Slashdot Mirror

Because duckduckgo don't bubble you and track you.
They are also popular because you can hack the code.

I haven't used google for over 5 years, and I particularly love ddg's instant answers and the fact they utilise OpenStreetMap and Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, etc.

Give duckduckgo.com a try. It gives good results and you can always add !g to route your search back to Google. They also have great privacy protections.

Want proof that Google, Verizon, etc. are in on the privacy nightmares of Android?

They keep releasing new versions that prevent people (who own their phones) from rooting them to

1) block ads ( from their Google Play store)

2) prevent you from using apps to control permissions (like LBE Privacy Guard that now reboots your phone in an endless loop)

With all the time and effort put into their OS, why have they not allowed users to control permissions on apps in any way, shape, or form? Why? Because they are marketing companies that also sell your data to other companies (including all the top mobile carriers). They make deals with these companies and propagate the problem - turning smart phones into a privacy nightmare. And it's not like the iPhone is any better.

Until people take a stand (and stop being a bunch of apathetic consumers), it's not going to change. People allow themselves to be taken advantage of. It's sad. Most don't even care. They'll happily give Facebook and Google all their information because "they don't have anything to hide" - which we all know is the lamest excuse for apathy possible and is easily dismissed as moronic. And it just keeps getting worse - and now our governments collect this data too.

And what is the effect? People are not getting jobs or losing their jobs due to their Facebook posts. Insurance companies are increasing rates on people who type certain terms into their search engines. And that's just barely getting started!

Wake up, folks!

DuckDuckGo has made a whole host of guarantees that they will never track you, collect personal info, etc. They've built their entire brand around these guarantees. (Their billboard slogan is "Google tracks you. We don't.") You don't have to simply trust their goodwill; their self-interest will enforce this too. If they broke their guarantees, their company would lose its reputation very quickly, their brand would soon be worthless, and they'd likely be vulnerable to a host of lawsuits.

Google, on the other hand, freely admits that they do collect and use such information. You have to read the fine print and look around to get a better idea about how they plan to use that info, and they won't tell you at all about the unintended ways this info gets used (here's DuckDuckGo's page about that).

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever from Google.
http://donttrack.us/

Here's why

Seriously, DuckDuckGo has the friendliest privacy policy around. They don't track you or bubble you. They run a TOR exit enclave, and if you're already using TOR, you can reach their search engine without exiting the onion by using their hidden service.

And a link... http://duckduckgo.com/
ddg.gg is a short url that redirects...

They have sites explaining how they don't track or "bubble" you:
http://donttrack.us/
http://dontbubble.us/

I don't fully understand how this got modded as insightful. Have you ever used Twitter at all? Twitter is actually very useful if you want to see what many in the videogames industry are up to. That's what I use it for. Nobody forces you to tweet your entire life, either. The fact that you actually put Facebook and Twitter in the same basket speaks volumes of your ignorance.

--
Tired of the Google assholes? Switch to DuckDuckGo today!

I've pretty much switched to http://duckduckgo.com/

Check out http://dontbubble.us/ and http://donttrack.us/. This would be an example of bubbling, btw.

And if you don't find results (I'd say Google has better results about 20-30% of the time) !g brings that search term to Google.

You cannot turn it off permanently.

I keep no persistent browser data, and generally do not log into search sites.

Turning it off over and over again is quite annoying.

I am happy with Duckduckgo results. I would be glad to try others, with the following in mind:

http://donttrack.us/

For me, Google would need to address much more than google instant in order for me to consider it again.

Google regularly shares your search data with websites you click on after a search, which is almost as bad (or maybe even worse) as sharing it with the government. This is done by default, and you're at the mercy of the website with your data. If they want to sell it to a datamining company who uses it to spam the crap out of you, there's nothing you can do about it.

I'm not saying Google is "evil" or anything like that, but check this out: http://donttrack.us/

It might be enlightening.