With tomorrow (Friday) being the day we’re not supposed to buy nothing on / at / through the big companies who are supporting the guy who scrolls on his phone while President Musk leads the first cabinet meeting…
I got to thinking. What if we all try alternative search engines tomorrow? I know there are a few people who already use them, but this could be a good day for us to make a statement and try something new at the same time. I kind of think Google has turned to shit recently anyway, being all junked up with AI information.
So if you use another search engine, let us know which one you use and what platform you work on. iPhone, iPad, mac computer, windows computer, etc.
This might also be a good day to share this alphabetized list:
COMPANIES THAT DONATED TO TRUMP AND PROJECT 2025
1800Flowers.com
ACE Hardware
Act Floride
Alamo Rental Cars
Allegiant Air
Anthropologie
Arby’s
ArmorAll
Arizona Diamond Backs
Ashley Furniture
Auto Zone
Bacardi Rum
Bali Underwear
Baskin and Robins
Bausch + Lomb
Big Heart Pet Brands,
Bike Athletics
Black and Decker Hardware
Blue Bell
Brooks shoes (this one hurts!)
Boost Mobil
Buffalo Bills,
Buffalo Wild Wings
Buick Cadilac
Carls Jr.
Champ Clothing
Charmin
Cheverolet
Chiquita Brands
Chobani Yogurt
Cinnabon
Cincinatti Financial
Conair
Coors
Cuisinart
Dairy Queen
Dean’s Foods
Dirt Devil
Discount Tire
Dole Foods
Dudley Sports
Enterprise Rental Car
Exxon / Mobil
Famous Pastry Shoppe
Farberware
Florist.com
Folgers
Fruit Bouquets.com
Fruit of the Loom
Frys Electronics
Garmin Sports Products
Geico
George Forman Grill
GMC
GNC
Grey Goose
Hanes
Hardee’s
Helzberg Diamonds
Hendrick Motorsports
Hershey Products
Hobby Lobby
Home Goods (this one hurts)
Hoover Vacuum
Horizon Bank
Jimmy Deans
Keller Williams Realt
Land o Lakes
Las Vegas Sands
Leggs Pantyhose
L.L Bea
Los Angeles Angels
Maidenform underwear
Marshalls
Martins
McDonalds
Miller Beer
Milwaukee’s Best Beer
Mobile
Molson Beer
Motorola
NAPA Auto Parts
New Orlean Saints
Norwegian Cruise Lines
NY Yankees
Old Dutch Food
Omni Hotels
Oreck Vacuums
Papa Johns
Playtex
Procter & Gamble
Public Storage
Publix
Purdue Farms
Rail Vac
Schlotzsky’s
Shell Oil
Sierra Trading Post
Slumberland Furniture
Smucker’s Products
Soma Intimates
Sonoco
Spalding
Star Furniture
Stiletto Tool
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Popcorn Factory
Tito’s Vodka
Toast Master
Tractor Supply
Turtle Wax
Urban Outfitters
Vanity Fair Paper Products
Walmart
Wendys
Wonder Bread
Wow Cable
Wynn Resorts
Young Brands
Mr. Mack
Been using Duck Duck Go for awhile.
Jane2
I still use Google mostly for work-related searches. I tried DuckDuckGo – it just doesn’t give the kind of results I need. Edge is less than useless. I’ve eliminated most of the Google AI through settings in Gemini.
TBone
Thank you for The List. My boycott of them will last four years, at least.
TBone
@Mr. Mack: me too, I love it.
WereBear
What a timely post! I keep a list handy because now I have do different searches with different engines.
Which yields some differences that are quite suss, and must be explored with due diligence.
Rachel Bakes
Open to ideas for alternate browsers. Honestly google has been deteriorating in effectiveness over the years but is still better than most.
dumped Goodreads yesterday in favor of Storygraph, so that’s something.
HinTN
For the donations list, it would be useful to know if a company also donated to Harris/Walz. Some simply like to cover the bases.
Also, if to both, how much to each.
@Mr. Mack: I will try Duck Duck Go. Thx
russell
Duck Duck Go or Mullvad. Mullvad also has a quite good VPN, 5 Euros a month flat rate.
And you can avoid the AI search response in Chrome by appending -ai to your search text.
SiubhanDuinne
Glad to have that list, thanks. I believe Target needs to be added.
EDIT: Or maybe they’re on the anti-DEI list but didn’t donate to PINO? Either way, I’m no longer shopping there.
