Another data point indicates the search giant is a hub in the censorship-industrial complex. (It's likely yours truly was censored.) In this time of information warfare, we need subversive innovation.
I began to ditch all services by the Big G about five years ago now... it took a while, but I am now indeed free of them. Recent years confirmed that I was not just being overzealous: G is a threat to free speech and thus to thought in all its forms. The question of whether I was censored during the Nonsense is an interesting one; it seems likely given certain things I wrote but I have not investigated.
Brave is also an independent search engine. I've read about another instance where Google showed a liberal bias (hiding congressional candidate's web sites), but Bing lacked the bias. In the past I've read that most of DuckDuckGo's results come from Bing, but it's possible they've advanced since then. I haven't paid attention to Presearch, so I'll take a look at them now.
Michael Rectenwald has a lot of excellent material about the National Security state's involvement in the origins of Google and other big tech companies.
I wasn't familiar with Presearch, but I'm going to check it out.
"social media network" how come you're not even trying to mention Mastodon here ?? ..
Nostr is somewhat fresh and still needs to show what it does before it can be passed around as a tried and tested system, am I mistaken about this ? ...
I am a retired Systems Engineer. My education is Computer Science/Logic. Most of my career I was a Cisco certified Internetwork design/engineering professional. I had been an engineer for half a decade when the Internet became Publicly accessible. I have an Engineer's understanding of the Internet. Moreover, I was a senior Network Engineering Consultant at the time Google went public. I got my Gmail account when it was by invitation only.
The Google Search Engine does what it was designed to do. It always has. It's neither complex nor exclusive. It uses the same tools as all other Search Engines. Algorithms are used to get metrics data from usage, and use that data to modify what the search engine does or how it responds to searches. Every legitimate Website on the entire Internet is using Algorithms. Of course Google/ABC Corp uses Algorithms to manipulate Search results... using Algorithms is standard practice , and necessary in many cases. If you're going to write about the Internet, or a product on the Internet, it's important to have a fundamental understanding the Internet, the architecture, and how it operates. All Search Engines use Algorithms.
The Internet had no Search Engines when it was made publicly accessible. We crafted our own search expressions from the command line. A Search Engine is an app that does all that for people incapable of using the tools to search the Internet from the Command Line... Nonetheless, the idea that anyone is 'dependant' upon Google to search for 'indexed' resources on the Internet is false.
Don't use the Google Search Engine if you're not happy with it. Boycott Google/ABC Corp of you don't like their practices. It's no secret that the primary goal of ABC Corp is to make $$$$$$. Everything contrary to that goal is an obstacle to it. Google does not exist for any other reason, and all information alluding it does is Bernaysian propaganda. Even the Human Beings at Google/ABC Corp are motivated by self interest.
Better yet, write your own Search Engine. It's not that difficult. The opportunist's at Google did exactly that - then marketed the sh*t out of it. As an engineer I always preferred the Search Engine aggregator Dogpile anyway. Search engine technology hasn't changed much because it doesn't need to. Search Engines and Browsers are pretty basic technology. Write your own. Then craft your own Algorithms to harvest information from their usage. The Internet is a tool not a utility service.
This is what I have witnessed as a Systems Engineer since the years before the Internet... the broad scale dumbing down of humanity.
As the Commercial Domain - .com; has become an ever growing cesspool of arrogantly-ignorant, virtue-signaling pseudo-intellectualism, opinion pimping, and intellectual garbage consumption, humanity has just gotten fatter, more arrogantly-ignorant, stupendously-stupid, and intellectually-lazier by the day.
The .com Commercial Domain of the Internet is just 1 of 1500 TLD that make up the internetwork of the Internet. For the record - over 80% of the resources on the Internet are not even Publicly accessible. They're not indexed and they are not searchable... By design. The idea that the Internet is Public is the epitome of puerile ignorance. Public access does not make it Public property. Public access, and the Commercial Domain of the Internet is what is wrong with the Internet.
I miss the days when Internet users were mostly engineers/developers who understood the technology intimately, and there were no Social Engineering Websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Substack, Reddit, YouTube, etc. because there was no .com Domain.
When I started working with the Layer 3 Routing Protocol TCP/IP (this is 'what' the Internet actually 'is') the internetwork of privately owned networks that make up the "Internet" didn't yet have a "Commercial" Domain. The predominant users of the Internet were Engineers and Developers. College educated and degreed technical people, not vapid, Television educated consumers, and self proclaimed activists with vapid opinions to pimp and ulterior motives.
The Internet is not complex. The technology the Internet uses is not complex... the purpose and functions are not complex. The architecture of Internet is not complex... to the educated and intelligent who can read at a college level. It's the drooling idiots who don't know the difference between opinion & Logic that are ruining the utility of the Internet. It seems Google has employed many of them. Google/ABC Corp will eventually lose it's dominance as result.
Perhaps one day we can separate the Commercial Domain from all the others and have a seperate 'Commercial Internet' for all the drooling TV educated consumers. One Internet of sloven stupidity, and Consumerism freely accessible to all, and one Internetwork of Logic, Gnosis, and learning, that requires paid membership.
I did dozens of tests like this between 2015 (when I started noticing possible changes in Google) and 2020. Google is, without a doubt, using its algorithms to adjust reality. Articles and entire websites are downgraded and sometimes just missing entirely. Search strings are producing a completely different profile of results than they used to. After 2016, the changes became dramatic. After 2020, I stopped using Google entirely except in very unique circumstances.
