It's even worse than it appears.
Wednesday October 9, 2019; 10:39 AM EDT
Rambling about search#
  • I wonder if anyone has Wikipedia as their default search page. It just occurred to me, with Google searches getting more cluttered with garbage all the time, if Wikipedia might not be a better choice. #
  • For example, here's a Google search for Brooklyn Nets, and here's the Wikipedia page. Which gets you a better set of links to topics related to the team? I guess the problem is there are no news, video or images options on Wikipedia.#
  • I probably should just start using DuckDuckGo. It's very similar to Google, but not as insane, and they claim to not share your search habits with any other companies. #
  • You know what would really get me to switch? Customization. If I could tell it where my blog is, so it will default to showing me what I had written about a topic at the top of the search, or offer a tab that allowed me to quickly review my own writing. I could see that changing the nature of everything I do on the web, it would also be an incentive to people to leave the silos. #
  • I'd also like a pref that lets me ask it to always show me the Wikipedia page first. Other people might prefer a Twitter account first, or news about the topic. Google makes all these choices for you. But I'm a sentient user, I was using computers for decades before Google even existed. I know how to program, and yet, I can't use that skill on the most extensive information source ever produced by humans -- the web. #

© 1994-2019 Dave Winer.

Last update: Wednesday October 9, 2019; 2:15 PM EDT.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)