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> Alarmingly, Google now deploys hidden trackers on 76% of websites across the web to monitor your behavior Is this referring to Google Analytics? If so, I fee

> Alarmingly, Google now deploys hidden trackers on 76% of websites across the web to monitor your behavior Is this referring to Google Analytics? If so, I feel like "Google deploys" isn't quite fair compared to "Google's tracker is deployed" or something to that effect. But in any case, the phrasing is confusing enough to me to post here, since I want to know if it means something other than GA, which I understand and can block with uMatrix.

piyush_soni 8y ago
This is the CEO of DDG deliberately spreading FUD to innocent people on platforms like Quora in my book. And he's a regular visitor there hijacking many threads promoting his business. I reported his out of place promotional answers once or twice, saying if the CEO of a company is spamming, will it not count as a spam (as opposed to normal people)? Quora didn't remove the answer, for some reason. This one is of course a slightly relevant answer here, but again with his usual dose of competitor bashing and spreading FUD that is a little out of taste for me personally. Also, may be he's speaking it just for the sake of promotion and doesn't take it too seriously himself, but the quality of search results can definitely be greatly improved when you know more about a person than just their search keywords (or even their country). If he actually believes what he says on Quora, I won't place my bet on his business doing too great in the future. 1. The first example (what he writes in his answer) - when I type "dishwasher" in DDG, every shopping website it lists on the first page is from USA, and I don't even live in the same continent. Even when I enable my country results through the button shown on top of the page, the shopping websites are not even the top ones in my country. When I type that in Google, it lists not only the top e-sellers in the country, the most popular local stores in my area as well. What will the advertisers achieve when they don't even know which place I live in? Who will sell me that dishwasher? 2. When I type Zoo, it's pretty damn clear I want to search a zoo in my area. DDG's results even when country is enabled are plain stupid. Write in Google, and it tells me exactly what I want to know. 3. When I type 'Jaguar' in the search box, all top link results are of the Jaguar car, but all the top image results are the Jaguar animal. Google is much more consistent here. I can give tens of examples of why personalization of search results is not that bad an idea for the value it adds. Of course, there are very important negative side effects to it, and that's why we have DDG. But I would have respected his opinion much more had he acknowledged that personalization of search results adds a great value, but also has other consequences, like any balanced personal who can see both sides of a coin.
- piyush_soni 8y ago
  Downvoters, care to explain? Or is it just because it's effectively anti-DDG?
- isostatic 8y ago
  I live in the UK and have DDG pointing at the UK. I'm currently in Kenya. Searching for dishwasher on DDG gives Currys, John Lewis, Argos, appliancesdirect, and ao.com. All of those are UK based, exactly what I would expect Searching google.co.uk gives Currys, BestBuy (which gives a choice between CA, US, MX), Lowes (US), Home Depot Canada, Home Depot U.S. DDG is far better When I search for Zoo on DDG, I get IMDB about a TV series, Chester Zoo (UK's most visited), London Zoo, and Wiki about the tv series. On Google.co.uk I get stuff about the TV series, Nairobi national park, and then stuff about Boston USA, Berlin, and Madrid. DDG is far better.
  - kmlx 8y ago
    not in my case. i let google collect everything they can, and the service offered by them is miles ahead of DDG. dishwasher on google brings up argos, john lewis and a bunch of shops near me. on ddg it’s US only. zoo brings up the nearest zoos around me as well as a bunch of other uk zoos. ddg is again US. ddg doesn’t even know my location! and this is, from my understanding, one of the reasons people are using ddg in the first place. and the reason i avoid going ddg. i need context aka state that’s already on their servers; instead of mentioning state each time (i’m in london and searching for vs just searching for)
  - piyush_soni 8y ago
    You have to select the country for it to show the UK results, I already wrote that (that is a kind of personalization, isn't it?). For the Zoo, I'm not sure, does everyone in UK search for and visit only that most visited one and not the one in their vicinity? Then we don't even have remotely same expectations from a Search. Do people also visit the most popular "Laptop repair store" in UK regardless of where they live? Google gives me results in my area, starting from the nearest one - of course, provided it has sufficient information about your City/Zip code etc. Let's not deny that it's extremely useful in abstract (keeping aside privacy based consequences). P.S. : Had DDG been far better, they wouldn't need those Google Bangs that many users praising DDG keep finding themselves going back to.
kmitz 8y ago
Yes, I'm also curious about these "hidden trackers". Couldn't find any info on what he meant by that.
mr_toad 8y ago
In addition to Analytics, Google can track you when websites use other APIs, like maps, fonts and charts.

