Alternatives to Google
 

This isn't about if Google is good, bad or indifferent to you, your computer or your PSA level.. JB is the perfect place to discuss the evils, or otherwise of Google.

Having said that I'm looking for an alternative search engine that I can use on my Mac, my iPad and iPhone. Obviously using Safari. (There are other threads for Apple haters).

I've been using DuckDuckGo because it promises not to track you, which is good but it still uses the google engine, and I don't think that is unbiased.

So, any recommendations on an unbiased search engine?

Let me Google that for you.

(Sorry ExXB, couldn't resist ;))

Use Start Page ! https://startpage.com/

Bloody obvious.

I'm curious as to the bias you're referring to. Biased in what manner?

Yeah.....

Download a copy of Apache Nutch.
Buy a few hundred petabytes of storage space.
Point Nutch at "the internet", throw a stick and say "go fetch"

:E

Not really wishing to debate this, but in my experience search results often favour google's own product and services. eg YouTube vs others.

That's one reason why I wish to find an alternative, so I can actually see for myself.

OFSO, Start Page also uses the Google Search engine. They and DuckDuckGo keep Google from tracking you and that is good, but how do I know I'm getting the best answers to my questions?

ExXB,

The problem, as you know, is that the Google algorithms are very, very good. Even Bing, with the deep pockets of Microsoft behind it has not been able to make inroads.

Whilst, as I pointed out with Nutch, any man and his dog can index the internet, the problem many of Google's competitors face is achieving the same quality of relevance and noise-filtering. Most competitor search engines are still naïve implementations not too dissimilar to what you would have found back in the 90's.

It may just be that you're not using Google correctly ? :E

What exactly are you searching for that "often favour google's own product and services" ?

Don't get me wrong, I'm as keen as anybody to see a competitor to Google Search emerge..... monopolies are never a good thing in business .... but thus far, I've tested a few and none have come close.

I wasn't fishing for a debate as such, just asking to maybe narrow down your problem a bit.

A point to consider is that the results are in part based on how popular a site is, and YouTube is popular so will naturally feature in the top results. Chicken and egg? Maybe, but Youtube was popular before Google bought it. I just look further down the results if I want something different.

I'm with Mixture, Google is very good at search.

Of course nothing stopping you doing

or

either if a particular search is yielding a high youtube ratio.....

Or just use the old-school UI at ......

http://google.com/custom



A poor workman blames his tools :cool:

As El Mix correctly notes, Google is an extremely good search engine.
I use it quite often but through DuckDuckGo which is incredibly awesome due to use of "!bangs" which lets you search different things directly, e.g.
!g = google
!gi = google images
!yt = youtube
!w = wikipedia
!imdb = imdb
e.g. !g cake = google search for "cake"

But it's quite clever and passes through these requests anonymously and with SSL etc. enabled, so it's MUCH better than using Google directly!! :ok:
DDG itself is not particularly great but often gets the job done for basic searches. And it's easy enough to tap the home key followed by !g to try Google instead.
There are thousands of these "!bangs", with and without abbreviations (e.g. "!google" works) and you can often just guess and find that it works.
Furthermore, you can even add !bangs yourself, subject to verification by DDG. I have added Airliners.net and Airframes.org :E

Alternative SE that's concern with your privacy
 

IxQuick - encrypts your search query
Wolframalpha - give you direct answers
Blekko - sends you links that will answer your questions instead of advertisement
Yippy - hate adult contents.
Boogle - loves adult content (owner:ex-developer of Google)
:ok:

Maybe the 'favouritism' isn't all Google's fault? My niece runs a business and pays a fee to Google so that when someone starts searching for that type of business her company is one of the first up.

All search engines are biased and they all put you inside a bubble of filtered information. Don't stick to just one search engine, but use several, and the bubble will become a bit bigger and less biased.

It would seem that there are only three broadly based search engines: Google, Bing and Yahoo.

And the later two are not as good (?) as Google.

It would appear that there are no alternatives then.

Thank you all for your responses, I have my answer.

how do I know I'm getting the best answers to my questions?

Firstly, that depends on defining "best". I am quite happy with Start Page (i.e. Google without the record/detail retention) for simple matters. But when looking up more complex matters - such as today, I was checking the spacing of shell-layered parallel universes separated by energy grids, and whether given the consequent continuous pulse theory of universe formation, there ever could to be said that there had been (or is or could be) a start point in time, and if so how would one define it (i.e. against which subjective or objective parameters) - then I go to the scientific search engines.

Trivia, trivia, obsessed with trivia.

exxb, you can still use Google in a way that massively reduces the amount of data they can collect about you...

Booglebox,

Yes thank you, I use DuckDuckGo!

I use Yahoo! Search

I can remember the early days when Windoze 98 ruled supreme, and Alta Vista was THE search engine.
I can recall finding as much, if not more, with Alta Vista, than Google ever have (your results weren't censored, unlike Google - and if you don't realise that Google filter your results, even when you have "Safe Search" switched off, then you really are naive!)

What a shame that Alta Vista was hobbled and castrated by corporate scumbags intent on corporate aims and gains, rather than the development of a search engine that was a real force in searching the WWW - and long before Google began to rule the world.

I thought that Alta Vista came from the Western Development Labs of the Digital Equipment Corp. and essentially died with DEC.