No kidding! I found out just how much my ISP could see years ago when I had a backup drive set up as an FTP sever so friends could access it and download files. Thats a serious no no to my ISP and they shut my net off lol.
Web Browsers: A Question About Information Leakage
- Thread starter Raissermesser
- Start date
No kidding! I found out just how much my ISP could see years ago when I had a backup drive set up as an FTP sever so friends could access it and download files. Thats a serious no no to my ISP and they shut my net off lol.
Have any of you guys tried Vivaldi as a browser? I am currently using Brave but do find the bat ads annoying.
I find it interesting that when I searched via google for "Dissenter" via Firefox just now that I did not find a link to the browser in the first 3 or 4 pages of search results, though there was a youtube link to a video about this browser on the second page. After being more specific and searching for "Dissenter browser" it was the first hit. I then visited the site and read a little about it. None of that is worth repeating here except that when I continued to read this thread and searched for "Vivaldi" it was the first hit. Would not Antonio Vivaldi the composer have a much higher page rank???
My question about all this, does google use past search history in the way it returns new search results? Sometimes it seems that google can read my mind, which is helpful at times but also disturbing.
My question about all this, does google use past search history in the way it returns new search results? Sometimes it seems that google can read my mind, which is helpful at times but also disturbing.
I havent tried Vivaldi. I dont remember any ad's with Brave.
Yep. Thats a big part of a Google search these days. Every search you do is targeted at you. Its deeper than just search history though. Even if you delete your search history, they still direct results to you that are relevant to you, your location and your search terms in the most generic way.
Its the same idea as with YouTube and the "Recommended for you" videos and Ebay and the recommended products that popup. Amazon is the same. Every click generates revenue and they all want their piece of the pie.
Google is far more insidious in my view though. They're limiting and dictating what information you can find. That helps with the speed of the search but really makes it difficult to find obscure information. Every search engine I've used in the last 10 years has done the same however so they arent alone.
Virtually every search engine and shopping website that one might frequent tracks behavior so they can target the person to generate more revenue. That started becoming mainstream about 15 years ago and has become much more prevalent in the last 10 years.
Back in the 1990's and early 2000's I used Alta Vista which was, by far, the best search engine. To compete with them, Google had to step up its game and they did. Google is still here, Alta Vista isnt.
Did Google Kill AltaVista? Find Out The Truth Now - https://digital.com/about/altavista/
Alta Vista didnt target searches at users. They simply gave the user what was asked for and depending on the structure of the words you used in your search, gave highly relevant results. Google was much the same until about 2005 when they got the search engine sorted out and working really well, then they started tweaking and generating more income.
Even using Tor I havent found a way to search the web to find obscure information easily. Its really become a chore because so much information could be seen as being very sensitive these days so it gets pushed below the surface web where most people cant find it. Google is great at searching the surface web for easy to find relevant information but if you're looking for something harder to find, you have your work cut out for you these days and its only getting more difficult.
When 96% of the web is hidden from casual public view, yeah, its disturbing.
Google tracks everything. I use Duck Duck Go for my search engine.
Here is an example of the ads I mention on Brave. It is their ads and not third party ads.
And with targeted searches you start getting a lot of confirmation bias happening. When I search for news or political happening, I want to know the truth, not what confirms my opinion.
Well couple of weeks ago I woke up because of a bleep and somehow in my sleep I ordered 2 mattresses in the USA via amazon to be delivered in the Netherlands?
so since then I changed alle passwords possible for generated ones and added 2 factor authentication for amazon.
I still sleep sound on my old mattress
so since then I changed alle passwords possible for generated ones and added 2 factor authentication for amazon.
I still sleep sound on my old mattress
Is there any option (mechanism) to perform google searches so that it totally ignores past search history or not? To see a more generic pagerank result?...maybe I should google for that.
There are times when I do want search to work in a particular way. It has been clear they were tailoring search results based on my location, as when I travel far from home different things would pop up. But I did not think the tailoring based on prior search history was done in real-time. Recently I have noticed this, like when searching for "Vivaldi" just moments after "Dissenter browser".Youtube is also a good example. The youtube channel on the home Roku TV has never been logged into, so it will not show a history of what has been watched, etc. But it is clearly tracking what was watched before, what had been selected in the Roku App or what had been cast from a smartphone. Some of the suggestions are quite good, but it does create a vicious circle of presenting too similar suggestions as before and regrets of having watched someone's channel before that won't go away.
IMO google search results are not as good as they were a decade ago. I wish altavista was still around. I have used duckduckgo occasionally, but the results not as good. I should also try bing more often.
I think I remember a popup about a VPN once or twice, but I was pretty sure I was able to turn it off, somehow. The only thing I couldnt manage to turn off were the search suggestions. I personally find them annoying and its why I went back to Firefox.
Thats the really annoying part. You want the information you want. Not being manipulated into believing the information suggested by the motivations of another party. Its very insidious and it shapes the public's thinking and perspective.
I was reading a Yahoo News article this morning. I dont trust Yahoo but, at the top of the article, if its not a Yahoo News story, they have to mention the original source. Thats the one I find and read. I just skim Yahoo for the headlines.
Is there any option (mechanism) to perform google searches so that it totally ignores past search history or not? To see a more generic pagerank result?...maybe I should google for that.
