The privacy issue cannot be singled out to Google. Almost every single search engine, forum, or anything that can be labeled "Web 2.0" is going to collect data on you. In fact, much of what we enjoy about all the new "Web 2.0" technology (i.e., the personalization) is only going to happen if we give up some of our information. The real problem here is how to manage that for ourselves. That hasn't been solved. And most likely the solution is going to involve us, as a society, rethinking what privacy is. Sure, I could use Scroogle if all I want is a plain vanilla search engine that cannot do all the cool stuff other search engines can do because it cannot or will not collect my personal information. It may be good for some things, but it's also really limiting.
Theresa and I are often at odds over Google, but even though I argue with her, I also think she's right in a lot of ways. What I'm more concerned about is the information that's delivered to me when I do a search and how Google's (and other search engines) profit motive (or any motive) may affect my search results. It's the information I get that I'm concerned about and how that information is selected from other just as potentially worthy sources. I'm not claiming that Google does some kind of "evil" filtering, but this is the kind of thing to be on guard about. Right now the only way I can be sure that I get comprehensive search results is to conduct searches in a variety of search engines, within specific domains (e.g., edu, gov, org, etc.), within specific web sites, library catalogs and such. Here are some search engines I use or have used: == General Search Engines == *Ask.com: http://www.ask.com/ *Exalead: http://www.exalead.com/search *Gigablast: http://www.gigablast.com/ == MetaSearch Engines == *Clusty: http://clusty.com/ (metasearch: uses a variety of search engine choices) *Scandoo: http://www.scandoo.com/ (metasearch: uses Google but adds security and subject info about web sites). *Twingine: http://www.twingine.com/ (Google and Yahoo searching, at the same time, in two separate window panes in your browser) *Zuula: http://www.zuula.com/ (metasearch: search using a variety of search engines, e.g., Google, Yahoo, MSN, Gigablast, etc.) == Semantic Search Engines == *Hakia: http://www.hakia.com/ *Powerset: http://www.powerset.com/ == Google dependent / related == *Scroogle: http://scroogle.org/ ("An ad-free Google search proxy which prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google, a Firefox plugin, and tools for webmasters.") *Soople: http://www.soople.com/ (UI for Google advanced searching, e.g., site searches, Google calculator, etc.) == Visual == *compfight: http://www.compfight.com/ (flickr search) *Retrievr: http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/ (interactive, search flickr photos by drawing them) *Kartoo: http://www.kartoo.com/ (visualization) *Quintura: http://www.quintura.com (visualization ; really great for browsing and brain storming) == Subject, Business == *Accoona: http://www.accoona.com/ (business search) *Zibb: http://www.zibb.com/ (business search) == Subject, Scientific == *CiteSeer: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ (Web citation search) == Subject, Categorization / Directory == *Kosmix: http://www.kosmix.com/ (health, auto, travel search) *LibWorm: http://www.libworm.com/ (blog/RSS search) *Qwika: http://www.qwika.com/ (wiki search) *Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/ (blog search) == Audio / Video search == *Blinkx: http://www.blinkx.com/ (video analysis / speech recognition) *Everyzing: http://search.everyzing.com/ (audio / podcast / YouTube search) *Pixsy: http://www.pixsy.com/ (photo / video search) *Pluggd: http://www.pluggd.com/ (audio / podcast search) *Podscope: http://www.podscope.com/ (audio / video search) *Purevideo.com: http://www.purevideo.com/ (video search) *Search For Video: http://www.searchforvideo.com/ (video search) *Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/ == Mobile phone == *ChaChaSearch: http://www.chacha.com/ (ask a question, voice or text, through your mobile phone) *Mobot: http://www.mobot.com/ (search using pictures from your camera phone) *Semapedia: http://www.semapedia.org/ (wikipedia / mobile phone) == Sources == Many of the search engines listed here were compiled by Stacy Nowicki in her presentation at http://dspace.nitle.org/handle/10090/123. On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 09:44:29PM -0600, Robert & Janet Bennett wrote: > > Google really has some wonderful offerings: best search engine, > google maps, google earth, g-mail, (and more). > > If it were not for the privacy issues they would be fine. But > their position on privacy is not okay and they are not fine. > > http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm > > http://www.google-watch.org > > http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm > > (scrogle lets the user obtain google's search results without > the tracking.) > > Instead of google consider using: > > http://www.ask.com > > http://www.cuil.com > > I remember reading where someone took the source from the goole > chrome browser, removed all the phone home code, and rebranded > it Iron. It seems clear that the only reason google authored > and distributed their own browser is so that they could gather > more data about users. -- Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:08:18 -0600 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) Main page: http://www.cwelug.org To post: [email protected] To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
