List your Google alternatives

[Moderator]

After reading This... am now done with them...

Just wondering what everyone's alternative search engines they use.

Note: Let's keep the politics out of this discussion as to why they are going down this road as that can be bashed to death...

[Moderator]

I'll stay with Google. Regardless of whether or not I agree with - or even like - how they do business, no other search engine I've tried provides results that equal Google in my opinion

I've found myself using bing more and more for searches, for a few reasons. (nothing to do with the cited link).

-Sometimes I will type a query into google, it will switch to showing the results, and then the results dissapear and I'm left with a blank page. Clicking the search button does nothing (presumably because doing so without changing the query is a no-op). if I change the query I can get it to search again, and if I refresh the page that works too, but I find myself fighting with google just to show results more and more often, so on a few occasions I grew sick of it and navigated to another search engine, usually bing.

-I often find what I'm looking for a lot faster.
This surprised me some of the first times. This can be particularly and not surprisingly observed when searching for information on Microsoft stuff. (MSDN blogs, posts, technical articles, etc.), but applies to quite a number of queries I've done in both engines; the item that I eventually found to be relevant to my interests was often listed higher in the bing results than the google results.

The only downside I've found is that the main landing page is a bit heavier than google's, but at the same time I don't have to fight with it to get it to show results properly. And results are often displayed faster.

Also, I think part of the reason for the second point, might be because MS doesn't seem to have a facility for "sponsored" links; search for some things on google and sometimes the first few results are anything but relevant, because the people responsible for the site basically paid for a higher search rank. Of course you can always just scroll past those, but there isn't always an indication where the paid results end and the actual results that were found for your query begin. It seems to be able to filter out parked domains, or at least makes an effort to do so.

Most of the query syntax is the same and it has the same useful features like site:blah.com <query> AND,OR, etc so google-fu is pretty much equivalent to bing-fu.

-Sometimes I will type a query into google, it will switch to showing the results, and then the results dissapear and I'm left with a blank page.

That's odd.  I've never had that happen.  I don't have any strong preference for one or the other, but it seems like Google does a better job.  I usually ignore the first several postings since I know they are paid spots, although sometimes the paid spots give me what I'm looking for.

That's odd.  I've never had that happen. 

WorksForMe(tm)

BC, that sounds like you're having an issue with google instant search, a feature which you can disable. I've never had any issues with google search before.

I don't like how "user-friendly" they're trying to become. Their tactics aren't fooling anyone. Personally, I preferred it when YouTube wasn't owned by google. It didn't force us to make a separate google account for our YouTube account. My old YouTube account (pre-google merger) wouldn't let me sign in until I connected it with a google account.

[Moderator]

It's gonna get worse...trust me.
And there is no opt-out option on Privacy anymore if you use it...thats what's coming March 1...

It's gonna get worse...trust me.
And there is no opt-out option on Privacy anymore if you use it...thats what's coming March 1...

That's just completely...I can't think of a word better than "idiotic". I even checked off that little box in Firefox to prevent websites from tracking me. Now apparently google thinks it's bigger and more important than my checkbox.

[Moderator]

Yes...they do.

BC, that sounds like you're having an issue with google instant search, a feature which you can disable.

I know. that's why it's been disabled for quite some time.

Basically, occasionally when I search using google (you know, when you enter a query and type SEARCH (or go, or whatever it says) not "instant")... it will bring me to a results page.

it will show the number of results, my query, etc. Everything except for the actual results. Sometimes I can refresh the page and get them to show. Honestly, I don't care what is causing the problem, and I'm not interested in solving it because it's not my problem to solve. I just found an alternative that I've found more robust.

I have a gmail account that I rarely use. I'm not signed into it most of the time. So unless they're tracking searches from your ip and not just when you're signed into one of their accounts, I guess I'm still going to use google to search most of the time.

-Sometimes I will type a query into google, it will switch to showing the results, and then the results dissapear and I'm left with a blank page. Clicking the search button does nothing (presumably because doing so without changing the query is a no-op). if I change the query I can get it to search again, and if I refresh the page that works too, but I find myself fighting with google just to show results more and more often

Does that happen if you sign out of your gmail, youtube, google+ account(s)? Even if you clear your cookies?

[Moderator]

I have a gmail account that I rarely use. I'm not signed into it most of the time. So unless they're tracking searches from your ip and not just when you're signed into one of their accounts, I guess I'm still going to use google to search most of the time.


Does that happen if you sign out of your gmail, youtube, google+ account(s)? Even if you clear your cookies?

From the article:

A user signing up for Gmail, for instance, might never have imagined that the content of his or her messages could affect the experience on seemingly unrelated Web sites such as YouTube.

“Google’s new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening,” said Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer. “Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out — especially the kids and teens who are avid users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search.”

From the article:

Yeah but, that's only if you're signed into one of their accounts, right?

How would they know who I am if I'm not signed in? IP address?

[Moderator]

I would hope your correct...

I use IXquick for searches of a private nature and I use GMX as an email service. Superior German quality, that one. Doesn't scan your email to display advertisements.

I use Google for technical queries. It's a powerful searchmachine. Ditched my Gmail account after readhing this: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-google-accounts-require-gmail-and.html