piyush_soni 8y ago

This is the CEO of DDG deliberately spreading FUD to innocent people on platforms like Quora in my book. And he's a regular visitor there hijacking many threads promoting his business. I reported his out of place promotional answers once or twice, saying if the CEO of a company is spamming, will it not count as a spam (as opposed to normal people)? Quora didn't remove the answer, for some reason. This one is of course a slightly relevant answer here, but again with his usual dose of competitor bashing and spreading FUD that is a little out of taste for me personally. Also, may be he's speaking it just for the sake of promotion and doesn't take it too seriously himself, but the quality of search results can definitely be greatly improved when you know more about a person than just their search keywords (or even their country). If he actually believes what he says on Quora, I won't place my bet on his business doing too great in the future. 1. The first example (what he writes in his answer) - when I type "dishwasher" in DDG, every shopping website it lists on the first page is from USA, and I don't even live in the same continent. Even when I enable my country results through the button shown on top of the page, the shopping websites are not even the top ones in my country. When I type that in Google, it lists not only the top e-sellers in the country, the most popular local stores in my area as well. What will the advertisers achieve when they don't even know which place I live in? Who will sell me that dishwasher? 2. When I type Zoo, it's pretty damn clear I want to search a zoo in my area. DDG's results even when country is enabled are plain stupid. Write in Google, and it tells me exactly what I want to know. 3. When I type 'Jaguar' in the search box, all top link results are of the Jaguar car, but all the top image results are the Jaguar animal. Google is much more consistent here. I can give tens of examples of why personalization of search results is not that bad an idea for the value it adds. Of course, there are very important negative side effects to it, and that's why we have DDG. But I would have respected his opinion much more had he acknowledged that personalization of search results adds a great value, but also has other consequences, like any balanced personal who can see both sides of a coin.

piyush_soni 8y ago
Downvoters, care to explain? Or is it just because it's effectively anti-DDG?
isostatic 8y ago
I live in the UK and have DDG pointing at the UK. I'm currently in Kenya. Searching for dishwasher on DDG gives Currys, John Lewis, Argos, appliancesdirect, and ao.com. All of those are UK based, exactly what I would expect Searching google.co.uk gives Currys, BestBuy (which gives a choice between CA, US, MX), Lowes (US), Home Depot Canada, Home Depot U.S. DDG is far better When I search for Zoo on DDG, I get IMDB about a TV series, Chester Zoo (UK's most visited), London Zoo, and Wiki about the tv series. On Google.co.uk I get stuff about the TV series, Nairobi national park, and then stuff about Boston USA, Berlin, and Madrid. DDG is far better.
- kmlx 8y ago
  not in my case. i let google collect everything they can, and the service offered by them is miles ahead of DDG. dishwasher on google brings up argos, john lewis and a bunch of shops near me. on ddg it’s US only. zoo brings up the nearest zoos around me as well as a bunch of other uk zoos. ddg is again US. ddg doesn’t even know my location! and this is, from my understanding, one of the reasons people are using ddg in the first place. and the reason i avoid going ddg. i need context aka state that’s already on their servers; instead of mentioning state each time (i’m in london and searching for vs just searching for)
- piyush_soni 8y ago
  You have to select the country for it to show the UK results, I already wrote that (that is a kind of personalization, isn't it?). For the Zoo, I'm not sure, does everyone in UK search for and visit only that most visited one and not the one in their vicinity? Then we don't even have remotely same expectations from a Search. Do people also visit the most popular "Laptop repair store" in UK regardless of where they live? Google gives me results in my area, starting from the nearest one - of course, provided it has sufficient information about your City/Zip code etc. Let's not deny that it's extremely useful in abstract (keeping aside privacy based consequences). P.S. : Had DDG been far better, they wouldn't need those Google Bangs that many users praising DDG keep finding themselves going back to.

kmitz 8y ago

Yes, I'm also curious about these "hidden trackers". Couldn't find any info on what he meant by that.

mr_toad 8y ago

In addition to Analytics, Google can track you when websites use other APIs, like maps, fonts and charts.