Search engines

[Smithy]

Which Search Engines do you like to use?

I love Google, easy to navigate and save things etc.

 

[PGen98]

I stick away from the "big" ones, because they collect your information and do who knows what with it. I prefer DuckDuckGo, nice and simple.

 

[Smithy]

I stick away from the "big" ones, because they collect your information and do who knows what with it. I prefer DuckDuckGo, nice and simple.

I'll check out DuckDuckGo never heard of it.

 

[PGen98]

I'll check out DuckDuckGo never heard of it.

Definitely worth checking out. Very simple to use, and eventually if you make it your default browser you'll get to learn about bangs! Nothing more fun than typing in !yt bwfc in the address bar and it loads the Bolton Wanderers youtube channel, just the simple! Or !a for Amazon, !e for ebay, etc. So nice!

 

[Nomad]

I use Google and I like it. When it added AI to the search engines, I even liked it more. But recently I used SearchGPT and it is fabulous.

 

[Smithy]

I use Google and I like it. When it added AI to the search engines, I even liked it more. But recently I used SearchGPT and it is fabulous.

The AI on Google is amazing I search up random things sometimes to see what AI brings up about it.

 

[Schwallenstutter]

Google. Stayed classic.

The AI on Google is amazing I search up random things sometimes to see what AI brings up about it.

I don't know. Sometimes it gives the wrong information.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I stick away from the "big" ones, because they collect your information and do who knows what with it.

That is why I use an "Internet Persona", anyone can collect anything they like. It's going to be useless to them, and will only falsify their collected data, so why should I care? Because in the end, it doesn't matter what websites you go to, what search engine you use, you still on an inherently insecure network, and you data can be harvested.

Allow me to explain what I mean. "Axel Slingerland" is an updated version of a nickname for a guitar player, Ax Slinger. If anyone looks him up, all they get is a fake address, a police department non-emergency business phone number, a fake hometown, a fake education, fake age, fake job history, etc. Once I made "him" a "her" but didn't know how to convincingly sound like a woman so I dropped that idea.

When they were younger, I taught my kids to always use an Internet Persona and never ever put real information about themselves online. I got a call from one of their teachers saying that they had to use real names on the school's computer system, and that they were refusing to do that.

Naturally, I gave her the "There's no such thing as a 100% Secure Network" speech, which worked very effectively with my Bank Manager when he tried to convince me to sign up for Bill Pay through the bank's website. (Circa 1998.) I told their teacher almost the same thing that I told him, with some [appropriate changes.]

First, I asked them "Who do you think has a more secure network, your [Bank / School] or the US Government?" They both said "The US Government, of course."

Then I asked them "Are you aware that the networks of almost every major agency of the US Government has been hacked? The FBI, CIA, IRS, SSA, White House, etc." They said no.

I went on to say "So if your [Bank / School] network is not as secure as any one of those major agencies of the US Government that have been hacked and potentially had sensitive data stolen, why do you force your [Customers / Students] to put real personal information about themselves on it, for every hacker in the world to potentially have access to it?"

My Bank Manager was just local and could not change corporate policy. But the teacher and I went to a City Council meeting and that policy was eventually changed. They hired a security company to make their network as secure as was possible in the early days of the Internet, and everyone, whether they were students or school staff, changed their login to something a little more private.

So, as always, I suggest you make up an "Internet Persona" of your own, and remember, "There's no such thing as a 100% Secure Network."

 

[Smokey]

I usually just use Google, every now and then I'll use Bing to earn Microsoft points though

 

[Shortie]

I have always used Google as a search engine. I always find that I can get the information I am looking for quick and easy from Google and have not had any reason to change

 

[Schwallenstutter]

I have always used Google as a search engine. I always find that I can get the information I am looking for quick and easy from Google and have not had any reason to change

That sorta my reasoning as well.