"Google dominates search. But the real problem is its monopoly on data."
"The wider problem is that Google has become the ultimate monopolist of the information age. Information is a source of power, and nothing in the EU’s case does anything significant to touch that power."
THE GUARDIAN APR 19 2015
Part 3 of the Google Information War Series
If you read Part 1 and part 2 you’ve almost certainly recognized a pattern – most of the established Tech companies (part of the MSM) have lost the public’s trust. The honourable old business practice of providing the very best customer satisfaction has been replaced with the wholesale collection and sale of your personal information. Alphabet Inc and Google are some of the worst offenders, with litigation already paid out for antitrust and anti-competitive practices. After acquiring a whopping 218 companies (on record) since 2001, the conglomerate has also been accused of monopoly, patent infringement, and of course – privacy issues. You’re about to find out why!
Note: Due to the unfortunate number of repetitions you’ll necessarily be subjected to throughout this article, the names Google – and its multi-national conglomerate parent company, Alphabet, when used together – will be affectionately referred to as AG. We'll add that to the Glossary, below.
Glossary of terms:
SE = Search Engine
OS = Operating Systems
WB = Web Browser
AG = Alphabet Inc & Google
Google is much more than a Search Engine. It serves as a vital component of an interchangeable collection of hardware and software, which, when combined form a monopoly so powerful, even Apple has been forced to integrate it into their products. For the year of 2017, Android and IOS combined for 99% of the Mobile OS Market Share. Since Apple (iphone) renewed their deal in 2017 to remain the default Search Engine on the IOS, it’s easy to see how the SE market share is potentially higher than the reported 93%. The next highest of the big former Search Engine challengers is Microsoft’s Bing, at just over 1%!
Now that Google has relegated its former competitors – Bing and Yahoo - to insignificant single digits, they’re concentrating their attention in a completely different direction. Privacy Search Engines are a true existential threat to Google, since they mostly don’t collect or retain data. That is Google’s bread and butter. Google has recently embedded itself into one of the most successful alternative SE choices – Start Page. Very few even know that Start Page is Ixquick’s North American cousin. Fewer still know about SP’s agreement with Google. It’s not in bold type anywhere. Instead, it is cleverly spun by top Word-Smiths – on the right-side of the page, in small print, is the innocuous term: “Enhanced by Google.” Hovering over this term tells you nothing about how this incredible “enhancement” benefits the user – never a good sign. The rationale is that Start Page is expanding your access to information. While that may be true in certain instances, after Google’s algorithmic filters are applied, the content returned from searches may actually lead to narrowed or decreased sources and content.
You can avoid worrying about this at all by instead just using Ixquick.eu.
Google also recently finagled its way into being the default Search Engine on the incredibly popular Firefox, which is known for its Open Source Add-Ons. Out of the blue one day, after doing an update, all of the other SE choices just disappeared for many of Firefox’s customers – with no explanation whatsoever - on the phones using the Android (owned by Google) platform. There were no longer any "suggested searches," just Google! This was a bit of a dirty trick to play on consumers - after dealing with the inconvenience of losing their farvourite SE's, customers would then have to research the issue and learn how to manually add each additional SE back in. What role Google played in Firefox’s early termination with Yahoo to become the default SE is not known, but it probably starts with m and ends with y.
Oh, yeah…almost forgot…Google is now Apple’s default search engine…again. It is the default Search Engine on Iphones, Ipads and whatever those Voice Activated spying devices are called. There are so many components to AG (218 companies that we know of, and counting!), and the issue is so complex that it could not possibly all be covered in this one article. So stay tuned…
Sources:
See this post on google’s companies:
https://steemit.com/writing/@canusapatriots/a-glimpse-of-the-not-too-distant-future-featuring-alphabet-inc-and-google-s-technology
List of Google/Alphabet Acquisitions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet
Google + Apple
https://hypebeast.com/2017/8/google-apple-3-billion-usd-deal-ios-default-search-engine
Google’s Market Share
https://www.netmarketshare.com/search-engine-market-share
Google Chart from Black Pigeon Speaks
http://blackpigeonspeaks.com/
Awesome post. I always knew google was only generating the search lists from “benifet them” down to “really what I’m looking for”. You mentioned ixquick.eu.....are there any other truly private/non Google related search engines? What do you recommend?