Youtube is also a good example. The youtube channel on the home Roku TV has never been logged into, so it will not show a history of what has been watched, etc. But it is clearly tracking what was watched before, what had been selected in the Roku App or what had been cast from a smartphone. Some of the suggestions are quite good, but it does create a vicious circle of presenting too similar suggestions as before and regrets of having watched someone's channel before that won't go away.
IMO google search results are not as good as they were a decade ago. I wish altavista was still around. I have used duckduckgo occasionally, but the results not as good. I should also try bing more often.
Not that I'm aware of. Tor is the best option, but even then, lets say it assigns you a California IP at start up, it sends you a targeted search for the area of the assigned IP. That happens with any IP anywhere in the world. All internet search engines now act like any other "Smart Device" to give you the service it thinks you want, whether you want it or not. It all drives me batty. The bottom line is, whats relevant to you, in turn generates revenue for someone and they all want in your pocket.
Google has a larger database than any other search engine. In my experience using DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo or whatever, they all return the same results because they're tied into the Google database and use it for a reference point. The main difference being, that if you do a search for something on Google you get so many pages of results and really not much more. The subject of your search remains constant through those results. If you search the same results with a different search engine however, you'll get the same number of results in the same number, and even order, of pages but the results dont always stop coming. Once Bing finishes with the top results, which I believe come from Google, it defaults back to its Bing or MSN search results. On an obscure information search I'll sometimes use Bing or Yahoo and just skip to page 10 of the results to see where I am.
There is however, a better way.
Lets say you want to find information about Gillette British Bulldogs and you've read everything there is to read on B&B about them and yet, somehow, you want more lol. Open Google and type in Gillette British Bulldogs -site:badgerandblade.com. That will give you all the Google results without giving you information from B&B.
Google is an extremely powerful search engine but the key to using it effectively are your search terms. The words you use, the order you use them in and the search operator used.
Refine web searches - Google Search Help - https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en
Google Search Operators: The Complete List (42 Advanced Operators) - https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/
Google Search Operators - Google Guide - http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
None of that was really necessary even 10 years ago but using it always returned more specific results so you could find the information you wanted quicker.
Some of the information I found years ago for example, about the mad cow outbreak in the UK has apparently been wiped from the internet because no matter how hard I try and find the documents I had back then, I just cannot find them today. I had copies of faxed handwritten documents from the UK Government about storage of the ashes in WW2 aircraft hangars and a copy of a study done in Australia on Alzheimer patients at autopsy in relation to BSE. That type of information is no longer out there that I can find but, its also as I said, highly sensitive and obscure information. Maybe someone like Edward Snowden could find it but my "Google Fu" isnt powerful enough haha.
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I need to use that "-" not/minus/without operator more often, maybe it would help counter that issue you highlight of how google will sometimes stop giving more even if you want to keep looking through more pages of results. Everyone knows that the web content has grown exponentially (though much of that is not freely accessible) but it seems google provides less access to it. Part of that might be how so many people have given up on personal webpages & blogging and how even small businesses rely more on sites like Facebook.
I can't believe how Yahoo did not keep up and compete better. I still visit sports.Y! (at least before covid-19) and finance.Y! but they had once had a much stronger position and stock price before their decline.
Is there any option (mechanism) to perform google searches so that it totally ignores past search history or not? To see a more generic pagerank result?...maybe I should google for that.
StartPage apparently give Google results without all the tailoring & tracking.
Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History.
Search and browse the internet without being tracked or targeted. Startpage is the world's most private search engine. Use Startpage to protect your personal data.
I've been using DuckDuckGo for a few years, if I want to search Startpage, Google or something else the !Bang feature is great:
!sp search term
!g search term
!w search term
!yt search term
!a search term
This will search StartPage, Wikipedia, Google, Youtube or Amazon....there are hundreds of them.
Mildly concerned that they seem to be working closely with Amazon & Microsoft and have recently ramped up the advertising.
I've got Privacy Badger, uMatrix & Adblocker to keep things a little cleaner & lighter but it comes at the expense of huge swathes of the internet being unusable until you start explicitly allowing & saving things. Much of the dark web on the other hand seems designed to work with a locked down browser.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Mike @Esox you make the parts of the web I don't see look very interesting with this...
I know next to nothing about finding stuff on the deep and dark web.
I'm using and enjoying using Dessenter as a browser. I'm still determining what search engine I like best with the browser. Some don't seem to play well with it. Google doesn't appeal to me for various reasons.
Over the years I tried many browsers.
New to me is my VPN. I got the Norton (NordVPN) and have found it very easy to mess with and use. On occasion I have to switch it off for a task, but that's as easy and simple and quick as adjusting the blade in a Fatip.
It's a hard rule to follow, but the hard stuff is so rewarding.
Happy shaves (see, more shaving related content) to you,
Jim
I know next to nothing about finding stuff on the deep and dark web.
I'm using and enjoying using Dessenter as a browser. I'm still determining what search engine I like best with the browser. Some don't seem to play well with it. Google doesn't appeal to me for various reasons.
Over the years I tried many browsers.
New to me is my VPN. I got the Norton (NordVPN) and have found it very easy to mess with and use. On occasion I have to switch it off for a task, but that's as easy and simple and quick as adjusting the blade in a Fatip.
It's a hard rule to follow, but the hard stuff is so rewarding.
Happy shaves (see, more shaving related content) to you,
Jim
You see the deep web every day. Any site that requires a login to see content, such as B&B, is in the deep web. Google can take you to some very dark places if you look hard enough.
The dark web is different...
