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I recall when Google started getting banded about as a new search solution - had a real 'interesting' Finance Director who was convinced he was the Gift that every company needed and he called an all-hands meeting to tell us about this new search tool and that it should be the company's default search solution.
Managed to get several of us involved in a test to demonstrate the superiority of it - except for the searches we did at work, it was terrible - Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista all trumped it.
Anyway, a year later, it was the complete opposite and Google was fast becoming the default search...and I think about 3 years after that we started seeing JFGI get posted when people were asking where to find whatever.
I don't use anything else these days, but is anyone not using Google at all?
I don’t use anything else these days, but is anyone not using Google at all?
I rarely navigate straight to Google now - I just type question into browser search/URL bar - so search is whatever that browser is tied into - it's usually Google though! 🙂
I don't use google if it can be possibly avoided. Duck duck go as search engine. I am logged out of google stuff permanently on all my stuff. Its astonishing how pervasive google is and how hard to avoid
google maps is the one thing I do use sometimes
Was talking about this with a mate the other day as we tried to remember when we'd been on a particular holiday (in the pre-Google era...)
Both bemoaned the fact that Google hadn't managed that part of our lives! 😂
My two young nieces were watching one of the early Harry Potter films where he's in the library researching something and the younger one said "why can't he just Google it?" They've grown up with that resource. 🤷🏻♂️
After hearing about all the clever things they've been doing I've been trying Bing recently . . . it's still utter shit, misses more than it hits. Straight back to Google
crazy - legs - To be fair google is very good, so you can't really blame the kids personally it rarely fails and I normally get what I need.
Google for shopping and duckduckgo for information
I'm afraid I've sold my soul to Google. Contacts, Calendar (shared with family members), maps on Android auto, I use a Chromebook running Chrome OS and use their browser on my PC and (Google Pixel) phone. The house is filled with Google Nest smart speakers. If we've run out of milk I'll ask Google to stick it on my Google shopping list. Google translate, Google wallet, Google password manager etc. etc.
Not proud of it and It wasn't a conscious decision, it happened gradually but because everything integrates so well across devices and with other family members it just works really well and does make my life easier. I feel slightly uneasy that I'm in so deep with such a massive corporation, but it doesn't keep me awake at night.
Google used to be great at finding what you were looking for with the treat of the occasional bit of associated porn. Now it's mainly only good for finding shops with a vague association for the search criteria.
It's all I use though because I'm institutionalised.
Just google for me. Google maps when traveling for car nav, but use bing maps when planning rides occasionally as it has the OS layer.
I use google pretty much exclusively. Id be screwed if it went down.
They have my emails, calendar, travel information, all my personal details. I have their hardware (many nest speakers and displays as well as phones etc) and software everywhere.
Yes they know everything about me but so what. the user experience is great (generally, they dont tend to bugfix their smart home stuff very well)
I love Google - it makes picking up tasks, remembering passwords, saving browsing history, putting your apps back on a new phone, generally doing things on multiple devices so much easier.
I don't really use Google drive though - MS One Drive for all my work stuff
I'm a Google fan maping is very good for my work.
But brave and duckduckgo are my go-to along with Firefox.
Use Google for pretty much all my home "admin"; calendar for family stuff, email, photo storage, Casting from phone to telly, and so on. I've an i-phone that uses apple maps in the car, but that's it really.
We use Google accounts for everything at work so I'm fully engrained in it. To be fair it works beautifully.
I've got a Google phone, millions of baby photos in Photos and I'm considering a Google doorbell.
When they reveal their true intentions and turn on us it's all over.
Google everything here too.
It did go down sometime in 2022, notable as it's very rare.
As above, yes they know a lot about me. But they offer a very good, reliable and slick service.
I was at college when I first heard the word Google. Was just disucssing it in the office, some people here have never known a world before Google, no altavista or Ask Jeeves. Or even a world without internet connectvity!
I’m afraid I’ve sold my soul to Google. Contacts, Calendar (shared with family members), maps on Android auto, I use a Chromebook running Chrome OS and use their browser on my PC and (Google Pixel) phone. The house is filled with Google Nest smart speakers. If we’ve run out of milk I’ll ask Google to stick it on my Google shopping list. Google translate, Google wallet, Google password manager etc. etc.
Not proud of it and It wasn’t a conscious decision, it happened gradually but because everything integrates so well across devices and with other family members it just works really well and does make my life easier. I feel slightly uneasy that I’m in so deep with such a massive corporation, but it doesn’t keep me awake at night.
Only live once, may as well make it as easy as possible vs wearing a foil hat. My company uses Ecosia - a "green" search engine. Walking to a library would produce quicker and more accurate results.
The browser I use on my Ipad gives a choice of a bunch of search engines. I usually use Google. Or Duckduckgo if I'm feeling particularly paranoid (hardly ever). It's not logged into my Google account anyway... Oh man, I have a Google account. My life is not my own.
I don't find Ecosia too bad. its just a greenwashed Bing though in the backend. I'll drop back to google if there's anything important to look for.
Just Google - expect when I use Bing Maps for satellite view.
