Assistant applications

Google assistant works by learning everything about you.
MicroG aims to let Google learn nothing about you.

Alternatives you can use:

♦ Saiy
-- Fully customizable open source voice assistant -- https://t.me/libreware/198
-- (Needs Google Assistant right now but working on removing that dependancy)


♦ Dragonfire
-- https://t.me/libreware/207

♦ Just search
-- Simple internet search shortcut
-- https://f-droid.org/app/co.pxhouse.sas

📡 @NoGoolag
#assistant #search #alternatives

Ruin My Search History

Ruin your search history with one click – If you dare!

https://proprivacy.com/tools/ruinmysearchhistory

Google uses your search history to build a profile of you. Ruin My Search History is a simple, effective and fun way to throw Google off the scent. By generating random search queries, the tool prevents Google from building an accurate picture of who you are.

Clicking on the button will open Google in a separate tab and run random search queries automatically

Using this tool won't really ruin your search history but will modify it with randomized queries


#ruinmysearchhistory #ruin #search #history

How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results

The internet giant uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and an army of contractors to shape what you see

👀 More than 100 interviews and the Journal’s own testing of Google’s search results reveal:

‼️ Google made algorithmic changes to its search results that favor big businesses over smaller ones, and in at least one case made changes on behalf of a major advertiser, eBay Inc., contrary to its public position that it never takes that type of action. The company also boosts some major websites, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

‼️ Google engineers regularly make behind-the-scenes adjustments to other information the company is increasingly layering on top of its basic search results. These features include auto-complete suggestions, boxes called “knowledge panels” and “featured snippets,” and news results, which aren’t subject to the same company policies limiting what engineers can remove or change.

‼️ Despite publicly denying doing so, Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results. These moves are separate from those that block sites as required by U.S. or foreign law, such as those featuring child abuse or with copyright infringement, and from changes designed to demote spam sites, which attempt to game the system to appear higher in results.

‼️ In auto-complete, the feature that predicts search terms as the user types a query, Google’s engineers have created algorithms and blacklists to weed out more-incendiary suggestions for controversial subjects, such as abortion or immigration, in effect filtering out inflammatory results on high-profile topics.

‼️ Google employees and executives, including co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have disagreed on how much to intervene on search results and to what extent. Employees can push for revisions in specific search results, including on topics such as vaccinations and autism.

‼️ To evaluate its search results, Google employs thousands of low-paid contractors whose purpose the company says is to assess the quality of the algorithms’ rankings. Even so, contractors said Google gave feedback to these workers to convey what it considered to be the correct ranking of results, and they revised their assessments accordingly, according to contractors interviewed by the Journal. The contractors’ collective evaluations are then used to adjust algorithms.

👉🏼 Read more (paywall):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-its-search-algorithms-and-changes-your-results-11573823753

👉🏼 Read more (german/no paywall):
https://netzpolitik.org/2019/der-selbstgebaute-algorithmus/

#DeleteGoogle #manipulation #search #algorithms #why #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_ES

Guide To Using Reverse Image Search For Investigations

https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2019/12/26/guide-to-using-reverse-image-search-for-investigations


#reverse #image #search

Comparison review of alternative search engines

Detailed tests of search engines: Google, Startpage, Bing, DuckDuckGo, metaGer, Ecosia, Swisscows, Searx, Qwant, Yandex, and Mojeek

https://libretechtips.gitlab.io/detailed-tests-of-search-engines-google-startpage-bing-duckduckgo-metager-ecosia-swisscows-searx-qwant-yandex-and-mojeek


#search #engines #alternatives #review

Search engine alternatives

♦️ DuckDuckGo
-> https://duckduckgo.com
-> http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion
- US based (EU servers for EU, though).
- Mostly Bing, Yahoo and own crawler results
- Issues: Proprietary, some components are free
- ToS;DR: https://tosdr.org/#duckduckgo
- Criticism here
-- https://gitlab.com/prism-break/prism-break/issues/2143
-- https://redd.it/aqz3q8

♦️ SearX
-> https://searx.xyz
-> https://searx.xyz/tor.html
-> searx.space for other instances
- Instance of the open source metasearch engine
- You can choose which search engine to use for the results.
- Issues: No privacy policy, some public instances use Cloudflare, ads or may log IP addresses/searches.

