[heathjohns]

It's a different mechanism with the same outcome. If the scale of a solution is so immense that only one or two of the largest corporations in the world can realisitically implement it, then you've got a duopoly and all the bad power imbalances that come with it.

Which is part of why I think freedom is the wrong goal. You're free to choose between Kodos and Kang, but the ability to choose conveys no power.

[tannhaeuser]

I think you're seriously overrating Google Search. Try DuckDuckGo or Startpage.com. They give you at least the exact same results as Google, and in many cases actually better, more up-to-date, or more fitting/filtered ones (except that Google image search seems consistently better, however). After all, these crawl the same web that Google is crawling, and there just isn't that much really new stuff out there these days.

[bradknowles]

Don't get me wrong -- I'm a big fan of DDG. It is my default search engine everywhere, and I go so far as to actively delete Google wherever I can.

But no, it's not the same. DDG uses Google on the backend, to populate their data. And that means there is a time delay between when Google gets the data and when DDG gets the data.

And sometimes you do want the personalization that Google brings to the table, to help you find the answers you're looking for faster. Precisely because DDG doesn't have much information about you, that means their search function won't be able to be as personalized.

DDG is fine as a primary default search engine, but as it stands, you still need to have Google around to provide the data and to provide a backup search engine in case DDG doesn't cut the mustard.

[tannhaeuser]

I don't believe you're correct. DDG doesn't use Google Search, and Google wouldn't be ok with them doing that - it only has an option to redirect to Google Search using !g. I have numerous cases where Google Search lately just doesn't cut it, and DDG's results are actually better and more up-to-date. Whereas with Startpage.com, you at least get actual results, rather than useless "108912398 matches retrieved in 0.000001 ms" type crap results for shovelling ads in your face.

For important recherche-type searches, I always perform an additional Google Search, but then again, the links Google gives you are personalized results which gets in the way of neutral recherche.

[rambojazz]

Actually, DDG seems to me like it matches yandex results more closely than Google's.