As time goes by I’m becoming more disatisfied with Google results, to say nothing of their horrific privacy controls, or lack thereof.
So with this said I’ve been avoiding Google when and where I can. Bing and Yahoo still aren’t what I’m looking for in terms of results all the time So with that said I’ve started using www.dogpile.com. So far I’m pleased with the results. Results tend to be better as it’s looking across multiple search engines. While I might not like all three of them, but together the results are better.
Dogpile is a metasearch engine that agregates multiple search engines. Now if I could find something that eliminates google so much the better. I remember noodling around with a version of dogpile or something similar years ago.
Anyone else got ones they want to share? In short I’m now exploring other alternatives to the ubiquitous “google search” for not only better results but on ethical grounds. I realize that both dogpile and carrot include google but that’s a given at this point.
“Do no Evil” Really Google? You might want to revisit that.
You should probably read a bit more about that before going off on one. They only collected the last four digits of their social security numbers and they weren’t stored. And they’ve stopped the practice already anyway.
I’ve not found any search engine that works better than Google, although last year it went a bit crap briefly when it tried to imitate Bing for some reason. If you want all of Google without the advertising and storing of data then use givemebackmygoogle.com
"You should probably read a bit more about that before going off on one. They only collected the last four digits of their social security numbers and they weren’t stored. And they’ve stopped the practice already anyway."
Sory couple this with their WiFi sniffing and other deeds and they are certainly not living up to their motto.
Don’t confuse incompetence with evil. It’s not like they are trying to charge people commission for everything bought via an app in their app store, and fixing the price if you buy it outside the app too.
Don't confuse incompetence with evil. It's not like they are trying to charge people commission for everything bought via an app in their app store, and fixing the price if you buy it outside the app too. ;)
cornixt
You mean like Amazon charging 70% at one point?
Or trying to prevent people from using your infrastructure to fund/advance their sales without paying anything for it? Yep real evil :)
Bottom line is companies exist to make money. Google on the other hand trotted out the "Don't do Evil." The Wifi sniffing was hardly a accident.
All companies have their negatives, whether it is the closed-garden you-don’t-own-your-iPhone of Apple, the monopolistic policies of Microsoft, or the all-seeing-eye of Google. I can’t think of a single big company that isn’t trying to make money off me in an underhand manner. The key is not to put all your eggs in one basket and don’t become a fanboi. I’m not going to defend Amazon’s outrageous charges, nor Comcast’s attempts to throttle the data of people using a rival download service, nor Microsoft’s insistance on Windows being sold with every computer by a reseller, nor Ebay’s complete lack of responsibility when it comes to auction fixing.
Google’s grabbing of wi-fi data is somewhat muddled by the media. The stated intention was to use the location of the people’s wireless routers to help pinpoint your location (it’s much faster than GPS). While getting this data they also recorded some of the other data being transmitted by the router. Google claims that this was unintentional, and I’m at a loss as to what they would do with this data even if they had intentionally recorded it, evil or otherwise. Being nosey is one thing, but what nefarious purpose does it serve?
I think the whole “do no evil” thing is a load of nonsense, especially when anyone can define what is evil, but that doesn’t make them any worse than companies that don’t have nonsense mottos. If you want to complain about Google, there are plenty of other reasons. Their mystery auctions for ad space in search results for which the only guide is “if you pay more then you are more likely to win”, or the suspicious way that the page rankings are done in which certain sites (such as theirs) manage to do better than expected, again with zero independent oversight. Or even their treatment of orphanwork books. But then Google is a big company with a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, I could produce a string of ethically-challenged (and/or ironically so, based on their company motto) policies and actions by any big tech company if you wanted, even those with fruit-based names.
I remember noodling around with a version of dogpile or something similar years ago.