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I fucking hate Google, but made the decision to use it as my primary search engine once again.

Reality dictates that I have already adopted it for well over a decade via searches since AllTheWeb existed along with owning enough Android devices to choke a twelve headed dragon whore.

But, here's the main reason: You.com and DuckDuckGo are so dumb as fuck, they might as well be Ron Jeremy's MySpace page.

You.com, for instance, is "completely customizable" by adding un-customizable "apps" without any control over the content it spews into your SERPS.

Neither seems to have interest in no longer padding results with shit you'd take a knife to. At least Google allows me to block those pages or sites from being seen again.

If you happen to live on Planet Earth (which currently seems to exclude 86.8% of the human population) you've been tracked before you even knew what "Big Brother" meant.

If you're looking to safeguard your security, buy a goddamn sword and time travel to remove the Zuckerberg timeline from existence.

Comments
  • 3
    How abt Brave? According to it, it blocked 15k Trackers and Ads, 500mb and 14 min of my life.

    Idk how accurate this is :/
  • 3
    @joewilliams007 - Brave deserves another rant altogether. I love how everyone can "earn" through letting them advertise to you...

    ...and, then, I wanted to donate $50 in hard-earned rewards to find out that you need to jump hoops and LITERALLY send a copy of your personal ID or drivers license for the rewards to actually be useable to where you can give it to anyone.

    So, Brave is a fucking scam who makes money from their advertising through false promises to the user that's tricked into believing that those who deserve it will be rewarded with a bit of effort on our behalf.

    I wouldn't doubt that most of their "tracker blocks" are things they create themselves to boost the numbers.

    Malwarebytes, uBlock Origin. Bitwarden. 1000% more effective and cross-compatible.
  • 2
    @Hypergeek yea. Once i heard abt brave rewards my brain was died. But i have it deactivated all the time.
  • 4
    Okay true. What even is this crypto bs.
  • 3
    How about searx and startpage?
  • 1
    I moved to DuckDuckGo but it feeds me results from Baidu when I search in Chinese, that's a big no, bro!
  • 1
    I use Google. I don't mind being tracked. Being profiled. Being analyzed for targeted ads. You should too. Unless you are a drug dealer. Or a trafficker. Or a secret agent.
  • 5
    @daniel-wu can I install a tracking device in your toilet to monitor feces composition and rectal cleanliness of you and your family? Nothing creepy, you'll appreciate the targeted ads I can then give.
  • 4
    @daniel-wu the problem with tracking is that the law is not equipped to protect you. there should be a break of tech monopolies and more information security regulations, because right now they're doing whatever the fuck they want
  • 2
    @electrineer they would if they could get away with it
  • 0
    If you live in the modern world, have a phone and/or internet connection... you are tracked.

    Period.

    Anyone 25 or under has been tracked since the day they were born and have a solid digital footprint.

    Anyone 45 or older has less of a footprint, but has been tracked for about half their lives.

    Anyone in-between is most-likely comparable to both groups, but with full adoption of being tracked through habitual use and no initial warning signs.
  • 0
    @electrineer - Searx is worthless and if you choose Startpage, it's inferior to DuckDuckGo and will be EOL as soon as the developer(s) find something more interesting to do.

    Neither offers the ability to block results you don't want to see anymore. So, they are basically adding shit to the problem and not solving it.
  • 0
    @Hypergeek sounds like the problems they solve are the exact opposite of what you want to solve
  • 1
    @electrineer That comparison is totally off and comes from no one but conspiracy theorist. Google certainly doesn't watch your feces or your rectal shape, unless you face your phone camera there.

    Google does, however, build profile of you by recording all your searches, your browsing history, your interest, etc. Also quite possibly, listened to your conversation without permission, through your android phone. There are many times where I got suitable ads of something I talked with my wife. I have never typed the subject in my android phone, however.. Indicating that Google eavesdropped.

    It doesn't matter. It's our choice. You can always ditch smartphone and use classic handphone if you hated being probed. As for me, I have nothing to hide from Google so I don't care. As a company with main revenue coming from ads (80% of their total income), Google only want to show you targeted ads. They won't judge you if you opened pornhub or xvideos. Or watched child cartoon.
  • 2
    @daniel-wu it's not any more off than claiming that people who don't want random corporations to know all information about them are all involved in drug dealing or human trafficking.
  • 1
    @daniel-wu this mindset ... so gen z like
  • 1
    @electrineer - They don't solve any problem that hasn't been solved by pre-existing search engines.

    They are attempting to copy successful business models by masking and filtering their results; and as soon as they're seen as competition, will be swallowed whole. As of this comment, 348 attempts have been made and 200+ have been blocked from using Google's API and disappeared within a year since 2010.
  • 0
    you can use duckduckgo with google results by prefixing !g

    in my experience the results are mostly the same tho, except for being less stupid on ddg
  • 1
    Am I the only person using Qwant?
  • 2
    @daniel-wu You may trust Google 100% that they won't do anything wrong with your data, but what if someday Google is hacked? All your digital life you have stored there can become public for everybody to see or sold in the black market.
  • 2
    @cafecortado yea thats a thing aswell. But even if it wont get hacked (google is pretty unhackable (( although nothing is unhackable ))), i still dont want a company using my actions to manipulate my behaviour by ads. And them having access to data that i cant controll.

    Also it boggles me that theres Meta App installer, meta app manager and meta Services pre installed on my phone. I would rather give Samsung 20€ more for it to not have shitware.
  • 2
    @joewilliams007 Especially as a dev you should know that systems can be designed as secure as they want, but they are still operated by people.
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