NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Posted on 05/10/2010 10:54:33 PM PDT by Chances Are
From Scroogle (enter a search term, hit enter, and this is the message you'll see....)
We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. It depends on whether Google is willing to restore the simple interface that we've been scraping since Scroogle started five years ago. Actually, we've been using that interface for scraping since Google-Watch.org began in 2002.
This interface was remarkably stable all that time. During those eight years there were only about five changes that required some programming adjustments. Also, this interface was available at every Google data center in exactly the same form, which allowed us to use 700 IP addresses for Google.
That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time. It didn't show the snippets unless you moused-over the links it produced (they were there for our program, so that was okay), and it has never had any ads. Our impression was that these results were from Google's basic algorithms, and that extra features and ads were added on top of these generic results. Three years ago Google launched "Universal Search," which meant that they added results from other Google services on their pages. But this simple interface we were using was not affected at all.
Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible.
Over the next few days we will attempt to contact Google and determine whether the old interface is gone as a matter of policy at Google, or if they simply have it hidden somewhere and will tell us where it is so that we can continue to use it.
Thank you for your support during these past five years. Check back in a week or so; if we don't hear from Google by next week, I think we can all assume that Google would rather have no Scroogle, and no privacy for searchers, at all.
— Daniel Brandt, Public Information Research, scroogle AT lavabit.com
Guess I’m in the minority.
Sure Google is leftist, and should be avoided. But Scroogle (which I wasn’t aware of until just now) seems to simply piggyback on ... Google.
Why is it Google’s responsibility to cater to another company, which could arguably be described as a competitor?
If Scroogle is so fabulous, perhaps someone who feels that way should help them with funding, in order to build their own proprietary search engine - and take Google on for real.
Otherwise they’re sort of like pilot fish, living off a whale.
Not the whale’s responsibility, when you get right down to it.
One word: Ixquick.
After all these years now I understand Scroogle’s name!
Google+scraper=Scroogle!
Learn sumpin new everyday!
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
....is there anything else that has to be downloaded..????..(just started using firefox a few weeks ago)....does firefox automatically load the anonymizer in the initial download and the button allows it to operate?
Why not? Any other suggestions?
>”Why not? Any other suggestions?”
Um, ok. It was a small sarcastic comment regarding Al Gore. Sorry you misunderstood it.
I use BING too.
Lol! OK....I was concerned that there was something about Bing that I didn’t know. I’m from Tennessee, where we KNOW all about the hypocrite, Gore. This is the state that Obama is ignoring during its worst natural disaster ever!
I absolutely despise Google!
I just went to do a search on scroogle and found that same message.
Thank you
Scroogle, while tapping in to the Google search network, added the level of privacy that Google refused to (or wouldn't, for any number of reasons). That, in main, is why people used them. It's not like Scroogle was developed, and existed, in a total vacuum.
No, Google has no responsibility for the welfare or survival of Scroogle, or anyone else, in the same sense that Bill Gates has no responsibility to the welfare or survival of software developers. Just like in any other area of life, youse goes into this business, youse takes your chances. That's life.
CA....
This will essentially do what you are looking for.
Read about it and decide for yourself.
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