any suggestions for ditching google?

[Goeroeboeroe]

Hi Telengard...

I added lxquick to my list of search engines but Scroogle wouldn't come up for some reason.

Regards...

Scroogle has just stopped. They had more and more trouble with Google, and after a ddos (not by Google) the owner just shut it down:
http://www.betabeat.com/2012/02/21/s...down-for-good/

[GreyGeek]

And the undisclosed domain registrar info can be viewed as even more suspicious. Why should they care to be hidden from public view if it's all fair and square because they are certainly known to the authorities

Private browsing just removes traces of browsing (& cookies) while it is active. When you close it no trace of the private browsing is left on YOUR machine. Howecver, your ISP and the websites you visit have a log of your activities.

Anonymous surfing assumes that some server lets you establish an encrypted VPN connection with them, and they modify your outgoing IP packets to change the IP address from your's to a fictitious one, forwarding your IP packets unencrypted to your destination webpage. Incoming packets with your fictitious address are converted by them to your real IP address for forwarding on to you. To do that they have to maintain a log/database linking those fictitious IP addresses, which could be different for each session, to your real IP address. They keep logs of your activities to guarantee that you do not violate their TOS, and to cover them legally in case later someone comes with a warrant showing that the fictitious address came from their server and was responsible for violating some law or TOS. The owners of that Anonymizor are not going to put their bodies and fortunes on the line for you.

A VPN connection to your place of employment is identical to that created by an Anonymous ISP provider except that your employer does not switch IP addresses on your packets or forward them on. Your packets stop at their LAN. VPN work best when used from home to work BECAUSE the packets go no farther and your employer will deal with you directly. It is more difficult for a hacker to hack into your employer's VPN port and once you log into your employer's VPN you've created an encrypted tunnel that a 3rd party cannot hack into. However, if a hacker already has a back door to your box and is resident on it they could setup a display=0:1 linked to your screen and watch after you log on, and before what is on the screen is encrypted. If you leave your machine unattended they could take control of your mouse and keyboard and do transactions that you would not even dare to do.... leaving you to prove you didn't do them. Good luck with that.

That's one BIG reason why I prefer Linux to Windows. I have more confidence in its security model, and the fact that an ordinary email can't threaten the security of my box. My firewalls (wireless router and PC) along with rkhunter, chkroot and apparmor running via crons and sending me emails if they sense rule violations adds to that confidence. Timely updates with security patches is another bonus. Such updates are closer to zero day than any other OS because neither the Linux kernel or KDE dev crews have profit margins to maintain.

[ardvark71]

Scroogle has just stopped. They had more and more trouble with Google, and after a ddos (not by Google) the owner just shut it down:
http://www.betabeat.com/2012/02/21/s...down-for-good/

Hi...

That's really too bad. :-(

Thank you for the heads up, though.

Regards...

[SecretCode]

Cthuugle is still up though!

Not a ... general purpose search engine, though.