Victor Matheson
Let’s just say I won’t have any trouble avoiding Arby’s tomorrow! (And thank God Popeye’s wasn’t on the “avoid” list…)
frosty
Duck duck go here also. Win 11 laptop and iPhone with iOS 18. No problem with either one. Well, other than the top three or so searches being off-topic.
I have a work computer with Win 11 and MS Edge. No problems there either.
If you want to go the next step and drop gmail, I went with hotmail because Microsoft was less intrusive than Google. I think that’s also the case for my ancient Yahoo account.
Doug R
I’m giving Duckduckgo a try but still revert to Google sometimes. Google is still better, but it still has noticeably decayed.
Going through the supermarket here in Canada-still a LOT of USA produce-which used to be good because of the lower carbon footprint BUT now it ain’t great.
Fortunately there’s some greenhouse stuff from Mexico and surprisingly some fresh greenhouse stuff from here in Alberta.
billcoop4
@Rachel Bakes: Why is Goodreads problematic?
BC
WereBear
@billcoop4: Amazon owned.
JaySinWA
@TBone: I have been using Duck Duck Go with Chrome for a month or so. It works fairly well, but I don’t love it. Windows still sucks me into Bing and the MSN advertising/news occasionally, I don’t like it. They are creating attention distractions that catch me sometimes. I should look for a way to really de-Bing Windows. I have been toying with running Linux on my laptop daily driver. I used to do that on a box I used regularly and it worked for 80-90 percent of what I did, and probably 95% of what I use the laptop for.
Ned F
Most of these companies rely on trade with Mexico, Canada and China for the bulk of their wares. I wonder if their having buyers remorse with the tarrifs now a reality. A lot of them donate to the projected winner too, to hedge their bets.
I still find google search to be the best, and yes, you can limit the AI input in settings. However, if Im researching potential purchases, I’ll use Duck Duck or Firefox to keep from being chased around by ads for what I searched for.
schrodingers_cat
Do people have experience with Perplexity
I have found Duck Duck Go to be quite inadequate, and have been searching for a Google alternative for a long time. I have been experimenting with Microsoft’s Edge and Firefox. But I do find myself reverting to Google.
WaterGirl
@HinTN:
I have not seen anything on that. If you do the research and find something, please let me know!
Ohio Mom
There are some companies on that list I’ve never heard of and others that are irrelevant to me — I don’t drink beer, wear pantyhose anymore (and still have enough in my sock drawer if an occasion ever arises), not in the market for a Hoover vacuum, etc.
But my friendly Ace is the Place neighborhood hardware store? Ouch!
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ve dabbled with it, but not enough to make a recommendation.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: If you do any
googlingnot Google googling :-) and find the answer, I will be happy to update the list one way or another.I had found this list after the election, before the DEI shit started.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: FYI, I have your guest post schedule for around 1pm today.
Doug R
I used uBlock Origin and have my browser set to delete cookies on exit. Even so the browser does remember most of my sign-ins and passwords so generally the best of both worlds.
WaterGirl
@Ned F: How do you change AI settings if you are using google from a web browser and not an app?
WaterGirl
@Ohio Mom: Yeah, Ace Hardware is my “ouch”, also.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: Thanks much!
WaterGirl
@Doug R: Isn’t uBlock Origin an ad blocker rather than a search engine?
It’s fine to be talking about ad blockers here; I’m just wanting to understand.
Kosh III
Duck Duck Go for search and browser.
I’m glad Celebrity Cruises, Kroger and Aldi are not on the list.
I also wonder how much they gave and how many gave to both sides; a common practice to cover their bases.
tam1MI
Guess we’re all going to be going commando for the next 4 years…
Anonymous At Work
On browsers: I use Brave when I can for built-in ad blocker and better privacy standards. I use Chrome to link with music and a few other services like YouTube that work together. I won’t do the blackout for YouTube since I do a lot of like/share/subscribes on creators.
Anonymous At Work
On the List: Is Publix on there for corporate donations or on there because the founder’s POS daughter donated (the company is employee-owned but she was on the board)? Publix distanced itself from her after she funded part of January 6th Insurrection.
suzanne
Brooks shoes and LL Bean?!?! Fuck.
Quicksand
I’ve been trying Qwant lately – it uses the Bing index apparently but sanitizes user data.
It’s fine, I guess? I’d rather have a real alternative that doesn’t rely on the big guys behind the scenes.
LAC
@Victor Matheson: Yep, and their “meats”. I have a feeling that the music at the end is to cover he sounds of stomach distress.
