Free Republic

Why bother with making information accessible and usable if you can tell people what you want them to hear instead?When Google launched in the late 1990s, it quickly overtook the market for search engines. Its proprietary method of indexing led users to results they were actually looking for rather than producing the hodgepodge of results offered by other search engines of the time. Within just a few years, it was dominating the market. Today, it is a money-printing machine.It’s also increasingly horrible at the core mission that produced such success. The company’s leadership may have realized early on that to...

Need recommendations for a search engine. Got lazy and have been using Duck Duck Go, which seems to be Google in disguise. Today have been trying to find a discussion of the video from the Trump shooting that seemed to show a muzzle blast or explosion of some sort in the crowd behind Trump. I heard on the radio that it may have been an agricultural chemical under pressure that was released. On DuckDuckGo, I get page after page of pablum from CNN, NPR, PBS, Newsweak, Reuters,and other party organs that have nothing to do with my request. Can someone...

Rising search engine platform Luxxle is competing against Google by offering users a new way to navigate the internet and letting them use lenses to filter searches by political leaning. “It takes an entirely different approach than any of the other search engines out there,” Luxxle spokeswoman Molly Koweek told the Washington Examiner. “Our approach is one that you won’t see with any other search engine. We offer far better results, unbiased results, superior privacy.”“It’s just a much more enhanced experience and one that really puts the users in control,” she said.Luxxle began in 2018 when tech entrepreneurs noticed a...

Google issued a statement, cautioning against assumptions based on "incomplete information." What you need to know Rand Fishkin of SparkToro received and published documents detailing Google Search's internal APIs, search ranking factors, and Google's data collection practices. Some leaked information contradicts Google's public statements about search algorithms and ranking factors. The documents were accidentally made public on GitHub from March 27 to May 7 and later indexed by a third-party service. A massive leak of what seems to be thousands of internal documents offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Google Search, suggesting that Google may have been...

Ok maybe it is just me and I am imagining things. Anyone who has been running searches on the internet for the last 20 years or so has probably noticed how difficult it has gotten to get concise and accurate results. Even boolean operators are no help. Lately I have noticed another thing. Every time I search for a news article almost all the returns I get are for links to a mainstream media article. Little or nothing from alternative sources. The other thing is that if you search for something even slightly untoward about almost any progressive or out...

In his 2019 book The Madness of the Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, Douglas Murray exposed the cultural insanity that has gripped so much of the modern world. He pointed out that, no sooner was there more equality than ever between the sexes that the war on men was launched. And no sooner was there more equality than ever between the races that the war on whiteness was launched. Murray brought a wide array of arguments to support his theses, but none were more striking than the images that came up on Google searches for specific terms and phrases. It...

China's Baidu Inc will use its ChatGPT-like app Ernie Bot to create a "revolutionary" version of its popular search engine, the company's CEO said on Wednesday (Feb 22). Baidu, which has invested heavily in artificial intelligence in recent years, is regarded as at the forefront of efforts to create a Chinese rival to the AI platform developed by OpenAI and backed by Microsoft Corp. Ahead of Ernie Bot’s launch in March, Baidu CEO Robin Li told reporters on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results that users would be more dependent on the Baidu search engine once it was embedded...

I've been looking for search engines that have minimal corruption by Big Tech. I've tested many and they all seem to repeat the same first page over and over and as you click next page. However, www.ask.com seems to have escaped the corruption for the time being. I'm actually getting different webpages as I click next page.

DuckDuckGo, the search engine which claims to offer ‘real privacy’ because it doesn’t track searches or store users’ history, has come under fire after a security researcher discovered that the mobile DuckDuckGo browser app contains a third-party tracker from Microsoft. Researcher Zach Edwards found that while Google and Facebook’s trackers are blocked, trackers related to bing.com and linkedin.com were also being allowed through. You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s https://t.co/u8W44qvsqF and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flows to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains or their Bing advertising domains. iOS +...

The information war continues raging…. On one battlefront we have Elon Musk trying to push back against quasi-government control mechanisms that constrict information and the flow of discussion and ideas. On a lesser, albeit similar battlefield, we see this. DuckDuckGo used to be the preferred search engine for those who wanted privacy on-line and unfiltered, ie organic, search engine responses. Unfortunately, CEO Gabriel Weinberg is now stating he will change the algorithm to remove independent information and media outlets and will replace them with only approved MSM results. “Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine...

