Still Google if other strong alternative arrives?

[dr_ml422]

There is no real alternative as strong or accurate as google right now. That includes their Gmail. Would you switch though if there was one?

Say MS comes out even stronger search engine wise and also pumps up their email would you use them? If really well would you switch?

Lets face it as much as Google is good it's pretty obvious they're snooping around our browsing habits very deeply, and even more so w/Gmail, despite they saying no personal info is used blah, blah, blah...

Gmail while great at spam and features, still has glitches. Deletion of mail is one and configuring/searching for GUI workarounds/solutions is very frustrating even for us advanced users. I've wasted many a long time trying to set things straight, only to come up short or just say thwi.

So very soundly and as unbiased as possible would you give and try a similar alternative if available, and stay w/them as well? I would.

[MilesAhead]

You never hear about AltaVista(except maybe from me on here.) They were, afaik, the first super fast search engine. It's still there. I don't know if it has mail and that jazz though. I know the searches are snappy and seem to pull fewer sponsored results.

http://www.altavista.com/

[dr_ml422]

You never hear about AltaVista(except maybe from me on here.) They were, afaik, the first super fast search engine. It's still there. I don't know if it has mail and that jazz though. I know the searches are snappy and seem to pull fewer sponsored results.

http://www.altavista.com/

I'm going to check this out.

Nice. I'll give this a go and post back after some use. Shame Google's turned into Monopoly. You hear of any other alternative free webmail that you think decent let me know. I searched and just came up w/ususual suspects. Windows live, Yahoo, etc... I don't want to install anything I don't have to iykwim. That's why Gmail is practical.

[PurpleDemon]

You never hear about AltaVista(except maybe from me on here.) They were, afaik, the first super fast search engine. It's still there. I don't know if it has mail and that jazz though. I know the searches are snappy and seem to pull fewer sponsored results.

http://www.altavista.com/

When I started online Alta Vista was the only one I knew. I started on an old Mac. I remember when Netscape got upgraded to Version 2

Google has definitely come a long way.

I actually use Yahoo for everything, unless I want a street view of a map. Is Google really that superior?

[dr_ml422]

I'm trying to replace it so let me know what you think. That's why I opened this up. I'm tired of being pigeon holed by them. You still have to install Yahoo for their mail though correct? It's been a while since I stopped them.

Is Netscape still around btw? MS owns them right?

[MilesAhead]

I have google, AltaVista, Yahoo and a couple of others in my Firefox search engine thingies. Out of habit I use google most. Now and then I do a search on AltaVista or Yahoo just to see what different results I get. I should probably put AltaVista at the top of the stack so that I'll remember to use it the most for a time. Right now I don't use alternatives enough to compare them.

Other than the big three the search engines I use are specialized mostly to Asian movies and TV show sites. But I think I'll set AltaVista as default before I forget.

[MilesAhead]

I'm trying to replace it so let me know what you think. That's why I opened this up. I'm tired of being pigeon holed by them. You still have to install Yahoo for their mail though correct? It's been a while since I stopped them.

Is Netscape still around btw? MS owns them right?

Netscape is history afa being developed. You can still find it to download I think. When I first got Netscape 7.2 I though was a bloated piece of crap. But now it's fairly lean by comparison. The one cool thing was Netscape had an editor where you could type the stuff in and mess with centering fonts colors, tables, etc. and produce an html page. You could produce a working page without knowing any html. Only thing is if you looked at the generated source it had about 2,000 "[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial][B]&nbsp" sequences. It might work but you wouldn't want to fix it later.

edit: if you're curious they cover it pretty well on the Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_(web_browser)#Netscape_Navigator_.28version_9.0.29

[dr_ml422]

Google has become so enshrined into the scene that exactly what you posted happens automatically. Out of habit whoever got used to Google pretty much uses that like I do. I'm going to put AltaVista on top myself. It's almost as if the name itself has power beyond that of its function. I mean even today I told someone "Just Google it." I wonder if the creators had this in mind. "Bing it" sounds good. Just wish it was though as far as searches. You're not going to hear anyone say "Yahoo it".

I give myself props for breaking the FF habit. This only after it acting up during its transition to IE 8 or w/e was happening. Now I'm comfortable w/IE.

I don't like the policy Google is using following you around. Change websites even and you'll see the same ads from the last site! Really creepy.

[MilesAhead]

I have to admit it will take me awhile to read the AltaVista results without thinking about it. I'm so used to how google results look. My eyes see the print but the words don't register right away.

[dr_ml422]

Nice and pretty lean n mean too.