♦️ Qwant
-> https://www.qwant.com
- French based
- Own crawlers and Bing results.
- Issues: "French law makes it mandatory to keep some connection data for one year"
- Privacy Policy: https://about.qwant.com/legal/privacy
- ToS;DR: https://tosdr.org/#qwant
- Criticism:
-- https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bstxms/qwants_future_regarding_ethics
-- https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/35097/ethics-a-heavy-suspicion-towards-the-qwant-search-engine

♦️ MetaGer
-> https://metager.org
- Open-source metasearch engine
- Based in Germany
- Stores some information temporarily: https://metager.org/datenschutz

♦️ YaCy
-> https://yacy.net
- Distributed self hosted search engine, built on P2P networks

♦️ Mojeek
-> https://www.mojeek.com
- Uses its own crawlers

♦️ Whoogle
https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search

Others:

♦️ List of search engines:
-> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines

♦️ Startpage
-> startpage.com
- Startpage CEO interview
- uses Goolag search

♦️ Ecosia
-> https://www.ecosia.org
- A bing frontend
- Criticism:
-- https://info.ecosia.org/privacy#privacy-faq-item-6

♦️Gigablast
-> https://gigablast.com
- Fails SSL at Mozilla observatory
-- https://observatory.mozilla.org/analyze/www.gigablast.com

♦️ Yippy
-> yippy.com
- Uses Goolag ads

♦️ SwissCows
-> swisscows.ch

♦️ Disconnect
-> search.disconnect.me
- Connects to Amazon

♦️ Wolfram Alpha
-> www.wolframalpha.com
- Doesn't even work without JavaScript

♦️ Oscobk
-> oscobo.co.ukk

♦️ Lukol
-> www.lukol.com
- Shares data with Goolag
- Privacy policy: https://lukol.com/privacy.php


📡 @NoGoolag 📡 @Libreware
#searchengines #search #alternatives

Whoogle Search - A self-hosted, ad-free/AMP-free/tracking-free, privacy respecting alternative to Google Search

Get Google search results, but without any ads, javascript, AMP links, cookies, or IP address tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file. Quick and simple to implement as a primary search engine replacement on both desktop and mobile.


Hi everyone. I've been working on a project lately that allows super easy set up of a self-hosted Google search proxy, but with built in privacy enhancements and protections against tracking and data collection.

The project is open source and available with a lot of different options for setting up your own instance (for free): https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search

Since the app is meant to only ever be self-hosted, I intentionally built the tool to be as easy to deploy as possible for individuals of any background. It has deployment options ranging from a single-click deploy, to pip/pipx installs or temporary sandboxed runs, to manual setup with Docker or whatever you want. It's primarily meant to be useful for anyone who is (rightfully) skeptical of Google's privacy practices, but wants to continue to have access to Google search results and/or result formatting.

Here's a quick TL;DR of some current features:

* No ads or sponsored content
* No javascript
* No cookies
* No tracking/linking of your personal IP address
* No AMP links
* No URL tracking tags (i.e. utm=%s)
* No referrer header
* POST request search queries (when possible)
* View images at full res without site redirect (currently mobile only)
* Dark mode
* Randomly generated User Agent
* Easy to install/deploy
* Optional location-based searching (i.e. results near <city>)
* Optional NoJS mode to disable all Javascript on result pages

Happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Hope you all enjoy!

https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/ggrocn/whoogle_search_a_selfhosted/


#whoogle #Google #search #engine #selfhost #degoogle

Bunker.is - a non-profit isp

collaborating to create shared platforms with open products and no vendor lock-in

👉🏼 #Cloud:
A nextcloud instance for our contributors

👉🏼 #VPN:
We provide vpn services to our contributors

👉🏼 #Search:
A non-tracking search engine

👉🏼 #Etherpad:
A shared open etherpad instance

👉🏼 #Mail:
We provide mail accounts to our contributors

👉🏼 #Ethercalc:
An open public ethercalc instance

👉🏼 #Cryptpad:
We provide an open public instance of cryptpad

Our free services are possible due to the generosity of our users. Becoming a contributor gives you access to a wider range of services.

We dont think the users should be the product. We think you should know who has access to your data and why. Meet us and find out more.

👉🏼 https://bunker.is/ 👈🏼

#bunker #isp
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Apple may launch its own web-based search engine

A new report claims that factors are increasingly pointing to Apple expanding Siri search results and Spotlight Searches even farther, with the company potentially working on a universal search engine.

Apple already has a search engine it uses for Spotlight Searches and Siri. However, if a new report is accurate, Apple may be looking to ditch the financial arrangement it has for Google to be the default on the iPhone, and launch its own full search engine.

