Search engines have opened up the world to ordinary Net surfers. I can recall using Alta Vista, then liking Go better, then Yahoo, then Google. These days, Google is simply not the best. Oddly, Bing actually gives far better results on the searches I conduct, particularly when I search of Linux-related stuff. My experience with Google lately has been very disappointing, often throwing at me far, far too many sites which are pure traps put up by marketers. If I want merchandise, I’ll use Google Shopping (formerly Froogle). When I want information, marketing is an insult.
This I realized all by myself, without be told. I don’t hate Google; I simply don’t use them for much. I never trusted them, since their seed money came partly from US intelligence agencies. If you don’t know about Google’s efforts to support not only advertisers tracking your every eye-blink on the Net, but government surveillance, too, you simply haven’t been paying attention.
Meanwhile, for years I’ve been following the work of Ben Edelman, primarily in reference to malware and evil advertisers (which is just about all of them). So when Ben says Google is dishonest about search results on some things, I take his word on it. He didn’t come out the gate gunning for anyone in particular, except those who dodged the laws to take advantage of people. Some lawyers do that, you know. The only people I know who have any beef with Ben are the slimy marketers, spammers, and other human filth. So if Google and some others have a beef with Edelman, I tend to place them in the same category as spammers, marketers and other human filth. Especially if they accuse Edelman of bias.
Go get `em, Ben.
I wonder how DuckDuckGo fairs since they have no services.
To my knowledge, DuckDuckGo avoids painting a target on themselves. I do note I can’t use it in a text browser, because JScript is required, but I use it in a mix with others. I think Ben tends to poke around behind those who strut too much.