To add about monopoly, probably I should be happy a few living in Russia since here Google is still a second company in search and adverts market - after Yandex!

And… http://www.autistici.org/en/index.php is also something very special… they are the best in meaning of privacy but VERY-VERY special… too long to explain here. Non-commercial e-mail. Good idea or not?!

Snoskred, probably if you have a ~50 Gmail’s in your Mozilla Thunderbird, you would like to try Lavabit as it’s easier to create accounts here & no need to go to settings, enable POP etc…

Someone asked for free e-mail with threads… well except Google only Yandex[.Ru] offers this but sorry - only in Russian [language].
(Really strange things why no one else offer threading? So difficult to implement?!)

I am a bit happy living in Russia since here Google is only second on the market - after Yandex. (However I am afraid they may became a number one company here… like everywhere in the world.)

GMX.com may became an alternative to Google, but for now it don’t seems stable… except for people in Germany, .sw and .at… but they are using GMX.net though.

Marah Marie, you’re right…no one else seems to care about this issue, and since I’ve already apologized for any mistake on my part, I’m losing interest, too.

’nuff said, moving on…Snoskred, I’ll be checking in on your other posts.

Abuse G**gle…don’t use G**gle.

Jeez, let’s not do anything else except write books to each other. What a useful way to pass all the time you think I must have on my hands.

“1. Hosting suggestion was just a host I USE, that is way better and cheaper than the other alternatives I’ve found.”

Well, I thought this was a discussion about search engines. ’nuff said. First strike: off-topic (although I’m not clear now who got off-topic, Snoksred or you).

“2. As for the alternative search engine (just Dogpile “Big Daddy Search, if you want a direct link) with my affiliate link, I’m just a free affiliate, so again, no money to be gained, just a very small ad credit. ”

Something to be gained, in other words. Ever seen how they are on Digg about people leaving links that benefit themselves? I am kind and gentle compared to the complete hosing and verbal lashing you would get from those folks (which is just one reason I don’t hang out on Digg anymore…I personally think it’s composed of large packs of wild, rabid animals, otherwise known as immature young boys).

“There’s a lot of easier ways to gain credits there. I’ve got 20-30 campaigns running for my real business site, and my account is still six figures, just from using the search engine and some emails. ”

Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care. Yadda yadda yadda….

“3. Blackle, as I said in original comment, may or may not scrape for their results, I just don’t know (ie reason for the recommendation of the search engine above). Just thought it was a neat site that focused on “baby steps” to help the environment. ”

Yeah, but it uses Google. Why must every conversation about them become circular…don’t use Google, but use this thing that is basically…Google? Waste…of…time.

“Now, if this little controversy and exchange causes a surge in interest in this post and helps spread the word and get more people dumping the Big G and seeking more alternatives, then the gain to me: priceless.”

No hope of that. Dead thread - just you and me, Syd - oh, and Snoksred too, now that we’re pissing her off.

“Child P*rn, hate sites, Nigerian Scams, sites promoting violence and prejudice, hackers, virus and trojan coders, automatic SPAM software, identity theft, fake bank scams, just to name a few.”

Yes Syd, I love *all* those things. Those are great in my eyes. You found me out! Genius.

““The point is this comment thread is a discussion, and you are trying to make a profit from it. I see no lower form of behavior on the Internet than that…””

“Really? Even IF I had been…Really?”

Yep. Really. Of all the people I actually *deal with* on the Internet each day, spammers are the worst. I don’t know what your surfing habits are, but mine don’t involve hanging out on the boards with Nigerian scammers, pornographers, hackers, and people who steal identities…at least not yet. So from a very practical standpoint, spammers suck much harder to me than the others on your dirty list there.

You try running a blog when everyone is out to promote themselves and benefit from your place on the Web somehow. Inconsequential moat of dust upon the Internet that I am, once my last blog got popular it was all I could do to keep up with spammers, stalkers, affiliate marketers, and desperate website owners with much more important-looking sites than my own stupid little Livejournal asking me if they could advertise on it (LJ doesn’t accept outside advertising) if they could write articles for me, if they could, if they could, if they could. I’m so tired of people up my ass wanting something, and spammers are part and parcel of what I’m tired of.

Oh, and Snoksred, heated discussion /= fighting, but close comments anyhow. I don’t care. It’s your blog, so it’s not my problem. I won’t be back; there are better places to discuss Google and more laid-back bloggers who allow a lot more leeway before they jump in all excited.

I’ve been a scambaiter for a long time and one thing I have noticed is - when the baiters are fighting each other, the scammers win. It takes our focus from where it should be - fighting the fight - and moves it to places it should not be - fighting each other.

I walked away entirely from one scambaiting community because I wanted them to stop fighting and it seemed while I stayed there they would not stop. I don’t actually know if it worked because I’ve not been back. It was a difficult decision to make because I loved the site and I was a big part of things there, but because people could not be adults I had to do it.

Can we please not fight each other - as Dr Phil says, you can be right or you can be happy. It is Google we should be fighting.

I would hate to have to do it but if the fighting continues I will close the comments on this post. Fight Google, not each other. Please.

Cheers,
Snoskred

Child P*rn, hate sites, Nigerian Scams, sites promoting violence and prejudice, hackers, virus and trojan coders, automatic SPAM software, identity theft, fake bank scams, just to name a few.

“The point is this comment thread is a discussion, and you are trying to make a profit from it. I see no lower form of behavior on the Internet than that…”

Really? Even IF I had been…Really?

The point is this comment thread is a discussion, and you are trying to make a profit from it. I see no lower form of behavior on the Internet than that, whether it is auto-generated or human-generated spam makes no difference. I know you actually took the time and trouble to write your first comment. It makes no difference to me in terms of the overall heinousness of it in my eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some Miss Goody Two Shoes sitting around moaning perpetually, “Oh how dare anyone make money off the Internet!”. In fact, if I were reading the same discussion on an SEO blog or message board, or an affiliate marketer’s blog or message board, or on your own blog or message board, hey, go for it. I’ll even click through on all the links you want to drop and won’t even feel like complaining, because that is the correct venue for that sort of thing. This isn’t. That’s all.

Plus anything that even looks like Google (”Blackle”, which I know is the one link you were not trying to make any money off of) seems like a waste of time to me. Does it scrape Google’s results by proxy, like Scroogle does, or just make an open, direct connection to their servers that can be stored in Google’s logs forever? What is the point? You’re not offering a true alternative to Google with that link and every page on the Internet would have to be black (and I hate all-black pages) just to save the environment in the long run.