Comments on: Can You Trust Google? Why Take a Chance?

By: Debianero

Debianero — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:19:00 +0000

You’re welcome.

Another interesting search engine I forgot to mention before is https://ssl.scroogle.org/

It’s Google results but without cookies, no-search term records and deleting access logs after 48 hours.

By: Russell

Russell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:31:45 +0000

Thanks for the articles, I’ll definitely give them a look. I’m always interested in increasing my personal information security.

By: Debianero

Debianero — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:11:56 +0000

Yep, I’m researching the do-not-track thing nowadays too.

Two interesting articles about that topic:

https://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/219328/why_browser_do_not_track_features_will_not_work.html

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/what-does-track-do-not-track-mean

P.S. As you can see in that links I try to default to https whenever I can. That’s another no-tracking layer

By: Russell

Russell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:02:58 +0000

Debianero, thanks for reading and thanks for commenting. I should have mentioned that I’m phasing out my personal use of Gmail in favor of my email through this site, which still exposes me to some risk since my email is going through Dreamhost’s servers, but I think since they’re smaller than Google I trust them more, even if that trust is unfounded. They use Squirrel Mail for their email.

Huge web institutions like Gmail and Facebook should definitely be viewed with healthy skepticism. Even if they don’t have any bad intent, they’re big enough that they could do bad things if they wanted to.

On DDG’s site donttrack.us, they mentioned a Chrome extension called Disconnect which I have been trying out on Chromium since this morning. Disconnect is “a browser extension that stops major third parties and search engines from tracking the webpages you go to and searches you do.” It seems good so far, I’ll post more information about it once I’ve been using it a little longer, but it looks like it’s worth a look if you’re using any Chromium variants, particularly Google Chrome which is basically a browser designed to tell Google more about you.

Thanks again for reading/commenting.

By: Russell

Russell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:57:05 +0000

I’m glad you’re having a positive experience with DDG so far. If you try out the iPhone app, let me know if it’s any good.

By: Russell

Russell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:56:12 +0000

Nick, I think you’re right about Google not being dominant in the near future if they can’t keep their innovative culture. The new little guy revolutionary always shakes up the market, then grows and eventually becomes “the man” or words to that effect. I think the same thing will happen with Facebook. Once you go from revolutionary new outsider to big institution, you lose some of your small nimble edge. Look at Microsoft, which some would argue is in the process of fading into obscurity. I don’t really want to get into that debate here, but there is a somewhat predictable pattern in the technology world of giants being slain by Davids (who then eventually become Goliaths over time).

Evidently Google has been getting better about spotting “fake” websites with lousy content that are designed only to get clicks on ads and affiliate links, but in my esperience, I still get a lot of lousy returns on Google.

Make sure you check out donttrack.us if you didn’t check it out already.

By: Debianero

Debianero — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:46:04 +0000

You say you’re moving away from GMail but don’t explain to where.

I’m trying to get rid of Big-G too but is almost impossible to find a site without G-analytics, G-Ads, G-Syndication, G-Apis, G-whatever…

The same threat is coming from FaceBook these days, so we’re not surfing Internet anymore but G-Ocean and FB-Lake.

It’s almost impossible to surf without being profiled, not to mention if you’re usin G-DNS.

Sometimes I surf with non-graphical browsers (Lynx, eLinks, etc) and rejecting cookies, other times with graphical browsers but with at least ABP and Non-Script running.

Anyway, Big-G and FB (and others) have long tentacles.

P.S. I’m using DDG since it started.

By: Nick Altrup

Nick Altrup — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:11:20 +0000

Interestingly, my website fairs SIGNIFICANTLY better in terms of SEO for DuckDuckGo. Before I say what I’m about to say, take it with a grain of salt. I’m obviously biased. But this indicates to me that they are doing a better job of walking the walk than Google is when it comes to the mantra that “content is king.” I get frustrated to no end to see inferior websites that produce no content outrank me on Google. Actually, they frustrate me for a wide variety of reasons. Go, DuckDuckGo, go!!!

By: Nick Altrup

Nick Altrup — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:58:56 +0000

I’m more concerned about complacency at Google than what they know about me. I am starting to believe that their success will ultimately be their demise. They are, in my opinion, low-hanging fruit in the search engine market. Search is ready for heavy innovation, and I don’t think Google will be the company to do it. I strongly suspect they will be #2 (lower) within 5 years if they don’t innovate the engine and change the algorithm. I don’t have any hard evidence to back that up. It’s just a gut feeling.

Here’s my current dilemma though: 75% of Internet users are searching with Google. And since I optimize for my clients, I feel stuck using them. I need to understand the algorithm to the best of my ability to be able to achieve maximum results for the client.

Having said that, I will definitely start using DuckDuckGo. Perhaps they will be the ones to one day topple Google.

Good post.