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The world needs more search engines

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Re: The world needs more search engines

#271

Post by jefftk »

Terretta wrote: post #148
jefftk wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think Google Search still knows who you are when you search in Incognito mode? (Or, in Firefox, if you open a private browsing window.) How would it know? There are advertising companies that use fingerprinting for ad targeting, but Google doesn't. (Disclosure: I work at Google on ads, speaking only for myself)

How does it know to offer (in incognito mode) a list of your accounts you might want to re-login to? (Not always, but often enough to raise an eyebrow.) Seems like a pretty good reason to think it still knows who you are. As to how that works, you tell us.

Are you talking about the browser's autocomplete? That's not something servers can detect unless you interact with it. Or do you mean something else?

Re: The world needs more search engines

#272

Post by jdjdjjsjs »

keepper wrote: post #71

It’s really sad to see the anti-success rhetoric. I was around during the “search wars”, and what’s usually forgotten is that well, they were by far the best behaved as a corporate entity. This “romantization” of this ideal state, devoid of historical context or acknowledgement of the world we live in is extremwly counter productive. Should google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple do better? Absofuckinglutely!!! Regulate them…

It's funny because Google had a very different perspective when MS was the Monopoly we were worried about.

Re: The world needs more search engines

#273

Post by teawrecks »

sambull wrote: post #265
kbyatnal wrote: post #262

There needs to be a new search engine focused on the niche of people who hate the current ad spam/SEO results that Google currently returns. A query like "best headphones" returns results like "The Best Headphones for 2019 | PCMag.com". They've clearly optimized for the mass user base, since the average person is probably fine with a result like that. But I'm willing to bet no one on HN would ever click a link like t…

Just type reddit after every query and you've got the same function

As long as you're ok with only searching reddit...

Re: The world needs more search engines

#274

Post by lucb1e »

FabHK wrote: post #247
lucb1e wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that example query is more of a personal assistant kind of question. If I want to know who played in that movie, either I know which site has that information (IMDB) and go there directly, or I search for something like "actors spiderman movie ". If you want DDG to understand natural language queries, I think their privacy policy may need to be adjusted so that our queries can actually be used to develop…

Indeed. I'm happy to forego Google and then (in cases like this) click once more to figure it out myself.

Also because AI (if I may even call it that) is not yet good enough to answer these things with high accuracy, let alone judge sources. I don't use Google much so I can't really speak for it, but from what I've seen, I'd estimate that 20% of the answers (for non-mainstream topics) are either misleading or false.

Re: The world needs more search engines

#275

Post by CDSlice »

lonelappde wrote: post #255
candiodari wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't "project dragonfly" the Google search engine version for China? Google was trying to comply with the law. It's a law you might not agree with, but come on. The reason all these governments want Google split up is more censorship, not less. From torrents to negative reporting on EU commissars. From everyone's interpretation of hate speech to pages pointing out that sometimes social services are the abusers in ch…

How would breaking up a company help censorship? Surely it's easier to censor one entity than many.

One the other hand, Google is so big that it could just ignore demands from smaller countries, especially when they are a small drop on the bucket in terms of revenue. Multiple small, regional companies can't afford to go against the government in their area and aren't present in other areas.

Right now the only country that could actually do anything about Google is the US, but they won't because we benefit from having the number one internet search company be American.

Also, the rank and file employees in Google are largely liberal and tend to make a big fuss over things like censorship. If Google is broken up a company that is more friendly to state interference could emerge and take it's place.

Re: The world needs more search engines

#276

Post by chinesempire »

shadowgovt wrote: post #232
chinesempire wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the last Chinese dynasty — the Qing dynasty — fell in 1911–1912, it marked the end of the nation's incredibly long imperial history.

It marked the end of that government, but the nation of China is still very much an empire, by definition of its ambition and cultural reach exceeding its borders. In the same sense that the US and UK are empires.

Of course, if you use a custom definition for everything and cherry pick informations, everything is possible.

But no, it wasn't just the end of the government, it also meant losing almost 30% of its territory.

https://imgur.com/r/mapporn/Cdi6KOL

> In the same sense that the US and UK are empires.

UK was an empire, and it's already fallen, it is now on the brink of losing even the Kingdom and becoming an Island hosting borders and customs.

U.S. is not really an empire, never was. It is more the mandator of many bad things that happened in the last 70 years, that turned many countries into U.S. colonies through "exporting democracy" which actually translated too many times as "planting dictatorships befriended with U.S.A.". But it was good for U.S. and only U.S.

That's why Cliqz has reasons to exist, U.S. is an unreliable ally, even more now and Europe needs to

> building the foundation for a sovereign digital future of Europe

> develop digital key technologies as a European alternative to the market dominating US platforms.

> If We Don’t Act Now, We Will Become a Digital Colony

Re: The world needs more search engines

#277

Post by rhizome »

xixixao wrote: post #134
arrosenberg wrote: post #112

How do you design regulation that holds the giants accountable, doesn't impair smaller companies' ability to enter/innovate in the space, and isn't quickly corruptible by the (well-resourced) companies you are trying to control? We're better served by breaking them up and enforcing and strengthening the pro-competition laws on the books. The government has a pretty mixed record with regulating industry, and a far mor…

My biggest problem is: How do you break up a software system? I understand how you break up a company that mines ore, produces steel, builds railways, runs transportation - those are all separable ventures that can negotiate contracts almost as easily as when they had a single owner. But the tech giants run a single system: Amazon in the delivery, FB in the social graph (DB), Google in the knowledge graph. Those woul…

Amazon is a deliverer, FB is a social graph, Google is a knowledge graph. Don't think of the companies nor their roles (such as they are) as immutable. Look at GM in the 50-60s, or Paramount Studios in the 40s.

>My biggest problem is: How do you break up a software system?

There are people who have created entire careers about exactly that: antitrust remedies. I defer to experts where I can.

We entrepreneurial wannabes on HN are only going to provide unrealistic answers that become battles of will for the rest of this Sunday before all is forgotten overnight.

Re: The world needs more search engines

#279

Post by green1 »

There is no way Google doesn't use fingerprinting, or something even more advanced/creepy.

I never sign into Google, use private browsing by default and use VPNs (not to hide, just for various location reasons), and Youtube's recommended for you is full of stuff unrelated the current video I'm watching that I've seen before with different IPs and locations/VPNs.

Edit: LMAO at the sudden attempt to bury this post with 5 downvotes in just the last few minutes, like nobody has ever pointed this out before?

Re: The world needs more search engines

#280

Post by KirinDave »

green1 wrote: post #219
antepodius wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is far less restricted than europe for freedom of speech, the major principle that matters when you're talking about information technology. In the case of search engine balkanisation (I'd be in favour of it), I'd think that eurosearch would, on average, be more censorious than amerifind.

Aside from Holocaust denial, hate speech and libel how does the US differ from "Europe" in terms of free speech?

The US has what we might call "better" libel and slander laws than some actors in the EU and with the UK being a popular example of the most ridiculously bad laws historically.
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