And Target is gonna be on that list.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
I’ll miss Tito’s and then the Bacardi family of products, some of which I buy.
That includes:
Angels Envy, Noilly Prat, St Germaine, Benedictin, Patron
I do buy Havana Club when I travel internationally, but only the actual Cuban government licensed product. I won’t buy ersatz products from the monstrous and corrupt first wave emigres that escaped revolutionary correction.
Scout211
It’s not in settings but once you type in your search, tap “web” in the upper tool bar. The default is “all” and that typically leads with the AI response.
WereBear
is the best place I know. As seen below, GEICO splits differences, so I had occasion to test their Customer Service, which has always been very good.
Still very good. So I decided their politics has not seeped into their business practices.
Kirk
@WaterGirl:
For general reference see http://www.opensecrets.org
eta and Werebear is a little faster than me.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: https://www.opensecrets.org/
eclare
@tam1MI:
Hahaha…
WereBear
@Kirk: You win a silver!
Scout211
A commenter recommended Startpage but so far I am “meh” on it, although its appearance is great. The searches? Meh.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
OT – it’s getting really stupid in my exurban red pustule outside a very blue city. From a local Facebook group:
japa21
As people have mentioned, opensecrets.org lists donations.
As an example, Ace Hardware lists individual contributions as slightly higher for Trump than for Harris. So it would fair to say that Ace supported Trump is hyperbole.
All lists like this should be treated with a grain of salt.
WereBear
It also depends on what we are searching FOR. There’s a lot of marketing instead of science, and I have to use Pub Med, which this amateur uses to get at nutrition papers.
Google picks up a lot of bad papers in their reccs. Don’t like that.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
And to be clear, they’re all a pack of anti vaxxers that are kicking the can.
The anti-HPV vaxxers are chiming in on their salvifically chaste teen daughters as well, forgetting that those virginally pure vessels of god are gonna get purity married to dudes who cheat and bring home some HPV that turns into cancer.
Belafon
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: “Just let us know where your children will be so we can notify the other parents that you’re trying to kill their kids as well.”
schrodingers_cat
@WereBear: Google scholar or the regular Google search
Jay K.
Been using DuckDuckGo for search, Firefox for browsing, and Mullvad VPN for privacy for years. Happy with all three of them. Switched to Proton Mail for email and calendar a couple years ago and happy with that too.
Rachel Bakes
@billcoop4: owned by Amazon. I’ve been using Goodreads for 18 years so it’s going to be strange using a new tracker. However The Storygraph is owned by a woman of color and has some interesting features
trollhattan
Interesting list, chock-full of “the usual suspects plus some surprises.
P&G is impossible to avoid in one’s life while it’s easy as can be to keep hating on the Yankees.
Garmin’s tough, deeply invested in their infrastructure and like trapped Apple fans, a divorce ain’t happening.
AnonPhenom
Worth checking out:
https://marginalia-search.com/
Ohio Mom
@japa21: It is true that many big corporations hedge their bets, giving up both parties (though usually a bit more to Republicans). Unless you are going off the grid completely, you are going to end up buying something from a Republican-supporting enterprise. We are all somewhat complicit.
If I spend $200 a year at Ace Hardware, I’d be surprised. I’m mostly buying bits and bobs.
WereBear
@schrodingers_cat: That’s what I mean. I do better with more independent ones.
But I’m drilling down, which can make a big difference.
glc
DuckDuckGo, a front end for Bing. Terrible for news, adequate otherwise.
There is a subscription service Kagi (paid), spoken of as a revelation by those who use it. It appears to be the best available right now (to the public, at a modest price, that is).
The plan is $10/month, though there’s a free trial and there are variants available. No spying, which is an important feature. I didn’t read through or try things like their translation service. I still go to Google for translation, books, and their n-gram search which I happen to find useful.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/plans/plan-types.html
Nukular Biskits
No plans to spend money tomorrow … I plan on working in the yard.
However, I do need to pick up compost, mulch, etc, today, if possible.
HinTN
@Mr. Mack: Ok, I installed it on my ancient Android and I’m getting used to it.
Jeffg166
The best thing to do is nothing tomorrow. No internet or anything.
I was having my top roof replaced tomorrow. The roofer just emailed me to say due to the expect high wind gusts tomorrow it’ll postponed until next week. Now I won’t spend a dime tomorrow.
Plus take an internet free day.
Looking at the list of companies I think I used two.