I use google pretty much exclusively. Id be screwed if it went down.
Yep, same here.
Google phone, Chromebook, Google Pay, Google Photos...
At the moment it's a fairly benign overlord although I suspect it'll turn out to be the new Skynet at some point... 😉
Remember when getting a gmail account was invite only?
I was pretty chuffed when I got one, with my proper name, through an invite from a colleague
Google almost exclusively aside os map layer on bing maps. On top of that, dabble with Google Analytics & Looker Studio for work too
I have my actual name @gmail.com - No numbers, nothing - early invite as well - shows how old i am
Give Google one thing - unlike Bing, the google search homepage isn't stuffed with clickbait.
Bing's image result for "Google has eaten my soul"
For search, I default to DuckDuckGo, but then try Google if it's tricky.
Google search is definitely getting worse, year on year tho. Sometimes ChatGPT et al are better (eg when I finished Anna Karenina and wanted to know what some common takes on X or Y were. It was good at summarising popular opinions).
I also use Reddit if I want to get opinions on stuff. I trust it more than many of the SEO-ed top results on Google.
But as an Android user it's not like I actively avoid Google. I've been on Gmail since 2008, it knows my whole life.
I have my actual name @gmail.com – No numbers, nothing – early invite as well – shows how old i am
Heh, same!
Give Google one thing – unlike Bing, the google search homepage isn’t stuffed with clickbait.
Maybe not the homepage, but the results pages certainly are ...
I’ve sold my soul to Google.
me too, remembering the days of "don't be evil", as in don't exploit your users like other tech companies do. Hmmmm.
I utterly depend on google in many areas of life, though have an iphone for work which I consider an unfortunate if necessary unpleasantness. I much prefer the google ecosystem, but searches have become a real pain in recent years (including on maps), getting past the ads and inflated rankings being a total pain, and I do occasionally use other search engines in frustration.
I use Bing mostly.
I've never quite understood the criticisms - I always find what I'm looking for - and it seems to have far fewer ads.
Also, if I'm going to sell my should I'd rather sell it to Gates than Page and Brin
I first read about Google in Nature (or maybe, Science) and I remember showing it your Dad on his weekly visit to caress our IT kit.
Google transformed my work as a semi-research librarian / PA looking for obscure scientific publications. Until that point it was Excite or trawling CDs from the British Library.
Google is all I use now.
Until that point it was Excite
jesus christ excite! Or webcrawler? Alta vista? Ya bleedin hoo? Puts the annoyance of a page or two of ads and suspicion some of the good stuff is buried pages down into perspective. Kids these days don't know they're born!
@StirlingCrispin, aye, he mentioned a new search engine back then...I'd already heard about it but at the time, the results weren't as good (think it was very very early days when I found it - and then promptly discarded it as it wasn't great). Finance Director though - every morning he'd come in and report the top 5 search finds he'd had in Google for a month...oh it was grim.
@lunge, afraid I'm clearly thick as I'm stumped with what a PCD is in this case, however, I don't think I am...
jesus christ excite!
The company that could've bought Google for buttons, but didn't as it was too good at bringing up the correct result (and therefore taking people away from the adverts)
CZ to the forum.
I use Google. It works, so long as you're not looking for anything on STW.
I use Duck Duck Go.... Except more often than not, the first thing I type into it is !guk which instructs it to do a Google search 🤣
I just like having the option of Google not be the default.
I don't think Google is all that great at returning results for more nuanced searches. It's extremely populist (which I suppose is understandable) which means isn't as easy uncovering hidden corners of the internet (for example small personal websites tun by enthusiasts) as it used to be. I miss the random stuff that used to crop up!
I use Google. It works, so long as you’re not looking for anything on STW.
Well - that's obviously the fault of Google - ruddy amateurs! STW code is fine! 🙂
I think I know! I think I know what a PDC is. I think he's implying you're on repeat!
PDC: programme delivery control: a system for starting and stopping a video recording automatically, using special signals broadcast at the beginning and end of a television programme.
Ha! Thank you Google!
I use Google. It works, so long as you’re not looking for anything on STW.
Works ok from Google itself. Looking on STW for anything on STW is as good as it ever was.
Forget Skynet, they just won the Lasker prize (think Medicine American Nobel prize) for their AlphaFold work on folding proteins. When it becomes a verb, it's ingrained. When it moves to small 'g', there is no going back. I use it but deliberately scroll past the "sponsored" hits.
When it becomes a verb, it’s ingrained. When it moves to small ‘g’, there is no going back.
Tell that to Elon Musk!
He spent $44bn on a website for which 'tweet' was a verb in the dictionary and.... promptly changed its name 😆
I just type question into browser search/URL bar
I used to work with someone who'd type Google into the URL bar, then click on the top link (obvs to Google) and then type whatever they were looking for into the Google home page. I tried explaining that they could just type the query straight into the url bar, but nope they always did it their way.
I used to work with someone who’d type Google into the URL bar, then click on the top link (obvs to Google) and then type whatever they were looking for into the Google home page
Apparently one of the absolute top searches on Bing is "Google".