From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
I get the shakes just thinking about it
Published on June 13, 2007 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

So it's a little late to start now, but website AltSearchEngines.com declared yesterday June 12th, as a "Day Without Google".  Or more accurately it would be a "Day Without Any Major Search Engine" since the rules they laid out said you had to avoid the top five, or any meta search that may include results from a major engine.

The idea was to try and get people to expose themselves to the many alternative search engines that are out there on the web today, to show folks that Google, Yahoo and MSN, AOL or Ask aren't the only game in town.

Now that the challenge is over, they're asking people for their experiences in a Google-free search environment.  An interesting if somewhat impractical idea if your work relies at all on finding information online quickly and easily.  How do you think you would fare with the challenge?


Comments
on Jun 13, 2007
One question... why? Why would I use some half baked, second rate search engine, when Google is right there in front of me?
on Jun 13, 2007
Yeah, Google's there and it works great. If they were as good as Google, we'd have heard of them. I guess if Google was down (!) I might try something else...
on Jun 13, 2007
I just survived a week at home without internet...I think it would be possible, just very painful.
on Jun 13, 2007

If they were as good as Google, we'd have heard of them.

Not when Google steadfastly intends to pervade all aspects of computing to the point where 'googling' becomes a generic term for 'web-search'....

...oh yeah, it did that already, dinnit?....

on Jun 13, 2007
I didn't see any point. It's like let normal people to try the living style of handicapped, doesn't make sense. I suspect some motivations behind this campaign.
on Jun 13, 2007
This whole thing is pretty bloody silly.
on Jun 14, 2007
Google rubbed the lotion on its skin, It didn't get the hose, why use something else? To quote the messiah1 robomunkey, if it was as good or better than google, it would be the main searching tool.
on Jun 14, 2007
LOL ,what next? a day off breathing air to see if any other gasses will work.Tomorrow I'm going to put chilli sauce in my car to see if it goes faster.  
on Jun 15, 2007
I use Yahoo.
So I'm without Google for a Week.
It's only a week because i started my own project.
on Jun 15, 2007
I've tried out the other search engines. You want to know what draws me back to Google?

The simple interface. Try Yahoo, or MSN out. If I want the news, or games, or other things, I will go to them on my own.

Try going to one of those sites with a dialup connection.

Ask.com caught on to the simple interface idea. So did altavista.