Viable alternative

[Buckman]

Is there a viable alternative to using Google as a search engine? Many years ago there were search engines like Alta Vista, Yell etc, but now Google seems to dominate everything in our lives.
Granted it is good offering many choices however if you are a small business and cannot employ whizz kids to keep your link near the top, you will be on a loser as many people probably do not scroll past the first 2 pages before finding what they need even thouhg your business could be offering the same goods cheaper.

 

[RogerL]

There are loads of search engines - I tried Bing for a while but didn't find it very good for finding what I wanted so reverted back to Google.

 

[otherclive]

Is there a viable alternative to using Google as a search engine? Many years ago there were search engines like Alta Vista, Yell etc, but now Google seems to dominate everything in our lives.
Granted it is good offering many choices however if you are a small business and cannot employ whizz kids to keep your link near the top, you will be on a loser as many people probably do not scroll past the first 2 pages before finding what they need even thouhg your business could be offering the same goods cheaper.

Yes. Firefox, Bing/Edge, Safari are well known with good capabilities then there are others less frequently used.. But of course it will also depend on your phone or computer.

 

[Buckman]

Yes. Firefox, Bing/Edge, Safari are well known with good capabilities then there are others less frequently used.. But of course it will also depend on your phone or computer.

I think FF, Edge and Safari are browsers and not search engines?

 

[otherclive]

Try this link then.

https://www.lifewire.com/best-search-engines-2483352

I use Safari with Bing and it works well.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I use DuckDuckGo with Firefox in which I have ad blockers and privacy blockers

However, if you're worried about your listings visibility then you're up against the fact that many companies e.g. Amazon, Ebay, pay to get promoted more than others.

 

[Jcloughie]

Is there a viable alternative to using Google as a search engine? Many years ago there were search engines like Alta Vista, Yell etc, but now Google seems to dominate everything in our lives.
Granted it is good offering many choices however if you are a small business and cannot employ whizz kids to keep your link near the top, you will be on a loser as many people probably do not scroll past the first 2 pages before finding what they need even thouhg your business could be offering the same goods cheaper.

Yes indeed. See for examples.

You may be suggesting that if you use a less popular search engine it may prove easier to keep you presence on the first page. This may be so, but Google user won’t see it. Swings and roundabouts.

John

 

[Buckman]

As a matter of interest, if you see a photo of something that you like, i.e. a colourful vase, is it possible to do a search using the photo and if so, how do you go about it?

 

[otherclive]

You can always use an adblocker if you are getting too many ads. Also Norton do a search engine in Norton Safe Search. I’ve got it as part of the Norton suite that I use on the computer, tablets and phones. But i rarely use it preferring Safari/Bing combination plus Adblock.

 

[Jcloughie]

As a matter of interest, if you see a photo of something that you like, i.e. a colourful vase, is it possible to do a search using the photo and if so, how do you go about it?

Easiest thing is to Google something like:-

“reverse picture search windows“

I have done it in the past, it worked well.

John

 

[otherclive]

Type in "Bing Visual Search' and Google it 😊, and as said above Google have the equivalent too.

 

[Woodentop]

A browser and a search engine are, today, essentially the same thing.
The OP started with Google Chrome (GC), and Firefox, Safari, and Bing have been mentioned.
There is also:-
Edge, Opera, Pale Moon, Vivaldi, and DuckDuckGo to name but a few.

Safari is the default browser for Apple but there is a Windoze version.

The latest version of Edge is a rewrite using Chromium as its core. Chromium is open source and also the core of GC.

Opera has been around a while and was famous at first for being significantly smaller than Chrome, IE, or Edge but of late it seems to have 'put on weight!

The advantage of most of the others over GC is that they don't demand or assume as GC does that all browser sources MUST be secure, i.e. https, and can cause problems if your specified address is not. You will notice that with GC you no longer need to start with www but you do with the others.

I monitor aircraft using a package called FlighRadar24 (that and FlightAware are both worth a butcher's if you are interested in aircraft) and when I go from within the data pages to their web site to view the type of aircraft etc it just hangs in GC but in any other browser (I'm now using Firefox) it switches over instantly.

 

[otherclive]

A browser and a search engine are, today, essentially the same thing.
The OP started with Google Chrome (GC), and Firefox, Safari, and Bing have been mentioned.
There is also:-
Edge, Opera, Pale Moon, Vivaldi, and DuckDuckGo to name but a few.

Safari is the default browser for Apple but there is a Windoze version.

The latest version of Edge is a rewrite using Chromium as its core. Chromium is open source and also the core of GC.

Opera has been around a while and was famous at first for being significantly smaller than Chrome, IE, or Edge but of late it seems to have 'put on weight!

The advantage of most of the others over GC is that they don't demand or assume as GC does that all browser sources MUST be secure, i.e. https, and can cause problems if your specified address is not. You will notice that with GC you no longer need to start with www but you do with the others.

I monitor aircraft using a package called FlighRadar24 (that and FlightAware are both worth a butcher's if you are interested in aircraft) and when I go from within the data pages to their web site to view the type of aircraft etc it just hangs in GC but in any other browser (I'm now using Firefox) it switches over instantly.

You will find Plane Finder a good app. Picks up commercial, service and private aircraft.

 

[RogerL]

A browser and a search engine are, today, essentially the same thing.

Not really - you can choose your browser and then choose a search engine - you don't need to stick with the browser default.

 

[Woodentop]

You will find Plane Finder a good app. Picks up commercial, service and private aircraft.

So does FR24 - and it shows military aircraft (unless that is what you mean by 'service.') I am using a co-linear aerial for ADS-B frequency (1090MHz) strapped to one of the wooden uprights in the loft with the SDR module and a RPi 3B in a Really Useful box perhaps a metre below it. The aerial is about 22ft agl and we are about 324ft asl. OK, most of the aircraft are above about FL 350 but.... What amazes me is how far away it will pick up aircraft directly: Dublin, W of Belfast, Glasgow/Edinburgh, over the Belgian and Dutch coasts, crossing the south coast, and off the S of Eire. The farthest I have recorded so far is about 240miles and I'm getting typically 375000 hits per day, something between 45000 and 60000 aircraft reported per 24hrs.
SDR = Software Defined Radio - just a USB TV receiver module driven by the software. The full kit cost me about £40.

 

[otherclive]

So does FR24 - and it shows military aircraft (unless that is what you mean by 'service.') I am using a co-linear aerial for ADS-B frequency (1090MHz) strapped to one of the wooden uprights in the loft with the SDR module and a RPi 3B in a Really Useful box perhaps a metre below it. The aerial is about 22ft agl and we are about 324ft asl. OK, most of the aircraft are above about FL 350 but.... What amazes me is how far away it will pick up aircraft directly: Dublin, W of Belfast, Glasgow/Edinburgh, over the Belgian and Dutch coasts, crossing the south coast, and off the S of Eire. The farthest I have recorded so far is about 240miles and I'm getting typically 375000 hits per day, something between 45000 and 60000 aircraft reported per 24hrs.
SDR = Software Defined Radio - just a USB TV receiver module driven by the software. The full kit cost me about £40.

That’s quite an impressive array of kit but I don’t pretend to understand what it is doing. I think I will stick with Plane Finder which is portable anywhere and gives me an insight as to whats happening overhead and anywhere else in the world. It’was interesting after lockdown to see a gradual increase in flights but that seems to have plateaued out.

 

[Buckman]

Alternative search engines to alternative aircraft tracking websites. That is a very wide jump off the thread, but interestting. LOL!