When I Google things like model numbers and such, I find these websites that have old eBay photos of it. And when I click it there's just a bunch of random pictures of things from eBay, or taken from other website, with sentences describing them that don't make any sense. Also I find websites that claim to have manuals but when I go on it, there's a bunch of random sentences taken from other websites.   I don't get, what is all this junk websites for?? Is it viruses or malware?

That makes at least two of us... Very, very irritating. They seem to have pictures of a variety of things, too.

Ad money mines. They put there ads and some garbage designed to just fool the search engines, to lure in unsuspecting visitors, then claim the ad money.

Ah, makes sense. Still very annoying.

Search engines are basically useless for finding specific things. You have to wade through pages of results to even come close. It's the same on eBay. I just put in a search for SOX lamps and while there were a lot of them (at silly prices, unfortunately) there were also loads of items about the Red Sox baseball team 

Items will sell for what people will pay for them. The internet search engines are worse than Ebay, many lowlifes trying to get your personal information when you "click" that button.

I always use DuckDuckGo, they don't track you. Still get useless results most of the time, though 

I always use DuckDuckGo, they don't track you. Still get useless results most of the time, though 

Search engines are basically useless for finding specific things. You have to wade through pages of results to even come close. It's the same on eBay. I just put in a search for SOX lamps and while there were a lot of them (at silly prices, unfortunately) there were also loads of items about the Red Sox baseball team 

I don’t think hiding yourself would change search results any. That dumb baseball team will still show up whether you’re incognito or with this DuckDuckGo thing or browsing like normal. I know I tried everything. Spoofing IP, borrowing friend’s computer, incognito, various browsers even IE, and so on. Type “sox bulbs” and the baseball team would still show up regardless. Irritating. Why wouldn’t they call themselves “Red Socks” instead?

Items will sell for what people will pay for them. The internet search engines are worse than Ebay, many lowlifes trying to get your personal information when you "click" that button.

Can they get anything from you just by “clicking” that button?

@ FGS, it's not a matter of hiding yourself, I use the same search engine, it's to avoid the targeted 'recommended for you' garbage that you get with Google.  

@ FGS, it's not a matter of hiding yourself, I use the same search engine, it's to avoid the targeted 'recommended for you' garbage that you get with Google.  

Oh, those. I just ignore them and scroll past them if I’m not looking for anything in particular to buy. It’s not like they’d take much bandwidth or take room on the screen. So no harm done.

If I’m looking for say a new hard drive and a “recommended for you” ad shows a drive from a reputable seller and he’s selling it 50% off retail price, of course I’d want to know about it. That could mean $100~$200 (depending how big the thing is) saved for mebbe a second of the same drive or whatever other computer part you might need.

The other thing I hate about Google is their use on Analyticals, I certainly don't want them knowing that my IP address has done this or that. 

I look up electronic components all the time, and this happens to me as well. Some parts, especially more obscure/obsolete ones will show up in websites which domain name looks like a company that have the parts in stock or offers datasheets, and none to be found...

Some other websites that do this in other areas are worth mentioning too... Websites that quote few lines from articles or publications (which you want to quote for a college work) and the rest is behind paywall. I bet those websites dont pay anything to the original authors, I would hazard a guess that they just buy old papers and diplomas in bulk from archives of colleges and uni's that try to make some income from the side...

As for search engines

I use DDG exactly for that - They claim to respect my information safety (it really is about more things than just privacy). I can't know whether they really do or they lie about it, but i would much rather support somebody like them than Google who do abuse all data with 100% certainity

And DDGs search results relevance is as good as what i came to expect of Google. No problem there

Yep you have to weed through allot of garbage when googleing for whatever.

One example: its not uncommon for me to lookup stuff like fixing something (be it an electronic/appliance/etc) with that too, I get fake/crap sites.

When there are certain ones that keep showing up, I block them. Used to use either AdBlock or the Hosts file, but that has to be done separately on every computer. I recently found something way better that blocks them network-wide it also blocks the spyware built into all browsers, and Windows or Linux itself (sneaky things that try to bypass the hosts file)...and even blocks that built into your router.

I also always run NoScript on my browser...JavaScript is blocked by default unless I specifically allow a site. Prevents some crap site that you might randomly click on from pulling 'dirty little tricks'. And most of the time if I click on a search link, if the site comes up as a blank page with JavaScript blocked, I just close it (even if by URL it appears to be a valid site) 


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Oh and I truly hate google's new format of putting search listings in individual boxes.

Please explain ? "Spyware built into browsers and Linux itself". Assuming you mean browsers that seem to respect information safety like Firefox and not Chrome/Chromium. And about the Linux part

Please explain ? "Spyware built into browsers and Linux itself". Assuming you mean browsers that seem to respect information safety like Firefox and not Chrome/Chromium. And about the Linux part

for Linux I shouldn't say Linux in general, but Ubuntu
Constant connection attempts to geoip.ubuntu.com..  and lesser attempts to daisy.ubuntu.com, ntp.ubuntu.com, changelogs.ubuntu.com.. ssometimes extras.ubuntu.com, videosearch.ubuntu.com
there's zero reason for it to be connecting to any of those, and that first one in particular sure sounds spy-ish.

I can happily say none of my computers are infected with Chrome .lol. the biggest piece of spyware out there!

And yes FireFox has spyware! Some of which can be disabled, but not through the normal options.
Things called, for example: 'Telemetry', 'Health Report', Pocket', 'Safe Browsing'.
Makes connection attempts to servers like: detectportal.firefox.com, addons.mozilla.org, aus5.mozilla.org (others too, but those I long ago removed in its extended options). The first one listed here IS a spy server.

PaleMoon (a FireFox clone) has some of the same, but not as bad.
I disabled the majority of it long ago, still get connection attempts blocklist.palemoon.org though.

Icedragon (another FireFox clone) has some too, but like PaleMoon not as bad as FireFox.
I disabled the majority of it long ago, but it has one really bad one...attempts to connect to download.comodo.com with every site you visit.


Just a couple of many articles that can be found on FireFox
neocities.org ... firefox
github.com ... haasn
The top part of that 2nd link is good stuff, though be careful making any of their recommended changes.
And in particular those starting with "security." (same for the addons they list), in general for those I reccommend don't do it!
(some of the listed settings also are in various FireFox clones)

If you change anything, go test the sites you normally use and make sure they still work. Some of the changes will make some sites not work (the "security." and DNT header ones in particular)

On an unrelated note. I believe this topic should be moved into the off topic section. Same with the topic about photo hosting sites.