I found this link here:
http://www.komotv.com/stories/28058.htm
So… if MS ends up buying Google, what search engine will you teeming millions go to next?
Why would people change search engines?
Uh, I’ll go to Google. Guess I don’t get it.
People avoid all things Microsoft.
Therefore, they would avoid Google if there was a merger.
I’d use Google unless I found that it was noticibly biased.
I first go to Dogpile.com, then Google.
I very much doubt that Google would consent to a merger in which they did not retain extensive creative freedom. Google would probably still be very much like it used to be. MS is very good at knowing how not to piss off geeks so as long as it fit with MS’s vision, then they wouldn’t care.
The real question is where to go to if Google continues sucking. An awful lot of the links for any given search are crap nowadays.
As long as MS doesn’t force the use of Passport, I see no problem with the merger… oh, yeah and as long as they don’t slow google down to MSN search speeds.
I have loved Google for a long time. I loved it because I could find info when I searched, not a bunch of sponsered shopping links like most other search engines. Lately though, when I search on Google, I get shopping links. Not just on the sidebars, either, in the main search results. That is fine if I’m shopping, but many times I’m just looking for info (and shopping links aren’t the greatest for getting info, they are trying to sell you something).
I can just imagine how much worse it will get if MS takes over.
Why do people like google so much anyway?
It has a MAJOR problem – It doesnt accept wild cards.
I use altavista.com. It takes about 8-10 seconds longer to respond, but it accepts wild cards.
Hooray for the *****
Example–I wanted to search for the words to the national anthem of England–but <puts on stupid hat>–at the time, I couldn’t decide how to spell “anthem”–for some reason, I thought it had a “Y” in it, like rhythm–<removes stupid hat>
So I just typed in the search string “national ant*”
This doesn work worth sh-t in google–but altavista gave me good results.
I’ll only admit one positive thing about google–it’s fun to pronounce and conjugate as a verb. You can tell somone to go google something, but you cant have any fun saying “go altavista it”
Question–don’t any dopers ever use the ol’ asterisk when you search?
Nope. It’d be great if Google did it, but generally I know what I’m searching for.
Well if you type national anthym in Google, you get a nifty link that read: "Did you mean: national anthem "
FilmGeek wrote
No they don’t. People use things that solve their problems. Which is why Gates is the richest man on Earth. And why Google is about to go public for many many billions of dollars.
So the simple answer is that if MS buys Google, people will go to Google.
The OP is moot anyway, since it appears that Google has rebuffed Microsoft’s advances.
Well… that certainly puts my mind at ease on a few points then.
I’ll just… wait outside then.
I gave up on Google a long time ago, now I use www.ixquick.com it works like Google did before all of the “sponsored result” crap.
unclviny
I don’t think that’s deliberate advertisement from Google… I think the spammers have figured out how to fake out the search engine, and Google took their eye off the ball. Maybe there really is some substance to all those “B.O.O.S.T Yo_ur Go0gle Rank ings NOW iqfdp omx vcuw” spam emails!
Eh? A search for national anthem on ixquick returns a 5 line ad for Orbitz and two sponsored links from Amazon and Military Music.com before any search results are returned.