternatives

#79

Post by martingab »

Can anyone explain to me why exactly startpage.com is not listed? - They also list other meta searchers which have ads. I know some of the rumours about startpage but not mentioning it at all made me wonder what are the criteria for the list or whether I've missed something very bad about starpage (such that it becomes obvious to not list it)...
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