BBC: Alternatives to Google

[Brad]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23318889

What a depressing list.  I'm too much of a child of the Cold War to use Yandex daily, although I suspect it ay eventually be a challenger to G.

Yacy requires you install software which limits it to desktop OS's, that's a non starter.

Naver - hard to find in English.  Not mobile friendly on the Web.  There are apps but why bother?

Blippex  so new there are only news stories about it.  Mobile friendly.  Interesting ranking system but I'm skeptical it will last long enough some sort of critical mass. 

That sort of leaves DuckDuckGo which I like for web search.  But because it does not do local search it limits DDG's usefulness on a smartphone although good for tablets.  I like the privacy features.

Startpage - Google with all the personalization and GPS stripped out. Pure Google, proper Google.  I like it better than Google for web search. Same problems with no local search as DDG maybe not the best comprehensive search for smart phones.

[rcjordan]

DDG kinda sucks. Reminds me of Dogpile.

[IrishWonder]

Wouldn't touch yandex with a stick. That's  a whole different mentality there, much like naver and baidu but in its own way. Besides,

avoiding the need to click through to third-party sites

- haven't we seen this somewhere already? So why switch from Google to a Russian google.

I might have to give DDG a try. Blekko, in my opinion, has blown it already. Blippex - somehow reminds me of altavista and as a spammer I can't help thinking of how spoofable its results can be if it ever gains enough market share. All others seem to be too specialised to replace google as a general purpose search engine. So sad... But this status quo probably won't hold forever.

[Brad]

>DDG

It works pretty well for my easy queries which are most of my searches and I like the clean serp.  If you start getting too complex or nitchy then you hit the wall or get mire in spam.  That is when I switch to Startpage.

The problem with DDG and Startpage is they don't own their own results and Bing and Google, respectively could cut them off if they get too big.

Both have an uphill battle not having local results in the smartphone market.

[IrishWonder]

http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm
Not updated since 2011, what a shame... They need to get back to maintaining it 

[rcjordan]

Caution, time warp.  Been seeing this around on tech news but thought I'd update this old thread

Anti-Google DuckDuckGo served 1bn searches in 2013 after post-NSA surge

http://www.itproportal.com/2014/01/13/anti-google-duckduckgo-served-1bn-searches-in-2013-after-post-nsa-surge/

[Brad]

It looks like all three privacy searches: DDG, Start page and IXquick have seen an upsurge.  They have gotten a heck of a lot of press out of it and I think people like the clean look of the serps.

Side note: the Dutch owners of Startpage have a secure email service in beta right now. Full launch in 2014.

[bill]

I switched most of my devices to use DDG as the default, and I find myself missing GG less and less. Sometimes I know there is a better SERP to be had on GG, but more often I find what I need on DDG and never need to use the !G bang.

[Rupert]

yes, but as soon as you go mobile, and search for say a pub, phone them from the mobile to find out opening times, or book a table, then Google now tell you how to get there.... 

Nothing else gets close. The Gorg has you. (I just read Gorg somewhere, who do I thank?)

[bill]

Yeah, I forgot about mobile. I was thinking my desktop mostly. There is no escape from GG on mobile if you want to find anything.

> Gorg
Thanks the sixteenth episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation & Matt Cutts.

[rcjordan]

>Gorg

http://th3core.com/talk/hardware-technology/g-just-bought-nest/msg30199/#msg30199

[Brad]

Mobile:  you are right DDG is best a desktop or tablet search.  Mobile I use either Bing or Yahoo and sometimes Yelp and I muddle through but yes I concede that Google has the best mobile search.