ATSers, let's boycott Google!!!

In light of the recent news regarding Yahoo giving away sensitive infos to the Chinese Communist Party for the arrest of a chinese activist, I'm calling for your individual action towards getting the Internet rid of tyranny-supporting eBusinesses as well as their almost totalitarian grip over the Internet!

Seems like Yahoo is the only one to be into the plot...

Representatives from Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. on Wednesday faced harsh questioning from U.S. lawmakers at a hearing of a House of Representatives International Relations subcommittee in Washington.

Yahoo has been accused of providing information that led to the jailing of two of its Chinese e-mail users, while Google started a Chinese version of its popular search engine that omits links to content deemed unacceptable by the government. Microsoft shut down, at Beijing's request, a popular Chinese blog that touches on sensitive topics such as press freedoms.

source

The Students for a free Tibet, followed by citizen group from all over the world, have called for a ban of Google, all along with many other ebusinesses such as Yahoo, Micro$oft and Cisco for supporting China's totalitarian regime in exchange of favors.

money.telegraph.co.uk.../money/2006/02/16/cnchina16.xml

Now is the time to make the concrete action of banning Google, Yahoo and alikes from our internet lives, as we now have the obvious proof that these eBusinnesses are supporting all what our ancestors have been fighting against in. It would be also a plus for encouraging open source or independent search engines to become bigger on the Internet. Freedom does not begin by the government protecting it for us, it begins by us.

THe solution is quite simple: let's just stop using the services of these eBusinesses, and invite as much people as you can to do so! Ain't gonna win an iPod for that, but you'll make your small contribution to digital freedom...


[edit on 17/2/06 by Echtelion]

[edit on 17-2-2006 by John bull 1]

While I understand where you are comming from there are a couple things we ned to look at.

ATS has a high google ranking. With out that where would all the new members come from?
If we don't use Yahoo or Google what should we use? It really seems like we can't live with them, can't live with out them.

You're right, Umbrax. One just can't propose a boycott without suggesting alternatives... same thing with GMO foods and the rest.

- For search engines, I found askjeeves.com to be a good alternative among the mainstream search engines, although it's a subsidy of Vivendi and a Bronfman as well as none other than Gen. Swartzpof (!) sits on their Board.

Search.com is a very good and complete SE full of features and yet the business behind it (CNet) does'nt seem to be part of the whole "media convergence" that is threatening freedom of information on the internet, and it does use the database of Google, Yahoo, Alltheweb and a few others.

For more "ethical" but more underground choices, I'd suggest an SE like Mojeek, which is quite fun to use and, despite having much less search results than the big ones, doen't have, on the bright side, tons of annoying commercial links on the first pages before you're even able to access the info you need.

France was also reported to be developping Quaero, a Europe-based full-featured SE aimed at rivaling with Yahoo and Google, but nothing's certain if it won't be as much Big Brotherish as these are becoming.

- For email service, there are quite a few commercial but trustworthy mail services out there that seem to not be privacy-infringing, and are spam-free as well. Bluebottle is a good one.

For Linux users, Squirrel Mail is a well-known webmail service with a completely public license and strong spam/evesdropping protection.

- For photo/file sharing and storing, there are many alternative and reliable services that can be easily found (I personally use Streamload, which is quite good). Same thing for blog spaces.


If anyone has other suggestion of anti-Big Brother email, SE and web space options, please bring that here!



[edit on 17/2/06 by Echtelion]

[edit on 17/2/06 by Echtelion]

there is heaps of search engines and google is on the decline... he he

in AU 'sensis' is cramping google's style...

google deserves every deserter they get...the censorship of China is bollocks...!

I don't use google anymore, not since China

fudge em, I say

fargon bastages



(is it swearing when it's a case of 'sounds like'?)
(am I in trouble.. lmao ??? )


[edit on 17-2-2006 by NJE777]

Why would I want to boycott the only search engine company that's standing up for my privacy in my own country? They refuse to hand over search records to the US government. To me that's more important than what they are doing in China. Besides, if companies want to remain in China they need to play by their rules. If they don't want to they can pull out and take their money and jobs with them. It's as simple as that.

Originally posted by NJE777

google deserves every deserter they get...the censorship of China is bollocks...!

I don't use google anymore, not since China

It seems to me that Google had two options concerning China:

1. Agree to the Chinease government's terms and have a presence in China
2. Don't have a presence in China at all.

Google aren't a charity. With China's current growth they'd be fools not to get in on the action.

I think what we all need to ask ourselves is, Has Google completely taken over our the utility of the net ??
Giving up one site seems to be quite an inconvenience for most, has google with its "DONT BE EVIL" come to take the very mantel that it sought to stand against. That is become the next microsoft aka Evil Empire ??

As for the whole privacy thing, they are putting up a fight, but ironically they are doing the same thing that they are fighting against in America with China.
I guess the google has different values in differnt parts of the world.

Show me a search engine that give half as good results as Google in under a second and I'll consider switching to that engine. I've tried all the top dogs and the only one I can stand is Google. Tried Metasearch, tried Askjeeves, Tried Search.com(the WORST SEARCH ENGINE ON THE NET IMO) and they all are lightyears behind Google.

51,700 Google entries for “boycott Google”

#1 Entry: www.noluv4google.com...

#2 Entry: www.webrankinfo.com...


Apparently even Google is not worried about boycotts of Google, as they are happy to show you the way to 51,000 instances of it.

It's jus a search engine, a search engine that helps pay for this site.

Sorry, I'm not boycotting it.