Which search engine do you use?

[Oldschool]

Which search engine do you normally use or prefer?

Google's (my preferred one btw) latest "title change" to celebrated Pac Man's 30th birthday inspired this. And although Google routinely marks such events with a logo mod this is the first one I recall being truly interactive.

[zmflavius]

Same, because I've found it to be most reliable.

[Oldschool]

Poll is up.

[thingirl]

I use Google for general searches, and if a site (like Youtube) has its own search engine, I'll use that for that site.

Google is just awesome.

[Oldschool]

Good point TG and I thought about listing YouTube and similar ones separately for specific searches (i.e. videos) but I ended up deciding to go with general/overall searching. And there are other search engines that I didn't list but with 10 choices the selection is limited.

Going by the forum spiders the Chinese search engine Baidu.com (?) is very "popular" - and actually after a little Googling (oh the irony :cool:) it seems it is very good with the English language also. Maybe I should have listed it in place of one of the others.

EDIT: Baidu.com added.

[smv1973]

I use Yahoo but I also have Google and Live search.

[Lyrehc]

It depends on what I'm looking for. I'll use Ask.com a lot. I also use Dogpile - especially their image search. If I'm studying, I tend to go to refdesk.com.

And don't forget the grandfather search site of them all. http://beaucoup.com/ This site has been around for a long time - I learned about it over 10 years ago and still use it quite a bit.

[Young Ned]

My wife's been experimenting with Ask.com and Bing lately, but I still prefer Google.

[Oldschool]

Does the new background imagery for Google annoy anyone else besides moi?

It seems there is no current way to disable it for users that aren't registered for Google or iGoogle or whatever the hell it is that they call it.

If I wanted a bunch of background crap cluttering my browser I'd use bing or one of those that already have that option.

I hate trying to be forced to either register or accepting a feature/option. Hopefully since this is new Google will soon come up with a toggle option for non registered users.

If not I may switch browsers period as I already pretty much use Safari for playing Sryth since it allows repeated use of powers without selecting them every time.

Or maybe somebody with the appropriate skill will come up with a workaround like a Greasemonkey script.

And to make it worse some of those images......... sheesh. Plus the fact is that the images can increase the page loading time especially for slower connections/systems.

I'd say the majority of feedback has been negative. I'm giving it a bit to see it they make it an option for everyone before I decide on sending them a nastygram or not. Of course that's probably only available to registered users via Gmail.

Grrrrrrrr............... :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[Doolipalally]

Does the new background imagery for Google annoy anyone else besides moi?

It seems there is no current way to disable it for users that aren't registered for Google or iGoogle or whatever the hell it is that they call it.

If I wanted a bunch of background crap cluttering my browser I'd use bing or one of those that already have that option.

I hate trying to be forced to either register or accepting a feature/option. Hopefully since this is new Google will soon come up with a toggle option for non registered users.

If not I may switch browsers period as I already pretty much use Safari for playing Sryth since it allows repeated use of powers without selecting them every time.

Or maybe somebody with the appropriate skill will come up with a workaround like a Greasemonkey script.

And to make it worse some of those images......... sheesh. Plus the fact is that the images can increase the page loading time especially for slower connections/systems.

I'd say the majority of feedback has been negative. I'm giving it a bit to see it they make it an option for everyone before I decide on sending them a nastygram or not. Of course that's probably only available to registered users via Gmail.

Grrrrrrrr............... :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I'm hoping they make it an option as well. Mind you, with Google's track record on that I'm not hopeful - people have been trying for ages to get them to make the conversation threading optional on Gmail.

[scout1idf]

I didn't like what they had so I changed it....

[Doolipalally]

Thinking about it further, I'm not sure how much I care. I very rarely use the Google homepage anyway - usually I use the search box on my toolbar. So what they've done is create a new background for a page that I see about once a day, when I log on.

[thingirl]

I think it's nice. However, my my Google page (in FF) is http://www.google.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official The firefox?client=firefox part makes it go to a page with a mostly white background. But I mostly use the search bar in my browser anyway, so...

[Young Ned]

I'm a registered user who stays logged in all the time, because that way the option not to store or track my search history is always in force. So I hadn't even noticed that they'd done anything -- for me the main Google page has the same plain white background it's always had.

[Oldschool]

Wondering what the other Google users think of the real time search - Google Instant.

I mainly use Firefox with what used to be called Google Preview. Atm I can't recall the new name as SearchPreview it also works on Yahoo and maybe others like Bing. It shows a small preview of each selection.

Anyhoo..... I've noticed the page load times have to catch up to the search bar (typing speed) sometimes. Even occasionally hanging/slowing up my typing speed. It also works when using backspace. I haven't disabled the preview add on to check but I'm guessing that might make a difference since it wouldn't have to load the images. I've noticed if I slow down my typing it's not a problem.

