Are there alternatives to Google? There are numerous search engines online, such as http://search.MSN.com and http://search.Yahoo.com (which provide excellent search engines as an alternative to Google). Why should I NOT use Google? Aside from the Google privacy concerns expressed on http://YellowPad.info/google-privacy.asp there is what is believed (in our opinion) to be another excellent reason to NOT to use Google: the fact that Google appears to have changed its search algorithms in early 2004, and now excludes most mom and pop (small) businesses. It appears that only Google's "paying" customers or those running its Google AdWords advertising are obtaining a high listing in the Google search engine. With this being the case, then our opinion is that Google is not really a "search engine" at all. It is becoming an "advertiser index" of sorts. Using http://search.MSN.com and http://search.Yahoo.com both appear to give one "real" search results, and are therefore better suited for general use as search engines. What can be done to rectify this? It appears at this point that Google simply doesn't care. The best thing that can be done in a free marketplace is to simply NOT use Google, and choose another search engine instead. We recommend using http://search.MSN.com or http://search.Yahoo.com or practically any other search engine at this point that provides one with "real" search results.
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