Trivia Man
Home Depot missing is a surprise
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Belafon:
I genuinely liked the preemptive, preventative statement of “don’t be mean to me”.
Its just like an inoculation.
kindness
Please don’t ask me to use Bing.
Swiftfox
As an old still getting used to a smartphone, I still use a Garmin etrex for locating points. Not sure how much longer the etrex will last but I will avoid Garmins until they see the light.
Sierra doesn’t surprise me; I got their old 12-page paper flyer in the mid-90s and used to grin at the biblical citation on the catalog. I was surprised when a Sierra store opened up a few years ago where I live. Didn’t know that they survived. I bought a few things there but that’s it for me.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Back to the rotating tags and the lack thereof. I’m having the same issue right now with Duck Duck Go that I’ve had with Chrome for a while. It flashes up and then disappears.
Is there a setting I could manipulate in either/both to fix this?
Mike in Pasadena
@glc: Thanks for your reply comment on 2/24 which linked to schneier dot com about Musk’s teens compromising US govt computer systems. You also linked to CISA. Thank you for responding with a helpful comment and links.
Momentary
@glc: I have paid for Kagi search (on the household plan) for a bit over a year and find it well worth it. In addition to the privacy and supporting a business model that isn’t based on ads, the really helpful thing about it is the ability to easily block sites from ever showing up in your search results again.
As far as quality of results: realistically speaking all search results from any search engine are coming from Google and/or Bing’s search indexes and that will determine the quality. All other search engines are paying Google and/or Bing to use their indexes. The rest is presentation.
John S.
The easiest way that I have found to determine who the “good” companies are:
https://www.goodsuniteus.com/
TooManyJens
@glc:
I use Kagi and there are plusses and minuses. The main benefit, of course, is that the searcher is the customer so their incentive is to actually make the search useful. Unfortunately, they don’t have as much indexed as the big search engines, so I fairly often end up going to one of the others because Kagi’s not turning much up.
trollhattan
@Swiftfox: Similar, surprised to learn Sierra Trading Post still exists, since the catalog stopped showing up in the mail. They still in Montana?
If I don’t know you exist I guess I can’t buy things from you.
Last year was a double blow of losing my favorite cycling gear and backpacking gear retailers, one in Colorado the other in Oregon. Nobody is backfilling, seems specialty retail is in a death spiral.
Momentary
To replace Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive, I am now paying for Proton Mail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_Mail) and am very happy with it. Transferring all my old Gmail over was easy, and Proton Drive is an easy solution for encrypted cloud backups.
les
Search-I’ve used Dogpile (Netscape, windows) for a long time. Works well, separates the paid results so they’re easy to skip.
Layer8Problem
Another upvote for Mullvad, both VPN and browser. They have some kind of search service I haven’t investigated. The only eyebrow raiser for them is their 10% cryptocurrency discount on their VPN subscriptions. Proton Mail is good too. Both outfits are serious about privacy.
zhena gogolia
@HinTN: Yes, that was what I was thinking. Some give to both sides.
Don’t see Stop & Shop on the list, so I guess I can do my grocery shopping on the only day I have to do that!
Al Z.
@Trivia Man: According to this https://frontofficesports.com/nfl-mlb-nba-owners-2024-election-trump-harris/
Arthur Blank gave more than $4.4 million this election cycle, including more than $1.3 million to a Harris PAC and a $2 million gift to a nonpartisan election reform PAC. So that seems surprising.
I thought a read somewhere that the Buffalo Bills had relatively little political involvement or donations in this last cycle but I can’t find the specifics. Best I could find is https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2024/10/31/nfl-owners-2024-political-donations/75699193007/
$2500 donations (unspecified) by both Pegula owners. Even if that were to Trump it’s no where near the Broncos/Waltons $20 million donated to Republicans.
I was just curious as a Bills fan if the Bills are on this list as an organization or because of individual donations of some of their employees.
Kirk
re search engines, please see the search engine map.
One thing that saddened, annoyed, and ultimately changed my thinking on finding this was discovering that there are only five crawlers. Everyone else is meta-analyzing the data from one or more crawlers.
Still working on which evil is the lesser to my taste.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Scout211: I’Ve used startpage for a number of years – i find that it’s decently on par with Google and filters out their AI searches
Ramalama
For me, Kagi works better than anything else I’ve tried. For now. Until the enshittification takes hold.
TooManyJens
@Kirk: Kagi’s got a crawler now, though I don’t know how much of a database they’ve built up yet.
