Google Sucks - Need New Search Engine

[Michael]

I've recently become quite annoyed with Google. Apparently they are copying Microsoft's habit of 'improving' things to the point of non-functionality.

I find myself getting annoyed EVERY time I use Google now. Google picks up my Canada location from my IP address and then gives me only Canadian search results and/or only Canadian news.

If I want Canadian search results, I'll use a Canadian search engine. If I want Canadian news, I'll use a Canadian news site. I don't want or need Google to decide that's what I want.

Even choosing to use Google.com doesn't matter at all. It will default right back to Google.ca as soon as you click anything.

And the 'new' auto-guessing feature IS REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING. I search for what I want to search for - I don't want or need Google to 'guess' what I'm searching for and auto-fill the search box with their guesses. I have to be really careful to prevent Google from inserting its own search term in place of my typed in search term. Of course there is no way to disable this annoying feature (just like Microsoft here).

And ultimately, I'm finding searches are getting increasingly useless with Google - pages and pages of useless results - often links that are nothing more than useless link sites.

So I'm looking for a new search engine that isn't as annoying as Google and hopefully one that isn't as dysfunctional as Google.

Anyone have any recommendations? I use search engines heavily for work (researching products and suppliers across North America). Google is becoming increasing useless for this purpose.

[drgoodtrips]

I took a grad class last fall where we studied vertical search in depth. The idea is that you have searches that are almost the anti-google. An example of this is something like nexttag. You type in search terms and the interface is the same idea, but you and it both know that you only want results related to "I want to buy..."

So, you might consider poking around for a few different sites to handle your searching needs.

Off the top of my head, for generalized searching sites, there are yahoo and MSN, and you could try ask jeeves or maybe dex knows (though I think that's more for looking up businesses).

[Michael]

I took a grad class last fall where we studied vertical search in depth. The idea is that you have searches that are almost the anti-google. An example of this is something like nexttag. You type in search terms and the interface is the same idea, but you and it both know that you only want results related to "I want to buy..."

So, you might consider poking around for a few different sites to handle your searching needs.

Off the top of my head, for generalized searching sites, there are yahoo and MSN, and you could try ask jeeves or maybe dex knows (though I think that's more for looking up businesses).
Interesting. Like I said, a lot of my searching is work related and thus focused on business/commerical companies supplying specialized materials - and it is this where I find google most useless.

Indeed, I probably should be using different types of search engines for different types of searches.

Google works great for really simple searches involving pop-culture. After that, not so much.

[Donkey]

The title of this thread reads like a personal ad. ;)

[Daktoria]

http://www.dogpile.com/

Win

[Michael]

http://www.dogpile.com/

Win

I just did a quick search on a technical product. Seven of the first ten links and half of the first two pages of links that I scanned were sponsored commerical links that had only vague relevance to my search. But I appreciate the suggestion - I'll check out any search engine to see how it goes. :)

On the whole, I'd say that was no better but no worse than Google for that kind of search it seems.

At least it gets rid of the 'default Canada only' search - though sometimes I do want to search for just my own city as well - that would be handy if one could make searches exclusive to specific cities or telephone area codes.

[Greendruid]

I remember long before Google was around or even uttered that Altavista was the search engine of choice. They still operate a decent search engine and give you a selectable option of Worldwide or USA searches (didn't see a Canada button there). It seems to also have a toggle for searches in other languages. There's also a permanent link there for Babblefish - my favourite and completely free translation service. Looking at the search field further I see that you can actually change the settings for language and location as well as a few other useful options. Let me know if it helps!

http://www.altavista.com/

[Americano]

Bing offers search by country selection:

http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx?FORM=WHLH

[Michael]

I remember long before Google was around or even uttered that Altavista was the search engine of choice. They still operate a decent search engine and give you a selectable option of Worldwide or USA searches (didn't see a Canada button there). It seems to also have a toggle for searches in other languages. There's also a permanent link there for Babblefish - my favourite and completely free translation service. Looking at the search field further I see that you can actually change the settings for language and location as well as a few other useful options. Let me know if it helps!

http://www.altavista.com/
Yes, I was one of those people who used Altavista for years and then switched to Google as a successor. :)

I just thought of re-trying them again when I read this thread yesterday! ;)

Bing offers search by country selection:

http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx?FORM=WHLH

I'm beginning to think that I'm probably going to have to use different search engines for different types of searches. Google works great for pop-culture or anything really popular, and isn't bad for academic-style searches, but it fails badly for my work-technical-commercial searches.

Would be nice to have a search engine that specialized on 'news' articles only. That would be really cool.

And thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them all out and keep you all posted of which ones work good for what. :)

[Americano]

Yes, I was one of those people who used Altavista for years and then switched to Google as a successor. :)

I just thought of re-trying them again when I read this thread yesterday! ;)



I'm beginning to think that I'm probably going to have to use different search engines for different types of searches. Google works great for pop-culture or anything really popular, and isn't bad for academic-style searches, but it fails badly for my work-technical-commercial searches.

Would be nice to have a search engine that specialized on 'news' articles only. That would be really cool.

Google News allows that, and one can personalize it by country. Note the 'Personalized' box immediately under the top left Google News header.

And thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them all out and keep you all posted of which ones work good for what. :)

[Lily]

I remember long before Google was around or even uttered that Altavista was the search engine of choice. They still operate a decent search engine and give you a selectable option of Worldwide or USA searches (didn't see a Canada button there). It seems to also have a toggle for searches in other languages. There's also a permanent link there for Babblefish - my favourite and completely free translation service. Looking at the search field further I see that you can actually change the settings for language and location as well as a few other useful options. Let me know if it helps!

http://www.altavista.com/

I've used altavista for years and Babblefish is a button on my menu bar. Great translator. Google is good for some things as Michael pointed out, but seems to be too unfocused for other searches. I tend to switch between the two.

[Michael]

For the record, I've pretty much stopped using the annoying Google and now use Alta Vista almost entirely instead.

Not much better, but considerably less annoying.

[Evangeline]

I remember long before Google was around or even uttered that Altavista was the search engine of choice. They still operate a decent search engine and give you a selectable option of Worldwide or USA searches (didn't see a Canada button there). It seems to also have a toggle for searches in other languages. There's also a permanent link there for Babblefish - my favourite and completely free translation service. Looking at the search field further I see that you can actually change the settings for language and location as well as a few other useful options. Let me know if it helps!

http://www.altavista.com/

I like google's translate page better than babelfish.

I like google better than bing for searching for credible links to dispute the lies by the right wingers being told on politicalforum.com, and boy there sure are a lot of them!

[Evangeline]

The title of this thread reads like a personal ad. ;)

Except if it was a personal ad, I don't think one would be looking for a non-sucking alternative......

[Michael]

Except if it was a personal ad, I don't think one would be looking for a non-sucking alternative......
:rofl:

[Americano]

Except if it was a personal ad, I don't think one would be looking for a non-sucking alternative......

Best post of the week.