The main tentpole to the argument made on Thursday morning by Jon Henshaw at Coywolf says that it isn't clear if Siri Suggestions are using Google at all anymore. Instead, Apple is returning search results with Spotlight Search, and is bypassing other search engines.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/27/apple-may-launch-its-own-web-based-search-engine

#Apple #search #engine

Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo is growing fast

DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine, announced that August 2020 ended in over 2 billion total searches via its search platform.

While Google remains the most popular search engine, DuckDuckGo has gained a great deal of traction in recent months as more and more users have begun to value their privacy on the internet.

DuckDuckGo saw over 2 billion searches and 4 million app/extension installations, and the company also said that they have over 65 million active users. DuckDuckGo could shatter its old traffic record if the same growth trend continues.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/privacy-focused-search-engine-duckduckgo-is-growing-fast/

#DuckDuckGo #search #engine

The Blurred Lines and Closed Loops of Google Search

Seemingly small design tweaks to the search results interface may change how and where people find information online.

January 13 was a fairly eventful day, at least for pre-pandemic times. Cory Booker dropped out of the presidential race. LSU trounced Clemson in the college football national championship game. Attorney general William Barr asked Apple to unlock an iPhone. And Google pushed out a seemingly tiny tweak to how it displays search ads for desktop computers.

Previously, the search engine had marked paid results with the word “Ad” in a green box, tucked beneath the headline next to a matching green display URL. Now, all of a sudden, the “Ad” and the URL shifted above the headline, and both were rendered in discreet black; the box disappeared.

https://www.wired.com/story/blurred-lines-closed-loops-google-search/

#Google #search #ads

Apple develops alternative to Google search.

Apple may build its own search tools as ties to Google come under antitrust scrutiny.

Apple is stepping up efforts to develop its own search technology as US antitrust authorities threaten multibillion-dollar payments that Google makes to secure prime placement of its engine on the iPhone.

In a little-noticed change to the latest version of the iPhone operating system, iOS 14, Apple has begun to show its own search results and link directly to websites when users type queries from its home screen.

That web search capability marks an important advance in Apple’s in-house development and could form the foundation of a fuller attack on Google, according to several people in the industry.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/apple-develops-alternative-to-google-search/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2020/10/28/apple-building-search-engine-to


#apple #Google #search #engine
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Comparison of web search engines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_search_engines

SearX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searx

#comparison #search #engines #wikipedia
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

How to Build an Egalitarian, Decentralized Search Engine Part 1: The Principles

Search is dead. So how do we revive it, without billions of dollars in funding and massive computing resources? We leverage the crowd.

We need a functioning search engine if the open web is to prevail. Google and its competitors do not care to make a decent product. It counters their business goals. So we have to build it ourselves.

https://chapra.blog/how-to-build-a-search-engine-part-1-374/

#search #engine #build #howto #decentralized
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

HakByte: How to find anything on the internet with Google Dorks

On this first episode of HakByte, we cover Google Dorking, which is an OSINT technique that takes advantage of the Google Search engine with advanced search strings. This video covers basic google dorks that will allow you to filter out irrelevant information for a google search, finding insecure websites, and even discovering exposed password databases. Finally, an open source tool called pagodo is covered, which automatically can pass thousands of google dorks while avoiding detection from google.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lESeJ3EViCo

#hakbyte #osint #google #dorking #search #engine #educational #video
🎥 @nogoolag 🎥 @blackbox_archiv

Adding a new #search #engine to #bromite on #android:

Visit the search engine home page. Perform a search.
The search engine can now be selected as a default from settings.

#Searx instances -
https://searx.space
https://searx.unclejim.life
https://searx.pussthecat.org
https://searx.sethforprivacy.com
http://4nz3r6ka7v2tzn3t6bk4yxyaqgubymrluavdbbvn3ndj2iq7hkqw2oid.onion

Presearch Search Engine

Now that DuckDuckGo has officially DuckDuckGone in the direction of censorship, what's a free speech-loving, liberty-minded conspiracy realist to do? Never fear, #SolutionsWatch is here. In the first of a series of explorations of Alt Tech, James talks to Colin Pape of #Presearch, a decentralized #search #engine that is seeking to offer an alternative to the Big Tech monopolization of search.

Shownotes and links:
https://www.corbettreport.com/solutionswatch-presearch

https://lbry.tv/@corbettreport:0/solutionswatch-presearch:1

Stract is an open source search engine where the user has the ability to see exactly what is going on and customize almost everything about their search results. It's a search engine made for hackers and tinkerers just like ourselves. No more searches where some of the terms in the query arent used, and the engine tries to guess what you really meant. You get what you search for.

https://stract.com

https://github.com/StractOrg/stract

#Web #Search #SearchEngine
#FLOSS