Simple searching

[geordief]

I  remember a few years back (before Google) when searching was simpler. Not as efficient ,for sure  but the results were not skewed by advertising or geographical constraints.

As an example ,I have just been searching the term "upper landing" to satisfy my curiosity that it was indeed used to indicate  an area in the first floor of a building.

 

The first pages seem to be overwhelmed with some business location in America which is called Upper Landing" and I do not have the energy to create my own filter to weed all these unnecessary results out to find what it is that I want.

 

Is there a search engine that will not track my IP address or try to sell me products when all I  want is relevant information.

 

I tried DuckDuckGo but it seemed not to make a difference.....

[Sensei]

Google used to be good 15+ years ago. Now it's pretty much rubbish.

Who will purchase keyword, is showed first.

You can even check how much you need to pay-per-click for given keyword..

Edited July 24, 2017 by Sensei

[mathematic]

Google - "upper landing" definition.  You will get what you want.

[geordief]

2 hours ago, mathematic said:

"upper landing" definition

Yes ,that works better.

[Lord Antares]

This is not a fault of the engine, it's yours tbh. Whenever you have shared terms with something else, it's only natural that you will run into the other term, why wouldn't you? If you search for the term ''head'', how is google supposed to know that, for example, you wanted to search for the verb head (as in head somewhere) and not a body part or any array of terms which may be connected to that word? It's working as intended. 

That's why you simply type ''head verb'' instead of ''head''. It's simple.

It's false that Google used to be better or that there were better browsers before google came along. Google might be oversaturated compared to how it used to be, but it has definitely got A LOT more to read about. There's information on absolutely everything. There are countless pages' worth of useful text on there. The problem might be finding them among some potential trash, but it's there. Google is at its best.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Lord Antares

[geordief]

Are there any broad based  search engines that do not boost rankings according to whether the keywords are paid for (advertising)?

 

And are there any search engines that do not feed you returns based on where you live or what they think would interest you based on your search history?

[Manticore]

8 hours ago, geordief said:

Are there any broad based  search engines that do not boost rankings according to whether the keywords are paid for (advertising)?

 

And are there any search engines that do not feed you returns based on where you live or what they think would interest you based on your search history?

Duckduckgo:

a) I have never noticed any bias towards commercial sites therefore I would say it fulfils your first requirement.

b) It specifically does not track you therefore it fulfils your second requirement.

[geordief]

54 minutes ago, Manticore said:

Duckduckgo:

a) I have never noticed any bias towards commercial sites therefore I would say it fulfils your first requirement.

b) It specifically does not track you therefore it fulfils your second requirement.

Yes, I see. Perhaps now is the time to make the switch.(a bit of a habit to break)

Edited July 25, 2017 by geordief

[petrushka.googol]

On 7/24/2017 at 3:02 PM, geordief said:

I  remember a few years back (before Google) when searching was simpler. Not as efficient ,for sure  but the results were not skewed by advertising or geographical constraints.

As an example ,I have just been searching the term "upper landing" to satisfy my curiosity that it was indeed used to indicate  an area in the first floor of a building.

 

The first pages seem to be overwhelmed with some business location in America which is called Upper Landing" and I do not have the energy to create my own filter to weed all these unnecessary results out to find what it is that I want.

 

Is there a search engine that will not track my IP address or try to sell me products when all I  want is relevant information.

 

I tried DuckDuckGo but it seemed not to make a difference.....

Google optimizes searches based on geographical locations. If you search for the same string in US or India, the results will be different (this is because google has different data centers for different geographies).

[geordief]

45 minutes ago, petrushka.googol said:

Google optimizes searches based on geographical locations. If you search for the same string in US or India, the results will be different (this is because google has different data centers for different geographies).

Is there any way to get around that? Among other reasons, I like to know what people in different parts of the world  see when they look for the same thing as myself .

 

EDIT: I have been told that DuckDuckGo is good on that count but can I also  make google do it?

Can I hide my IP address from google or "ask" it to disregard it?  

Edited August 9, 2017 by geordief

[Endy0816]

Google has different search pages you can check.

google.co.uk

google.com.au

[geordief]

55 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

Google has different search pages you can check.

google.co.uk

google.com.au

Yes,I had forgotten that technique.I will give it another go and see how useful  it is.

[StringJunky]

If you install Opera, enable the built-in VPN in settings, and use DuckDuckGo that's pretty untrackable for information and location as far as trackers go. Your browser will adopt the IP address of the VPN server and your virtual location can be chosen by you from a list. If you do banking or anything like that make sure your virtual location is the same as your real location, or else you will set off their security mechanisms.

Edited August 9, 2017 by StringJunky

[Endy0816]

1 hour ago, geordief said:

Yes,I had forgotten that technique.I will give it another go and see how useful  it is.

Yeah, it was the cool thing back in the day. Haven't used it in forever though.