I’ve used Mojeek before and haven’t ruled out using it more, but part of their motivation to build their own was the “censorship” from Google downranking known misinformation during Covid, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Should a search engine just server up whatever is out there or should it be trying to give you useful and true information, and then who decides what’s useful and true, etc.
WTFGhost
I’m appalled. I knew them when they were BW3, for Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck – they had some yummy burgers on kimmelWeck buns – topped with salt and caraway, and got me thinking caraway wasn’t too bad. (If you, like I, were a caraway hater, you’d understand why this is so impressive. Just saying.)
hw3
This is what I came to say. Duck Duck Go also has a browser for mobile and computer that will block trackers by default and will erase history and cache with the click of a button.
EthylEster
@russell: someone on the internet recently alleged that this feature was going away. But maybe that was BS. So hard to find the truth these days.
Momentary
@Kirk: After looking at the map I remembered that I did actually use Lycos for a while when I was mad at Google for forcing infinite scroll. This was maybe 2-3 years ago? I think Lycos at this point is running forgotten in some utility closet somewhere, especially as it was occasionally down, but it was actually decent results.
WereBear
@AnonPhenom: Looks sweet!
TooManyJens
@EthylEster: For right now at least, you can avoid the AI dreck and all the other shit Google plasters their results page with by using https://udm14.com/ or appending udm=14 to your searches. This article explains how to do that manually, but there are also browser plugins that will do it automatically.
https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/
DrowsyOwl
WG: email fixed
Momentary
@TooManyJens: I have also seen many claims that if you just add the word “fucking” to your other search keywords, that prevents Google from returning AI results. Haven’t tested it personally.
WereBear
@Momentary: Mmmm, I do like them with some specialty emails. Good to know what upgrades might do for me.
TooManyJens
I have a couple of friends who’ve tested it and it worked for them. I’m too lazy to do that every time I search though. :)
DrowsyOwl
@glc: I’ve been using Kagi as my main search engine for the past three months. I like it a lot. Kagi has no ads, the ability to personalize results (e.g., I downrank sites like Quora that I find to be low-quality), built-in and customizable search lenses to restrict search to certain collections of sites (e.g., academic), bangs in queries (e.g., “!w” to search Wikipedia and “!g” to search Google), and better privacy terms (though of course you are logged in).
Kagi also provides AI summarization, but only if you request it (e.g., by appending “?” to your query). I find AI useful (with limitations), so I am on the Ultimate ($25/month) plan, which includes unlimited chat access to a variety of LLMs (GPT 4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5, etc.). The chat access is via the model APIs, so it is governed by the API terms (e.g., no training) which is better than what you get if you sign up for chat access directly with OpenAI or Anthropic.
One downside is that Safari doesn’t allow you to specify Kagi as a search engine, so you can’t directly use Kagi from the Safari address bar without an awkward workaround. This is a Safari limitation and not an issue with Chrome. The workaround is a Safari extension which snoops on your searches to a particular configured search provider (I specify Ecosia for this) and then returns results from Kagi instead. This is awkward because your queries actually go to the other search provider, but those results are ignored.
Alternatively, you can use Kagi’s own WebKit-based Orion browser. That is what I do on iOS.
Overall, I like Kagi a lot.
cain
I use Mojeek. Based in the UK and doesn’t have an algorithm.
Sigg
@Rachel Bakes: thanks for
the hint about Storygraph. I’m happy to be dumping Amazon
DrowsyOwl
Apologies if this is a re-post, as I am having trouble posting (long-time lurker).
@glc: I’ve been using Kagi as my main search engine for the past three months. I like it a lot. Kagi has no ads, the ability to personalize results (e.g., I downrank sites like Quora that I find to be low-quality), built-in and customizable search lenses to restrict search to certain collections of sites (e.g., academic), bangs in queries (e.g., “!w” to search Wikipedia and “!g” to search Google), and better privacy terms (though of course you are logged in).
Kagi also provides AI summarization, but only if you request it (e.g., by appending “?” to your query). I find AI useful (with limitations), so I am on the Ultimate ($25/month) plan, which includes unlimited chat access to a variety of LLMs (GPT 4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5, etc.). The chat access is via the model APIs, so it is governed by the API terms (e.g., no training) which is better than what you get if you sign up for chat access directly with OpenAI or Anthropic.