: )
Thank you for the kind words. From the research completed there appear to be a growing number. Try these:
DuckDuckGo.com
Quant.com
Dogpile.com
Yippy.com
You might like the other parts of that series. They spell it all out, I hope:)They are linked as Part 1 and Part 2 at the top of the article you read. But also here --
https://steemit.com/informationwar/@canusapatriots/patriot-beginners-guide-to-ending-internet-monopolies
https://steemit.com/informationwar/@canusapatriots/top-7-alternative-solutions-that-will-lead-patriots-to-victory-in-the-information-war
@tinylayla, I wrote this post because it was in the works. But, you helped light a fire to get it done in a prompt manner. The content will provide solutions to your question. Hope you'll find it of some use.
@canusapatriots I’m glad my ignorance and cluelessness went to a worthy cause. Lol.
No really. Thanks for the effort to get something like this for people like me who are looking for alternatives but not sure where to begin. : )
I certainly wasn't implying that at all, lol. People on this platform are a bit higher on the intellect scale, as a whole. Yourself included. I had other less savy people in mind when I wrote it. People often have so much going on that it's hard to get a clear picture on certain subject matter. And, the big companies running things are averse to talking about it. Writing about topics can also be a crutch sometimes for organizing thoughts in the writer's mind. So, while the intent is to help others, the biggest benefactor is often me:) But, your welcome. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I didn’t take it that way silly. : )
I really WAS clueless on finding an alternative though. And you genuinely helped me. I’m not tech savvy but know and can see through the corporate/data capturing nonsense.
If you helped me...I’m sure you helped others. Pat yourself on the back.
Great job!!!
Thanks, @tinylayla. That really means a lot. Happy trails.
Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance:Google is inside steemit too!!!
I genuinely appreciate the reminder, @openparadigm, as well as the curation. Has there been any talk of using other, more secure platforms?
I've been using startpage since they traded over from ixquick, they do have different results, they claim to proxy to google for you to hide your searches from google, but if I use google direct I get different results.
They only have utube for a video search, other platforms do not show up.
I use them for mundane things like pdfs, but for real searches I use ddg.
I like sp's proxy service, I use it just to make my file thicker.
From what I understand, SP is still under ixquick's umbrella, but they took the $$ from Google to expand (or narrow-it depends, lol) their searchable data. Google is only one of the search engines and data sources that SP uses, but Google is the default.
I prefer Ixquick or Quant, even Yippy as of late. You know DDG uses Yandex, right? No biggie, really. They're still all very similar. Yippie is the most unique of the bunch. Still working towards more raw content though.
Thanks for commenting @freebornangel.
I'm gonna guess that it really doesn't make much difference what we do, digital is just too easy to keep track of what has happened.
It's not over yet. Google must index our data. IF we all stopped registering our new sites and blogs and went with alternatives, we'd pull out the rug from under them in no time at all. WE are their lifeblood. I've been trying to show people that we have a choice. I've showed how we can avoid using their search engine and web browser, altogether. Sure, we'll land on Google pages (not happy this platform uses Google - but that can be fixed), but if people don't index them there...
Anyway, we have to start somewhere. We need to organize and prepare. Start saving as much data as possible, as the big guns are pushing everything onto clouds, which they'll control. Those who have servers should start grabbing everything they can. Just in case. One idea is a "day of change"de-platform/re-platform scenario, where masses of people act to send a signal that they can't continue controlling us and abusing our data.
Google made a move today on how we save images, apparently - ostensibly to drive traffic to the websites where images originate. But, we all know it's part of their desire for greater control. (Have yet to verify, but it was on a reputable news channel.)
Better we change the mindset of the folks to stop blindly accepting authority.
Not as far fetched as it was in '85 when I became an anarchist.
I agree that archiving could be important, why would we trust our corporate overlords to keep any record that didn't serve their interests?
You make some good points, @freebornangel. Sry for late reply...was off-site for a bit. Now, more than ever, we have to save everything. Just like they do ><
If we dont save things they will be down the memory hole.
Just try to find poppy bush's 'chase us down the street with pitchforks' statement he gave in response to a washington post question.
I havent seen it in ten years
https://discord.gg/zwV47a
https://discord.gg/zwV47a
just in case...
will look for you on chat plat to catch up ....
cool. I was off web from Friday to today, but I should be mostly on now, both here and Discord