Fortunately you can turn Google Instant on/off in your preferences.

I'm still undecided on it. Besides the issues with it slowing down my typing/page loads it's pretty aggressive which I find somewhat annoying. Kinda like talking to someone when they or someone else is finishing your sentences.

The load/typing issues might be worked out but it seems to be aimed at slower 'typers'. That's sort of supported by Googles own "about" page, http://www.google.com/instant/. And that's secondary to the buttinsky factor for me. And I've had it currently so it's off but I'll give it a chance for awhile and turn it on and off as mood dictates. But I never got used to or liked the previous search suggestion function so I doubt I'll embrace it but I'll give it a try.

[Oldschool]

Maybe it's just me but..........................

As someone else called it Google Instant[ly annoying] is off for good :D:D:D:D:D:D or until the next go round.

Gave it a week or so albeit somewhat unwillingly. Why not leave the default as off or make the choice a permanent one.

It seems you can turn it off but if you're like me and have your cookies cleared each time it doesn't stay off. Very annoying slowing my typing down and hanging the browser up. Plus I found that it's suggestions weren't accurate at all and I'm wondering after doing some searching if they aren't forced.

Using Google Instant[ly annoying] is supposed to make real time suggestions but if you type Google sucks about halfway so or through the inhales sharply synonym you get completely blank pages until you finish your search and hit enter. Hmmm.... I'm reminded of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yB7J7DYi6M :cool: especially since it resulted in over 6.2 mil results. Before anyone points out the obvious that google is my choice that was a joke. Truthfully though if I couldn't have disabled it without changing my Firefox settings new homepage hunting I was a going.

Anyway googling or otherwise searching turning google instant off for good or similar should help.

This is the page I used to help me, http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=144e6d4b74632102&hl=en

Don't know anything about the google about config deal. It says it voids your warranty which I thought was questionable since I doubt it does anything to your system plus it supposedly used to say dragons be here or something similar, lol.

It seems to be googles config file and although I doubt the warranty mumbo jumbo I'm not sure if it would be considered a hack. Although I doubt that as well since I imagine google would either have disabled it or make direct mention of that fact. And I found the homepage suggestion by one of the users a simpler change that could be easily undone. If you do that make sure to use the whole url not just the blue linked part.

And for those either outside the US and/or non English speaking countries I'm not sure it would work since I'm TOTALLY guessing the last part has something to do with the country and/or language settings - en being english.

EDIT: The homepage suggestion supposedly disables autocomplete which I don't use anyway.

[Oldschool]

Is it just me or did Google shrink their logo along with their buttons and text bar? At least on their main page and video page. The "stuff" for "images" seems about the same size?

First Firefox and their immediate jump to FF5 with no more support for FF4 and now this with Google after that Google Instant debacle (see above)........ :mad:

Re: Google Instant. The post by BTCreative is what I used to disable it which is this, http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0&hl=en Again guesstimating that this is for English users.

[Tetracapillactomist]

Don't know anything about the google about config deal. It says it voids your warranty which I thought was questionable since I doubt it does anything to your system plus it supposedly used to say dragons be here or something similar, lol.

It seems to be googles config file and although I doubt the warranty mumbo jumbo I'm not sure if it would be considered a hack. Although I doubt that as well since I imagine google would either have disabled it or make direct mention of that fact.

That warranty invalidation disclaimer refers to your use of the Google product only, not your PC. Standard 'donkey-covering.' It will appear every time you make a direct configuration change from within Google's own (!) configuration page.

Same stands for Firefox as well, by the way. In some cases in FF you can be left without a default text editor option - you can't change or pick one, whether it be Notepad or else - you simply won't see the option, which is exactly what happened to a friend.

As a direct consequence, you won't be able to edit Greasemonkey user scripts, for instance.
Reason for this, is that the text editor entry is missing altogether, and the only way to be able to edit scripts then, is to enter the values required for editing and for the choice of a text editor in the browser's configuration page manually. Friend got the same warranty invalidation warning from FF while I was guiding them through the steps, FF config pop-up asking cutely to be careful.
(You actually have to click on a button that says "I promise to be careful" or some such cuddly stuff, before it allows you to proceed :)).

Long story's conclusion: don't worry about it, it's not about 'hacking,' only non-standard user setup.
The warning is there to ask: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Well, of course, you do better to know what you are doing. ;)

(But if your mocking about sends your browser crashing into the ground, as a rule, all you have to do is un-, then re-install it.

Still, just in case, don't intentionally try to break it. ;))

(edit) The sudden jump to FF 5 was security related, as far as I know, but haven't had time - or much interest - to look into it. In the end, I just took the pill and done the dirty deed done dirt cheap (upgraded)... ;)