I began to ditch all services by the Big G about five years ago now... it took a while, but I am now indeed free of them. Recent years confirmed that I was not just being overzealous: G is a threat to free speech and thus to thought in all its forms. The question of whether I was censored during the Nonsense is an interesting one; it seems likely given certain things I wrote but I have not investigated.
Brave is also an independent search engine. I've read about another instance where Google showed a liberal bias (hiding congressional candidate's web sites), but Bing lacked the bias. In the past I've read that most of DuckDuckGo's results come from Bing, but it's possible they've advanced since then. I haven't paid attention to Presearch, so I'll take a look at them now.
Michael Rectenwald has a lot of excellent material about the National Security state's involvement in the origins of Google and other big tech companies.
I wasn't familiar with Presearch, but I'm going to check it out.
Just added Presearch to the bar.
"social media network" how come you're not even trying to mention Mastodon here ?? ..
Nostr is somewhat fresh and still needs to show what it does before it can be passed around as a tried and tested system, am I mistaken about this ? ...
There are innumerable projects I didn’t mention. The point was to offer a handful of examples not a comprehensive encyclopedia.
I am a retired Systems Engineer. My education is Computer Science/Logic. Most of my career I was a Cisco certified Internetwork design/engineering professional. I had been an engineer for half a decade when the Internet became Publicly accessible. I have an Engineer's understanding of the Internet. Moreover, I was a senior Network Engineering Consultant at the time Google went public. I got my Gmail account when it was by invitation only.
The Google Search Engine does what it was designed to do. It always has. It's neither complex nor exclusive. It uses the same tools as all other Search Engines. Algorithms are used to get metrics data from usage, and use that data to modify what the search engine does or how it responds to searches. Every legitimate Website on the entire Internet is using Algorithms. Of course Google/ABC Corp uses Algorithms to manipulate Search results... using Algorithms is standard practice , and necessary in many cases. If you're going to write about the Internet, or a product on the Internet, it's important to have a fundamental understanding the Internet, the architecture, and how it operates. All Search Engines use Algorithms.
The Internet had no Search Engines when it was made publicly accessible. We crafted our own search expressions from the command line. A Search Engine is an app that does all that for people incapable of using the tools to search the Internet from the Command Line... Nonetheless, the idea that anyone is 'dependant' upon Google to search for 'indexed' resources on the Internet is false.
Don't use the Google Search Engine if you're not happy with it. Boycott Google/ABC Corp of you don't like their practices. It's no secret that the primary goal of ABC Corp is to make $$$$$$. Everything contrary to that goal is an obstacle to it. Google does not exist for any other reason, and all information alluding it does is Bernaysian propaganda. Even the Human Beings at Google/ABC Corp are motivated by self interest.
Better yet, write your own Search Engine. It's not that difficult. The opportunist's at Google did exactly that - then marketed the sh*t out of it. As an engineer I always preferred the Search Engine aggregator Dogpile anyway. Search engine technology hasn't changed much because it doesn't need to. Search Engines and Browsers are pretty basic technology. Write your own. Then craft your own Algorithms to harvest information from their usage. The Internet is a tool not a utility service.
This is what I have witnessed as a Systems Engineer since the years before the Internet... the broad scale dumbing down of humanity.
As the Commercial Domain - .com; has become an ever growing cesspool of arrogantly-ignorant, virtue-signaling pseudo-intellectualism, opinion pimping, and intellectual garbage consumption, humanity has just gotten fatter, more arrogantly-ignorant, stupendously-stupid, and intellectually-lazier by the day.
The .com Commercial Domain of the Internet is just 1 of 1500 TLD that make up the internetwork of the Internet. For the record - over 80% of the resources on the Internet are not even Publicly accessible. They're not indexed and they are not searchable... By design. The idea that the Internet is Public is the epitome of puerile ignorance. Public access does not make it Public property. Public access, and the Commercial Domain of the Internet is what is wrong with the Internet.
I miss the days when Internet users were mostly engineers/developers who understood the technology intimately, and there were no Social Engineering Websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Substack, Reddit, YouTube, etc. because there was no .com Domain.
When I started working with the Layer 3 Routing Protocol TCP/IP (this is 'what' the Internet actually 'is') the internetwork of privately owned networks that make up the "Internet" didn't yet have a "Commercial" Domain. The predominant users of the Internet were Engineers and Developers. College educated and degreed technical people, not vapid, Television educated consumers, and self proclaimed activists with vapid opinions to pimp and ulterior motives.
The Internet is not complex. The technology the Internet uses is not complex... the purpose and functions are not complex. The architecture of Internet is not complex... to the educated and intelligent who can read at a college level. It's the drooling idiots who don't know the difference between opinion & Logic that are ruining the utility of the Internet. It seems Google has employed many of them. Google/ABC Corp will eventually lose it's dominance as result.
Perhaps one day we can separate the Commercial Domain from all the others and have a seperate 'Commercial Internet' for all the drooling TV educated consumers. One Internet of sloven stupidity, and Consumerism freely accessible to all, and one Internetwork of Logic, Gnosis, and learning, that requires paid membership.
I did dozens of tests like this between 2015 (when I started noticing possible changes in Google) and 2020. Google is, without a doubt, using its algorithms to adjust reality. Articles and entire websites are downgraded and sometimes just missing entirely. Search strings are producing a completely different profile of results than they used to. After 2016, the changes became dramatic. After 2020, I stopped using Google entirely except in very unique circumstances.