google is different today

[Hellbent]

google.com

[Use]

Meanwhile, Hellbent is not any different.

[printz]

No it's not. It's just that instead of the default Google logo, I see something having to do with Star Trek.

[Hellbent]

printz said:

No it's not. It's just that instead of the default Google logo, I see something having to do with Star Trek.

Move the mouse cursor around the logo.

Use3D said:

Meanwhile, Hellbent is not any different.

I have this stupid custom title :( I might as well live up to it.

[Technician]

DuckDuckGo is where it's at.

[Hellbent]

Technician said:

DuckDuckGo is where it's at.

that is not very pleasing to use, tho. Google is my master.

[cannonball]

Just another of google's creations which can be used to spell out it's name. The most entertaining was the pac man one as you could actually play it. As to the title of the topic, google is a large multinational corporation or by today's standards evil. Nothing about it has changed. It's just like every other large company, infact any capitalist based company. All about profit. Shouldn't go bashing large comanies as the ethos is the same everywhere to be honest.

[Clonehunter]

Google, it's continuing mission to explore strange new sites and new memes. To boldly go, where no One Man has gone before...

[Grazza]

No way I'm clicking that link. It looks dodgy to me.

[Phml]

Technician said:

DuckDuckGo is where it's at.

I can't imagine how could anyone search things with that hateful "scroll forever to get new links clumsily updated, resulting in a gigantic page awkward to navigate" design. It's aggravating enough in those hipster websites using it, but for a search engine where the whole point is to get information, this feels like the work of a madman.

[Aliotroph?]

Yeah, the AJAX version of DuckDuckGo blows. If you block JS it will offer you a version with links to the next page, but it still won't number them.

What really scares me is how few results you get. I got more hits from 90s search engines than I get with that thing.

Anyway, the Trek thing is hilarious; sparkly Uhura made me LOL. Nobody ever parodies that bit of silliness. The other things are good, but more common.

[GreyGhost]

Technician said:

DuckDuckGo is where it's at.

Not to be confused with (the now defunct) duckgogo.com.

[DoomUK]

No one else use iGoogle?

[Dragonsbrethren]

DoomUK said:

No one else use iGoogle?

I gave it up when they announced they're dropping support for it next year. Figured I'd better get used to not having access to nearly everything on my homepage. The browser extensions I'm using in place of it are completely terrible by comparison, though.

[Gez]

I use Startpage; but when it fails to give me results I reluctantly go back to Google.

Though nowadays most of the stuff I look up, I search for it directly on the specialized websites where I expect to find it, such as Wikipedia.

[Hellbent]

with 600 million people using Google, why would you be concerned about "them" tracking what you search? How could anyone keep track of so many searches? And then what would they do with them? Sure, the computer software can use your searches to give you tailored advertising, but what's wrong with that?

[Tristan]

Deep below Google Inc....

600-million elf bitches...

[Phml]

From the page Technician linked, I find this explains the downsides well.

It stretches beyond that if you're not from an english-speaking country. Many search engines (including Google) will by default redirect you to "language-appropriate" pages, essentially cutting you off from most of the Internet.

Tailored and automated advertising/usage makes sense from a business perspective, but is terrible for the individual if you're not representative of the majority.

[schwerpunk]

I thought that was great. Especially 'O-hura.' **

[Walter confetti]

there, where the other doodles have not yet reached before....

(i hope to wrote this citation right...)

[Tristan]

Mr. Spock said:

Google: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Doodleprise. It's everlasting mission: To explore the internet, to seek out new websites and new multimedia, to boldly go where no company has gone before.

[Technician]

Hellbent said:

with 600 million people using Google, why would you be concerned about "them" tracking what you search? How could anyone keep track of so many searches? And then what would they do with them? Sure, the computer software can use your searches to give you tailored advertising, but what's wrong with that?

It not all about privacy; it's about Google restricting my searches to what it assumes I want to see based on my previous actions.

Phml said:

From the page Technician linked, I find this explains the downsides well.

It stretches beyond that if you're not from an english-speaking country. Many search engines (including Google) will by default redirect you to "language-appropriate" pages, essentially cutting you off from most of the Internet.

Tailored and automated advertising/usage makes sense from a business perspective, but is terrible for the individual if you're not representative of the majority.

That, and Google specifically localizes your searches. Despite the US and Canada being both English, it still prioritizes my searches to show Canadian results first, where the most relevant search results are probably American. Also, Google tries and adapts your searches to your best interests, of course, leaving out potential content that is relevant.

[Aliotroph?]

It also tries to optimize your queries because it thinks you're stupid all the time - eg. ignoring quotes, using different operators, etc. This might be helpful to 90% of users, but it really needs an option to only show results based strictly on what is entered.

[gggmork]

A few days ago on google.com, a blue bar appeared on the top of the screen right where the black bar with 'gmail' etc in it normally is, after a couple seconds. So you go to click on gmail, and then accidently click the blue bar which appears instead, which tries to install google chrome. Google was engaging in clickjacking. Its cool though, alex jones says they drove around in their google maps street view cars harvesting everyone's passwords and stuff over wireless through backdoors and are a secret front for the NSA. Don't type bad things about corporations on forums though, as they all collaborate like a giant criminal cartel oligarchy and if you end up on a banks "naughty" list they just shut off all your money bits. Plus they can just hire reputation defenders to remove your true comments from the internet and replace it with their lies as a hero called ming describes the 8th comment down here:
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2012/5/1336679635.html/3/40

[Hellbent]

^ gggmork said:
... stuff.

Cool custom title bro.

edit: Actually, on the second read through of your post I comprehended, but the first read through I only got about half of it. :D

[gggmork]

Here's an article from PCWorld about their wifi snooping, since you probably don't trust infowars:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/254774/google_street_views_wifi_snooping_engineer_is_outed.html

Here's a picture of the blue bar (I think it might have had different text, regarding installing google chrome rather than making google your homepage):
http://www.techairlines.com/2011/04/22/google-blue-bar-homepage/
See, as soon as you move your mouse to go and click on the gmail link, the blue bar loads just in time so your mouse is suddenly on "sure" instead of "gmail" making you accidentally click on that to install google chrome instead of logging into their email snoop system (which has a cool new web 4553.0 nagware feature of having a popup prompt you for your phone number about every couple weeks... "hey, this is important, we don't have a phone number on file for you... bla bla bla" in google bubble-kid casual don't be evil lingo for their target audience, similar to how McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" ebonics targets their pink slime monosodium glutamate burgers and aspertame/high fructose corn syrup/gmo poison against poor people. Um, I think I need a right parenthesis about here). Of course people won't be able to make sense of my posts after social darwinists have arrested the development of their brains using food as a weapon.

[elic]

Erm, I think I'll only be able to understand your posts after my brain development has been "arrested".