I'm done with Google.

[wowimthere]

I've removed Google from my bookmark and as my homepage and I will no longer be using them as a reliable search engine. You can say it's about time to show them how a search engine can be as unpopular as it is popular. I don't trust them... at all. This was actually the last straw. I gave them the benefit of the doubt when they turned over their search criteria information to the government but when they were caught spying on us and now this, I've decided I'm not going to be complicit in helping their ego driven thirst for world domination over the internet.

I boycott Google. Who do they think they are? The government?

[AnnieBW]

1. Try Yippy

http://search.yippy.com/

They cluster your results, rather than just randomly putting up results.

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Yippy sounds scary...

From their own censorship statement

Yippy may remove from its output, in an ad-hoc manner, all but not limited to the following:

1. Politically-oriented propaganda or agendas
2. Pornographic Material
3. Gambling content
4. Sexual products or sites that sell same
5. Anti-Semitic views or opinions
6. Anti-Christian views or opinions
7. Anti-Conservative views or opinions
8. Anti-Sovereign USA views or opinions
9. Sites deemed inappropriate for children

I'm sure they know it when they see it. Yikes!

[wtmusic]

12. They censor "Anti-sovereign USA views or opinions"?

Just what the world needs...a pro-empire search engine!

Yippee!

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Where will you go instead? It's a serious question.

It's a bit like the lie that the airlines often give us: "We know you have a choice in air travel."

For example, I stubbornly use a cell phone company whose coverage is spotty because I can't bear to kowtow to the Big Guys. And yet I realize at the bottom of my heart that I am fighting a losing battle.

What will you use instead? And will they be better than Google, or simply the same but without the same power and influence?

[EFerrari]

4. Do you use only one search engine?

I usually use both yahoo! and google but have been thinking, I need to do something else. We can't just let this go.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Currently, I use both Yahoo and Google but predominantly Google.

I have issues with Yahoo as well.

I haven't worn Nikes for more than a decade, but are the shoes I buy instead any more socially responsible? I'm just not sure.

[EFerrari]

9. Understood. I don't know enough yet either.

Well, maybe people who do will weigh in.

[wowimthere]

8. Yahoo or bing for the moment. There isn't another search engine as good as Google... at the moment

but when they do the same thing, you move on. Remember AOL? It used to be big until it got to be too big for its britches.

[SlipperySlope]

28. AOL wasn't killed by a competitor

AOL wasn't killed by a competitor. AOL was killed by the internet as a whole.

AOL was a mediocre ISP that provided a lot of branded content. When the internet became an alternative content source AOL was doomed.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

20. scroogle!

Google without the tracking or the highest paid adds results

Go here, http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm Make it your homepage! Think of it as your local farmers market as opposed to Safeway!

[Touchdown]

3. And everybody said it was going to be Apple

:rofl:

Seriously, I like Google and this is very disappointing.

[EFerrari]

6. I saw a documentary on LinkTv how secretive Google is a couple of years ago.

It might be this one:

http://www.documentary24.com/google-behind-the-scenes-of-the-biggest-information-collection-worldwide--147/

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Ironically, Apple, with its stranglehold on its products, is supporting open standards like HTML5

I applaud them for this, but appreciate the irony.

[wowimthere]

10. Let's remember... people... got Google on the map... like they got

yahoo on the map and all the other giants but when they start to undermine the public at large you can take them off the map simply by pursuing another unknown. Google has forgotten who brung them to the dance. It's unfortunate.

[RandomThoughts]

11. Actually many private sector individuals have the ideology

that the private sector should run the world, not people.

Been even seeing posts here defending ideas of oligarchy or ideas of lying to citizens.

The argument against that is in most history books, when a group thinks it is given the right to decide for many people is the way things are suppose to be, over a few decades they become corrupt. Then they become separated from society, then they lose concepts of what is needed in society, then society rises up against them.

That is why there has to be turn over of leaders, and that is best done by ideas of democracy from an informed citizenry, not claims of control from private sector based on how much money you have.

[wowimthere]

15. Well I certainly don't subscribe to lying to the masses who believe in the honest broker

Google has decided it will follow the pack. I think wanting to get richer is a fantastic but doing it in an underhanded way is another thing entirely. You're right, I've seen this behavior in many circles. It's as though lying has become an expected norm and it doesn't have to be. After the Bush era you would expect we'd want to try a much, much different approach.

[Powdered Toast Man]

14. Couldn't agree more.

I just switched my home page for the first time in 5 years from google.

[Alameda]

16. one option is dogpile.com

[PJPhreak]

23. Been using Dogpile since I got online in 97. nt

[niyad]

17. alternate search engines:

www.mamma.com (the mother of all search engines)

www.dogpile.com (this and mamma are my two favourites for most things

www.altavista.com

[wowimthere]

19. I used to use altavista awhile ago. I didn't know they were still in existence

I'll give them a try again.

[arikara]

18. I've been using ixquick for a couple of years

http://ixquick.com

I find it every bit as good as google and they don't record your ip address. Once in a blue moon I might go to the google to use one of their other features but I NEVER use it for regular searches anymore.

[snot]

21. Use StartPage -- it keeps protects you from being tracked as far as possible, I believe.

https://startpage.com . It's a little slower 'cuz it's going through proxies or something, I think; but it's worth it.

I used to like Clusty but then they were bot by Yippy, which DOES track your every move and which is stark raving neocon nuts (e.g., here's a direct quote from their "About Us" page: "We are too smart to sell out to Porn, Gambling and other things that infect our society for profit. Good always wins, and conservative values will bring us our victory in the market place. . . . God controls all creative thought it's what you do with it that defines who you are." The key word being "control.")

[Sherman A1]

24. Thanks I will give them a look-see

[arikara]

26. Startpage and ixquick are by the same people

I'm using ixquick and don't find it slow for my needs anyhow.

[wowimthere]

22. How do really know which will spy on you... like Google? I should have known better when

Bush said "the google".

[arikara]

27. Ixquick's privacy policy

here:

http://ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html

They don't record your ip address and they even use some method to keep your search terms out of the sites.

[trof]

25. Try Scroogle.

Google without all the bad stuff.