Have you switched from Google searches?

[Marc]

Impersonal Google Search Results Are Few And Far Between, DuckDuckGo Finds

You are what you search. That’s definitely the case on Google, where any search query turns up a personalized set of results based upon your prior Google search history data, even if you’re completely logged out of your Google account.

So it’s been since 2009, when Google expanded personalized search to all users.

But what this means on a practical level is that searching for the same set of terms, including politically charged topics like “abortion,” “gun control,” even the President’s last name, “Obama,” can pull up wildly different results for different users even they’re all signed out of Google, according to a new test by a rival, small, privacy-minded startup search engine called DuckDuckGo.

“I didn’t expect so much variation for signed out US users,” DuckDuckGo’s founder Gabriel Weinberg told TPM in an email. “You expect some personalization when you’re signed in. But if you’re signed out or in incognito mode, you expect to get the ‘regular results.’ What we found is there are no more ‘regular results’ on Google.”

Personally I have pretty much switched to Bing or DuckDuckGo since I did a Google search for Elsmar recently while checking on what people were getting when they searched and got a "Buy Elsmar on Amazon" search result.

As a "search" engine Google has lost it's "mind".

 

[db]

I've used Dogpile for years. Never heard of Duckduckgo... but will look into it.

 

[Marc]

Yeah - So have I now and again. Dogpile is an oldie but goodie.

 

[MIREGMGR]

"Buy Elsmar on Amazon"

Hmmm. Does it have free shipping?

 

[Marc]

I'm not sure. I didn't click the link. I should have. It didn't come to mind to click it because I have seen so many "Buy XXXX on Amazon" only to find it's a dead end so I rarely click on Amazon links for anything. I have to wonder how Amazon gets results like that into Google searches.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Nothing but Google for me, because I almost always find what I'm looking for (if it's out there to be found) and I don't recall ever finding something with another search engine that I hadn't been able to find via Google.

 

[AnaMariaVR2]

Have any of you used Copernic?
it is a free download...I like it a lot
it weeds out a lot of junk

Copernic Agent Personal (free version)
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/agent/download.html




PS: I'm still using Google

 

[Michael_M]

I 'instinctively' go to Google, however if I am thinking about it and cannot find it on Google, I will go to Bing. My search-fu is weak so I rarely find what I am looking for anyway.

 

[emendation]

So, Marc, compile all of the posts throughout the years, self-publish a quality book, and take advatage of it directing folks to Amazon. You may well make the NY Times Best Seller list.

 

[Marc]

I'd need an associate in such an endeavor. I'm in my 60's and I readily admit my motivation has waned over the last 10 years.