Redditors have shared their top things you should absolutely, never ever search on Google, and it's proved a mighty list. From gut-churning injuries to upsetting fungal diseases, they've amalgamated a number of key words to simply stray away from, if you're not wanting an image that might never leave your mind. Below are their most shocking of Google searches, with descriptions-only of course. 1. Krokodil We're starting with a particularly shocking one, of course. This one is as flesh-eating as the animal it's named after.Krokodil is another name for the drug Desomorphine, a strand of morphine with powerful opioid effects....

Neeva Inc., a new startup led by the former head of Google LLC’s multibillion-dollar ad business, launched a subscription-based search engine today that aims to compete with Google Search. The startup is backed by more than $77 million in funding from investors that include Sequoia and Greylock. Neeva provides a search engine that resembles Google Search in many ways, except it doesn’t display ads above users’ search results. According to the startup, taking ads out of results will facilitate a better user experience by reducing the amount of time that consumers have to scroll before finding the answer to their...

There can be no doubt that the drive-by media are pure propagandists. "Orange Man Bad" was just the latest installment in the slander campaign against patriots by those who have mostly achieved little, built little, and hate those who actually work to build better lives. Their campaign began as early as Woodrow Wilson's tenure, with early (1913) moves to concentrate power in D.C. through the income tax and in big banks with the Federal Reserve.This profound opposition became obvious after the departure of Dwight Eisenhower. With each succeeding Republican, new language was employed. Ronald Reagan was demeaned as an "amiable...

In an attempt to better track users and predict their search habits, Google Chrome has developed FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts). FLoC provides visibility into user data to any website that desires this information. In fact, FLoC places each user in an ID group to help websites recognize and target individuals. In response, the alternative search engine DuckDuckGo has come out with an extension for Chrome that can block FLoC tracking. Furthermore, users now have the option of using either the DuckDuckGo application or extension to entirely opt out of FLoC monitoring. Google first implemented FLoC in order to offer...

Blockchain-based startup Presearch.io has released a decentralized search engine to help provide a more private alternative to Google. Taking a play out of privacy-centric web browser Brave’s book, it also rewards its users with it native crypto token, PRE. The Ethereum-based project uses searches powered by independent nodes to help protect the identity of the people who make queries for data. Moreover, it puts a dent in the monopolistic power of Google to organize and rank results. The project’s origin story begins in 2011, when Colin Pape’s ShopCity.com had its content buried by Google’s algorithm. The company filed a complaint...

This magazine doesn't have a place to read articles online but I can summarize it for you. Google tools you can ditch: Ditch Google Search for DuckDuckGo Switch from Chrome to Brave Replace Gmail with Protonmail Stop using Google Photos Replace Google Maps with Open Street Maps Stop using Youtube or, at the very least, sign out of Google before you use it. Stop using Google Drive and Docs Stop using Google Calendar Download and delete your Google Data

I had recommended DuckDuckGo to my friend as a better search engine because supposedly it did not track you like Google did. But now I find out that DDG depends on an Amazon platform or something, and that it DOES store some of your information. Is there a better search engine that truly does not track you? I will relay any info garnered here to my friend, and possibly incorporate it myself. Thanks.

I used to use Bing as a search engine but haven't in years. I've been using DuckDuckGo, but recently saw something that makes me thing they may have been compromised. Anybody know whether Bing/Microsoft is part of the Deep Tech crap? I also downloaded Brave.com, which seems okay. Any other non-Google search engine suggestions?

Bah... Here’s a no good rotten Vanity! LOL! I downloaded the DuckDuckGo web browser on my IPhone today and have been messing around with it. The app is in the AppStore and downloads and installs like any other app. Nothing uncommon to note. Setup was simple with 2 or 3 settings to enable or not. The descriptions were clear enough on what the settings are for and there’s a click button on the bottom of the Duck’s webpage so that you can change them later if needed. First impressions... So far, so good. It does have a bit different personality...

Today’s internet search engines have the power to track our personal data and decide what content can be listed as top results. Users are increasingly concerned that big tech companies have an outsized influence on the information they can view, while gathering enormous amounts of data through browser activity. A group of American programmers has developed a new search engine intended to provide users with unbiased search results—without tracking the users’ IP, search history, and other information. They named the search engine “Right Dao”—referring to Daoism and its philosophical pursuit of truth. Right Dao developers have designed a new crawling...