Google’s claim that search users have choice is “bogus,” Microsoft CEO tells judge::Google’s search dominance creates “vicious cycle,” Satya Nadella testified.
Dear Microsoft: I saw your shenanigans from Windows 3.1 onward, you gotta stop making me agree with you in 2023 because it makes me feel dirty. Thanks.
Microsoft is hardly one to be involved in this. They’re just as bad in different ways. But. As far as search goes, I think it’s incredibly simple to change search engines but the problem is Google doesn’t give users that choice up front when installing chrome but even if they did most people don’t give a shit and will just use Google anyway.
And the fact that Chrome has a virtual monopoly on the browser market isn’t going to help them either. Other than Firefox and Safari, every other browser is Chrome, and most web devs only test on Chrome.
It’s IE all over again, and I’m a bit scared that iOS’s app store restrictions are the only thing stopping Chrome from being a complete monopoly.
While one browser dominating is obviously bad, they at least won the market [roughly] fair and square. Unlike Microsoft which bundles it with their OS and makes it impossible to uninstall.
And harasses you ceaselessly to use it, advertises itself if you look up Chrome in it, gets reset back to default on updates for a bunch of file types.
Sincerely, a Firefox user.
Ever try using Google’s sites in Firefox or Safari? Most people use Google services and started using Chrome because of Google hounding them to switch. Hell, every major site says to just use Chrome now, and if a real Chrome ever comes out for iPhone, people will just download Chrome because it’s what they use on their computer.
Sincerely, a frustrated Firefox and Safari user
I think it’s incredibly simple to change search engines
It’s not though, because the other search engines all suck. I have changed my search engine, but I still keep going back to google all the time because it’s often the only way I can actually find the page I’m looking for.
Microsoft’s claim is they can’t create an accurate search engine because they just don’t have enough users to have reliable data on which pages should be presented to the user. Google has better results because they have more users, and they will never lose that advantage unless there is government intervention.
I don’t think Google should be punished for having a superior product. If users prefer to use Google then the market has spoken. Users can still use Bing even though it sucks.
When I moved to DDG, I had to go back to Google all the time.
With Kagi I never have to go back to Google. And on several occasions people who use Google asked me a question they couldn’t find an answer to and I found it in just a few minutes using Kagi. This saved the day at work once. We had 30 people on a call trying to solve some issue. They had been working for hours with no results. I joined, asked what was going on, did a couple searches in Kagi, and found an answer that was implemented and fixed the issue. 30 people on Google for hours couldn’t find anything useful.
There are really only two search engines. Its either Google or Bing. The others exist, but they use Google’s and/or Bing’s search results.
since when uses ddg google or bing ?
DDG is Bing by proxy, has been for ages. A while back they had a controversy for having microsoft trackers or something like that, and mentioned it was some stipulation for using Bing results. But they still backed off on that anyway.
DuckDuckGo’s results are a compilation of “over 400” sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); but none from Google. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the search results.
Source: Wikipedia
So it’s definitely not a “proxy to Bing” but it does use data from Bing.
Kagi factors them in, but then goes beyond that to produce much better results.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html
Thanks, I didn’t know!
I feel I have less of a choice in operating system than I do browsers or search. Just saying.
Modern Linux is amazing, just jyi
Is it really a valid option for people outside the tech industry who don’t know programming and who play PC games?
That’s an honest question, not a snide question.
Generally, you don’t need to know any programming in order to install and get most mainstream distros working on your machine. Most apps/drivers are one click installs. PC Gaming is still the kicker. There are some compatibility issues, but more and more games work as time progresses.
I would say though that it’s not really a great choice unless you are already pretty tech savvy. And these days, less and less people seem to even know how to actually use a computer, let alone one that runs Linux.
I do actively choose not to use Bing, though.
Real choice is when your OS sells you boner pills.
Microsoft has been making users’ choices “bogus” since at least Windows 95.
Nah, they had some BS going on in DOS I’m pretty sure, too.
Yeah. What they did to DR-DOS, for example (though I guess that was still related to Windows).
Things could be better, but it’s a far cry from the IE monopoly days. It’s amusing to hear Microsoft complain. DDG and Kagi are both very good search engines and DDG is a built-in option on iOS. Kagi even requires a fee and it’s still blowing up in popularity. I think the real issue for Microsoft is nobody chooses Bing.
I use bing. They’ve indexed way more porn than anyone else.
Me too, they also pay me to use it
Funny they should say that, considering that Bing is deeply integrated into Windows, and users have literally no choice of another search engine.
A better search engine is out there, it’s just not free.
I love it. Been an early adopter and uses it all day long, and it just works. Being able to rank sites and getting search results that never show up on Google is worth every dollar. It feels like you actually see the entire web with this search engine again.
I’ve seen this mentioned so much, I’m gonna have to check it out.
SaaS is almost as big of an issue as the tech monopolies that sell them, imo. I’d be more interested if it was a one time purchase.
It’s not better if I have to pay for it
If someone offers you a meal of food for $5, or a punch in the face for free… do you think the punch in the face is a better deal too?
I don’t feel trapped into Google for search… the fact is their search engine gives me better results than everyone else’s. It is not like they are restricting my access to others.
A few years ago my work had Microsoft staff in doing an SQL assessment and the guy doing the works spent a good 5 mins trying to find a Microsoft article in Bing. Eventually he asked me to look away, switched to Google and found it as the top result. I asked why he requested I look away and he said it was against their rules to use Google lol
their search engine is better than everyone else’s
It’s not though. You never even get to see what the competition would be because they lock competitors out of the market.
I’m really happy about the case against them. This trial is uncovering a bunch of dirty tricks they use. They have far too much power and far too much of our data and are abusing it.
Google is 100% better than the rest. I switched to DDG a few months back and I regularly have to go back to google for technical stuff. DDG oftentimes does not even serve the homepage of a searched company on the first page of the results, lol.
I switched to DDG recently after realising how much worse Google is for giving good results. After doing so on a trial basis, I’m now switching on all my devices as it’s just overall a better search experience for me. (Even if DDG is just Bing.)
I think it really depends on what you’re looking for. Google tends to be better about technical stuff, but Bing did really well for me in the old “Bing it on” challenge if I was searching for pop culture or game related stuff. Google always won for code and troubleshooting.
You know what would be refreshing? If someone in business could actually hold themselves accountable. For literally anything.
