Good Bye Chrome - From WaPo

[Slydude]

Thanks. Two things made me think of that.

1. Sometime during the mid 1980s I read a book on business management where one of the examples was a group of ladies that kept index cards with information about their regular customers (sizes, color preferences, recent purchases, etc). This allowed the salespeople to make suggestions when spouses came in to purcase something for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

2. I've met a few salspeople over the years who are very good at this kind of thing (either naturally or learned) and they remeber their regulars. If you're a regulr at a local bar/restaurant I bet the best of their severs not only remember who you are but your regular order as well. I had someone remember me a while ago and that was at a restaurant I hadn't been to in about three years.

The difference between that and the kind of tracking we're concerned about seems to be that many of the folks engaged in tracking are not up front about it and often share thatinformation with or without our consent. There are a number of sites now where you cannot even access the site without either whitelisting the site (exposing youself to ads) or enabling cookies.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Good Bye Chrome https://www.washingtonpost.com/tec...tware-its-time-switch/?utm_term=.1d6395932207

Most Web browsers (with the exception of Google's Chrome) make their money by facilitating Web searches and hits on Web sites. Google pays these fees as part of their ad service, and it's why there are so many free browsers. There is nothing insidious about this.

But Google's Chrome does insidious stuff. It tracks you and gathers your browsing information and aggregates it for Google to sell to advertisers. That's too bad, because, in general, Google's Chrome browser is excellent.

The good news is that Google's Chrome is based on open-source software, and anyone is free to use that codebase to create their own product. So, there are several Web browsers that are based on the open source code that Chrome is based on (Chromium), but with all of Google's tracking stuff ripped out. These browsers are fast, secure, and work really well. They even have things like ad-blocking built right in.:

Brave
Secure, Fast & Private Web Browser with Adblocker | Brave Browser

Vivaldi
Vivaldi — The browser that puts you in control

Slimjet
Fastest web browser that blocks all ads and protects your privacy - Slimjet

All three are free. They each have their strong points and their weak points, but they are all constantly being developed and updated, and they tend to regularly leapfrog each other.

Right now I'm partial towards Brave. (Darn it's a great browser! However I understand that it isn't fully updated for Mojave yet.) But Slimjet is addictingly fast. Since they are all free and don't conflict with each other feel free to download all of them and see which you like best. It would be interesting to hear which one(s) folks prefer.

Now, doing a Web search is different than what browser you use. DuckDuckGo isn't a Web browser, it's a search engine.
Google's own search engine "Google", like all of Google's other products, tracks you and otherwise spys on you.
DuckDuckGo is a secure alternative, but it's results are often noticeably inferior to Google's.
If you want to do Web searches with results as good as a Google search, without your personal info being sent back to Google, I recommend that you use this search engine, which *is* a Google search with all of your identifying info blocked!:
Startpage.com - The world's most private search engine

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for that info Randy. I routinely use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. I noticed the diference in the quality of results and always attributed it to either:

1. My poor search skills.
2. An overactive imagination on my part.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Thanks for that info Randy. I routinely use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. I noticed the diference in the quality of results and always attributed it to either:

1. My poor search skills.
2. An overactive imagination on my part.

LOL...Google is really adept at providing the best services out there for free, to get you hooked on them so that they can track you and spy on you constantly and then sell the information they gather on you.

Google search is miles ahead of any other search engine I've tried, even those that are more focused in their reach. Thank goodness for StartPage! (Bing is pretty close, but is Microsoft any more trustable than Google?)

Did you know that Google even offers a free search service for attorneys doing legal research? It's called Google Scholar:
Google Scholar
It's very tempting to use, because legal research services, like WestLaw, are quite expensive. But is it worth the risk? I don't know of any attorneys who think so.

 

[Slydude]

I've heard about that one. Is it confined to law? It seems like I've heard it used in reference to other professions as well. I think it was in reference to finding research in speech-language therapy.

 

[Ratsima]

One of the reasons I started using Chrome was because of its ability to translate entire websites with a single click. It does a very good job with Thai which is not easy. The Japanese comes out a bit silly, at times, but is decipherable.

I have yet to find a more secure browser with this ability.

Are there any?

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I've heard about that one. Is it confined to law? It seems like I've heard it used in reference to other professions as well. I think it was in reference to finding research in speech-language therapy.

Google Scholar, at least if you check off the "case law" option, is only for legal research. I can't find any info on anything else it might look for.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Google has special search sites for other disciplines.

I know that they have one for medicine:
The Best Medical Search Engine - Home

I don't know of any others though.

 

[Rod]

I hope everybody has read the joke about Google Pizza. That really ticked my funny bone and soo true.
https://www.mac-forums.com/forums/s...ning-jokes-cause-laughter.html?highlight=Joke

 

[pm-r]

But Google's Chrome does insidious stuff. It tracks you and gathers your browsing information and aggregates it for Google to sell to advertisers. That's too bad, because, in general, Google's Chrome browser is excellent.

Hmmm...??? My older Google Chrome version seems to have an option to turn such creatures OFF, assuming the user wants to.



I actually enjoy and often use some of the tracking stuff, especially when I'm looking for some special thing to purchase, and various suggestions show up later, many have saved me money and provided better products.

To each their own I guess.


- Patrick
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