Better search engine and email options
 

If you are tired of Google or Yahoo or anything Microsoft has to offer, for whatever reason, especially privacy issues or issues related to advertisements, or fake news, you might try the following:

Search Engine:

https://epicsearch.in/

Email:

https://protonmail.com/

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

Thanks for the info. Just did a comparison search query between google and epicsearch. Naturally, google reaffirmed their near uselessness.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

One problem I have seen with non-Google search engines is that some, including epicsearch, do not take totally seriously a search with quote marks around some words. I did a search on "Homestead Heritage" and "Yahweh" and all sorts of entries show up on the first page which are not "Homestead Heritage". I use that type of search every day, very frequently, and I have not yet found a Google replacement, but if you can help me, fine, remembering my requirement.

ProtonMail, Runbox (Norway, which I am now using, just be sure not to eat the farmed salmon), and Fastmail (USA, thus less privacy here) are examples of good non-Google mail servers. There is a forum emaildiscussions.com that is all over the comparative mail servers. If you are only using this as a Pop mailbox holding place you might end up with a $3 a month cost. However, if you really want to keep all your mail in the cloud, and you get forum mail and it is gigabytes over the years, you might have a greater cost, and you might not have the full robustness of Google search. If you limit the mailbox to personal mail, that might not be a problem, even if you do use it for long-term archiving. Points to consider.

And I actually do very little with my mail in the cloud, I have it all (even Gmail) work its way back to my "home base" on my PC. Where the living is easy. And I have worked with Eudora and TheBat! and now am considering Pandora (new Eudora Plus) email clients. For that purpose I do have a Runbox account from which I download. I am often searching for the details of correspondence and forum mail from 3, 5, 10-15 years ago.

===================

For research purposes I do recommend Linkman, for many of the reasons described here.

Bookmark Bliss -- Linkman by Outertech0
http://www.eve-golden.net/linkman.htm

Although I do not really use it for local files on my disk. I use it with multiple browsers, Firefox, Chrome, Palemoon, Opera, all at the same time, and have an absurdly high number of bookmarks collected over 10 years or so, and it works virtually perectly.

It will give you more privacy too, as an incidental benefit.

========================

Stevem

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I use DuckDuckGo.com on the regular basis.
I find Google Doogles offensive sometimes. Got tired of it.
Google has gone from being a useful tool to and ideology magazine.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I mean, googke reaffirmed its own near uselessness.

Yandex is good for some things, but hasn't indexed enough to really compete.

The problem with all search engines is the SEO that businesses use, in addition to the for-profit tinkering with the indexing algorithms a la google or youtube.

I remember when just about any search engine (AltaVista, anyone?) would turn up TONS of useful, interesting, NON COMMERCIAL NOT FOR PROFIT independent results. Now, everything is sinking under a pile of stupid crass commercialism. Root of all evil, and all that.

Someone needs to develop a search engine that works more like a phone book with sites indexed by subject, without "ranking". Sites could be listed for a small fee just like the old phone books used to, ad space could be sold on the results page sidebars, etc.

Of course, people looking to focus on making money are gonna go with easily manipulated engines like google to bring in revenue, maybe, unless the masses wound using the PhoneBookSearchEngine because they found it more efficient.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I miss webcrawler, metacrawler, and excite. 😔

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I use Startpage.com. Supposed to be good for privacy but is disappointing in the number of results.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I started using ProtonMail, but stopped after having issues with 2 factor authentication and getting completely locked out of my account.

I've used DuckDuckGo a few times, seems alright.

Haven't heard of epicsearch.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

From what I understand about epic is that it is more beneficial in terms of privacy, in that it scrambles and pings your ip address all over the globe so that it makes it incredibly difficult to track.

Also has an automatic, no ads allowed ad blocker.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

In my quick test, Startpage does not respect the "quote marks" as meaning only give me the exact phrase, the problem I referenced above with epicsearch.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

There is no such thing as privacy if you connect to the internet. Your ISP, as well as and especially the carrier ("backbone infrasture", ie ATT in the US for the most part) handles every jot and tittle of data you send out and receive. And ATT et al might as well be considered departments of the Executive Branch of government.

Even Tor, VPNs, proxies, etc, are useless against anything better than some script kiddie hacker wannabe in his mom's basement. Think about it, whatever you eventually connect to has to know how to get data back to YOU (your device). The ISP has to find your target, and pipe it back to you. The carrier infrastructure has to do the same. There's a plain as day trail from you to everywhere you go and right back. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to communicate at all with another PC or other device unless it's direct hardwired LAN or direct WiFi LAN.

Tor for privacy/anonymity? Developed by DARPA and the US Navy.

VPNs and proxy servers? Like the NSA, CIA, DOD, Chinese PLA, Russian FSB, British MI6 and even small time cyber criminals can't and don't set up VPNs and proxies so they can skim and scan all traffic that goes through them? Same with Tor exit nodes? Blockchain server hosts and algorithms?

If a person wants privacy, they have to isolate from all outside contact. Privacy is made by opaque walls (nothing gets in or out).

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

What I want to know is...

... how is pinging an IP near instantaneous, worldwide, with almost zero latency? How does pinging an IP even make sense, logically?

Things aren't operating the way we're told they operate...

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

www.yippy.com seems to be giving me better results than google.

mixing Google search with the alternatives
 

An interesting discussion.

Quora
Since DuckDuckGo is partnered with Yandex, should I worry about the neutrality of search results?
https://www.quora.com/Since-DuckDuck...search-results

Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/antigoogle/...earch_engines/

12Bytes.org
Alternative Search Engines That Respect Your Privacy
https://12bytes.org/articles/tech/al...t-your-privacy

Yippy did seem to handle a “quote marks” search better than epicsearch and Startpage. On a very quick test.

And I plan a little more study when back in Dutchess County, NY from the Fort Lauderdale area in a couple of days.

We understand that Facebook and Google are trying to down-place issues like what they consider the wrong approach to vaccinations and Sandy Hook and pervert issues and much more. (So you learn to custom-tailor searches to force what, e.g. Big Pharma and cultural lefties and the MSM do not like higher up.)

Thus, alternative engines might help on more than privacy. Just like rt.com might handle news not on CNN, MSNBC etc all .. or even Fox .. or even OAN. Yet RT might have its own caveat emptor spin,

Remember, on researching specific issues (I have had plethoras of searches including “Johannine Comma”. “1 John 5:7” and “Sinaiticus”) you always have to be aware that any search that does not include Google may lose a major element of comprehensiveness.

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

I rarely use my e mail now. I have had Hotmail.com for years and use to love it. Now it is so complicated it's ridiculous. Is there a free service that is very simple and easy? Not full of clutter and unnecessary things?

Re: Better search engine and email options
 

yahoo email is free, pretty simple on mobile.

Re: Better search engine and email options