Fed Up With Commercial Nonsense That Google Returns?

[mosaix]

Interesting article in last week's New Scientist. It's an interview with the inventor of DuckDuckGo. He says that since Snowden's revelations regarding internet data collection by the NSA the number of daily searches using DDG has increased from 2 to 3 million.

 

[Pyan]

Off topic slightly, but I was fed up of being tracked, so I installed Ghostery.
It blocks tracking software (including Google Analytics) and flashes a small window in the corner of the screen to show you the blocked trackers - it's scary just how many there are on some sites...

 

[mosaix]

Off topic slightly, but I was fed up of being tracked, so I installed Ghostery.
It blocks tracking software (including Google Analytics) and flashes a small window in the corner of the screen to show you the blocked trackers - it's scary just how many there are on some sites...

Thanks, Py. Excellent stuff.

 

[Nightspore]

If you run Firefox you can change the default search engine from Google to DDG by just typing about:config into the runbar & then clicking past the caveat about dragons. Then type browser.search.defaultenginename into the binary filter. Firefox is bundled with the DDG plug-in anyway these days so after clicking on the binary string you just need to replace Google with DuckDuckGo in the dialogue box.

I often prefer Start Page (aka Ixquick) as my runbar default in Firefox with DDG as the search box default.

Start Page

It's a tad more difficult to make Start Page the runbar default in Firefox:

Type 'about:config' in the browser location bar and hit 'enter'.

Accept the warning message to be careful.

Enter 'keyword.URL' in the filter on top of the page.

Double-click on the 'keyword.URL'- line that shows up.

In the pop-up window replace the Google string with:

https://startpage.com/do/search?language=english_uk&cat=web&query=

Click on 'OK'.

Close the window or tab.

If you fancy a different engine you can just use any of these below:

Bing (does not support https)
Bing

DuckDuckGo
https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=

Google
https://www.google.com/search?q=

Ixquick
https://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?q=

Privatelee
https://privatelee.qrobe.it/search?q=

Startpage
https://startpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?q=

Qrobe
https://qrobe.it/search?q=

 

[Nightspore]

Off topic slightly, but I was fed up of being tracked, so I installed Ghostery.
It blocks tracking software (including Google Analytics) and flashes a small window in the corner of the screen to show you the blocked trackers - it's scary just how many there are on some sites...

I used Ghostery a few years ago, but IMO it got a bit bloaty. There has been some controversy about it being owned by an advertising agency as well.

 

[Glitch]

I stopped using google a long time ago. Besides their questionable privacy practices. I found the results less and less relevant.

 

[Nightspore]

Off topic slightly, but I was fed up of being tracked, so I installed Ghostery.
It blocks tracking software (including Google Analytics) and flashes a small window in the corner of the screen to show you the blocked trackers - it's scary just how many there are on some sites...

I have discovered that Dr Web (linkscanner) operates similar to Ghostery on Chrome as well. Although I must admit I rarely use the the Chrome browser. No doubt Dr Web would work on SRWare Iron as well.

 

[mosaix]

I stopped using google a long time ago. Besides their questionable privacy practices. I found the results less and less relevant.

My sentiments exactly.

 

[merritt]

I got no problem with the Duck!

I came up #3 behind Amazon and the manufacturer on my product...

 

[Nightspore]

DrWeb now actually works in the Opera (15) browser now.

DrWeb for Opera 15

 

[mosaix]

Off topic slightly, but I was fed up of being tracked, so I installed Ghostery.

Thanks for this, Py. Been using this for a few days now and it's an absolute eye-opener.

I was discussing tracking with few friends in the pub the other night and one guy said "Suppose you were walking down the street and some stranger with a clip board followed you into every shop and made a note of what you looked at or bought - how long would it take before you asked them to mind their own business?"