I have to admit it will take me awhile to read the AltaVista results without thinking about it. I'm so used to how google results look. My eyes see the print but the words don't register right away.

This AltaVista is fast and clean w/out all those ads. I'm going to start making daily use of it as well as the others. I learned also in computers especially when you stay complacent w/w/e that's when you start losing at the Game.

I never would of known about AltaVista. Thnx again for the heads up. Boxie's running great too. Just so more tweaking from their Forum is needed to learn some more tips. ie: Webcam from Gmail won't open w/IE Sandboxed. I'll look into it and post if needed in other thread.

I'm also when more rested and clear opening a Yahoo mail acct. Reading up on the Rocketmail and Ymail additions and want to be sure the bugs w/those integrated have been ironed out.

[MilesAhead]

I'm getting used to AltaVista again. It's kind of weird how it's just kept flying underneath the radar all these years.

[dr_ml422]

Glad you see this too!

I'm getting used to AltaVista again. It's kind of weird how it's just kept flying underneath the radar all these years.

I know. People are so use to saying "Google it" that we start cutting ourselves short. I already created a Yahoo Mail acct. and soon here will install Yahoo IM.

I found the sandboxie recommended settings link on Ask.com. Here it is just in case: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1653743

AltaVista is pretty fast! I'll be using it along with the others to slowly get that automatic Google outta me like I did w/FF. I won't disregard Google altogether but I'm not making it an automatic either.

The settings do get complicated w/Sandboxie. I used the above suggestions for IE up to suggestion 4 I think. When I opened up the shortcut to IE Sandboxed I got that SBIE Error. I just put everything back to default.

Lil OT here. I'll just hit the Sanboxie posts if anything.

[MilesAhead]

Speaking of google, I got rid of Firefox out of the Ramdisk. Just too much of a pita to bother with. I tried Chrome and it does seem to load fast. So I got a chrome clone:

http://peter.upfold.org.uk/blog/2010/02/10/srware-iron/

Supposedly it doesn't have the tracking aspect that chrome does. I found an AutoCopy for it and it seems to have most other features built in. It will run sandboxed. The main thing I don't like about it is the lack of the standard menu. It has the Ribbon thing all the apps have now. I don't see what's so sexy about having 2 menus instead of 5 or 6. It just means you need more submenus to do everything. But that's the ways it's going.

It loads off the deck a lot faster than FF I'll say that for it. I still haven't found a way to set the browser cache size though, after about 1/2 an hour of using it.

I haven't tried the bookmark sync yet to see if it's as good as SyncPlaces. One good thing is you can import just about all your stuff from your current browser. Saves doing the manual password save for sites and all that.

[dr_ml422]

I know exactly where you're coming from w/FF etc... It's funny how we wake up sometimes to the most obvious. I mean they aren't so bad though I got sick n tired of the constant rebuilding etc... All I know is that I got fed up after my system was going bozonkers. It's all spilled milk now.

That tracking aspect you're talking about and that we both know is there is a very fine line to spyware. I mean it gave me the creeps.

Remember this handy gadget: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...indows-7vista/

It works and it's free. I love it. Man I was so glad I found it. Just a quick fix for emailing photos instead of all that bloatware like Picassa etc...

Chrome was another pita when I got 7 x64. Is it compatible now? Did they finally fix it? I mean the workaround was ridiculous and really didn't work all that great anyway. You put that on your Vista or 7 machine?

[MilesAhead]

I'm using SRWare Iron chrome clone. It's the latest 5 Alpha. Seems ok though. I see why it feels so light and loads so fast. Just brining up about:blank I have 4 processing running. They say it uses a separate process for each extension you have. But with 8 GB ram I'm not too concerned(that's my Vista64 PC.) I'm also running on W7 32 bit with 2 GB ram. Seems to run fine on both.

The main thing I'm looking for is a way to cross sync Firefox and this browser without using a google account. I'm hoping SyncPlaces will be ported to google so I could just use my ftp site.

Supposedly this Iron browser doesn't have that ID that google uses for tracking. One thing I do like about it, instead of bothering with that little search window, you type searches in the address bar. You can have several engines and just put a nickname to use other than the default. I have AltaVista as default. If I enter "g some search string" it will use google.

The only thing a bit funky to add an engine you have to go there, do a search, then copy out the search string and substitute "%s" for your search word. I guess many sites have slight differences. Once set up it's very convenient though.

I notice a few things like if you right click a graphic, like a smiley, you can't do "copy image location" like in Firefox. So for getting smilies I need to have FF open. But that's no biggie.

This Iron is fast and it will run Sandboxed.