One downside is that Safari doesn’t allow you to specify Kagi as a search engine, so you can’t directly use Kagi from the Safari address bar without an awkward workaround. This is a Safari limitation and not an issue with Chrome. The workaround is a Safari extension which snoops on your searches to a particular configured search provider (I specify Ecosia for this) and then returns results from Kagi instead. This is awkward because your queries actually go to the other search provider, but those results are ignored.
Alternatively, you can use Kagi’s own WebKit-based Orion browser. That is what I do on iOS.
Overall, I like Kagi a lot.
WaterGirl
@Anonymous At Work: I do not know, but if you’re willing to do the research I will happily update the list for clarity.
Ruckus
I have a Hoover vacuum, bought years ago.
Now I’d like to replace it for the obvious reason but what would I do with the old one, which works fine?
I’d bet a lot of us have, have had some contact with at least one or two of these companies because many are name brands, and relatively big companies. Now if I was half a century old and not 3/4 of one I wouldn’t hesitate to change. Given this list I’d bet most of us have some contact with at least one of them. I have very occasionally shopped at a couple of them, like Ace Hardware because they are the only hardware store near me. And the amount I’ve spent has been minimal.
@Jane2:
I agree with your assessment. Look most of us have/are on a computer. Sure you can do all this with a phone but the screen is small and you have to hold it in your hand. I bought my first computer in 1978 and have owned one since. The company is not on the list.
I get that this is a major political issue, that we are ALL affected by, but not all of us, likely most all of us can afford to start over. Very little of my life has anything to do with the companies on the list. I have a Hoover vac. Have had it for nearly 20 yrs and it works, not buying another. Also I am an OLD. Over 3/4 of a century. I have very little exposure from the list.
I would, as mentioned above like to know if some of these companies have donated to both sides of the aisle. That is likely not all that unusual for a large company, they often do this to protect themselves.
WaterGirl
@Scout211:
I don’t have “web” in the tool bar. In fact it appears that I don’t have a toolbar at all.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
Lowes, not on the list, has most everything Ace does. And for me it’s the closest anyway.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@schrodingers_cat: Perplexity is good at some things and terrible at others. For example, it’s been useful for spreadsheet / database / scripting help — better than the native help files for the applications themselves, and usually though not always better than Google or DDG. It’s consistently failed, though, on questions about fiction.
I’m guessing that the text(s) it was trained on came from millions of writers on many subjects, but not on the Q&A in reddit’s “what’s that book” threads.
Pretty good at what it’s good at, but that has limits. In my experience, anyway.
WaterGirl
@Kirk: Thanks. I’ll still stand by the request that it would be great if the person who wants to know could go to open secrets, get the info, and let me know what I should add to the list, or include as a detail for the company. :-)
WaterGirl
@japa21: Please by all means, check the list and share the info about what should be changed.
I will happily make the changes.
Wizened_guy
@TBone:
@Mr. Mack: ditto
WaterGirl
@HinTN: I do not know. I don’t use those browsers so I can’t even poke around. If you can, please let me know what you find.
Doug R
@WaterGirl:
Yeah it’s an ad blocker but it ties into previous comments about getting chased around by ads based on previous searches.
WTFGhost
@Mr. Mack: That’s been my favorite for a while. Search engines, in general, are getting worse, in my opinion.
@Jane2: Technically, “Edge” is a chromium based browser; “Bing” is the search engine. Someone watched too much Ricochet Rabbit (“bing bing bing!”) as a child.
@Rachel Bakes: Firefox is a decent browser. “Chrome” is the google browser, and it’s the basis of several other browsers that run “chromium,” the open source part of Chrome, including MS Edge.
@Victor Matheson: I suppose they’re forbidden to have spinach, and that’s why they have stewed collards, etc.? (I kid – the name catches me *every* time.)
@JaySinWA: If GOG and Steam start working well on Linux, I’m ready to be gone from MS myself.
@Kosh III: Really, what we want to know more are dark money contributions, which are (mode = “gomer pyle) surprise, surprise(/mode) hidden and private.
db11
@Momentary: Are you also using their Orion browser?
Momentary
@db11: Not as of yet, as I am still cautiously supportive of Firefox, but if Firefox slips over the line with AI stuff or other unfortunate decisions then I have my eye on Orion as probable next bet.
db11
@DrowsyOwl: I’ve been using the Orion browser pretty much exclusively on iOS (iPhone&iPad) and in tandem with Brave browser on my Mac(s).
It’s a great browser — probably the best from a privacy standpoint — and very usable, though not as feature-rich as other options. Here’s their own description:
Lightweight, WebKit based, and native on your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Incredibly fast. Built-in ad blocker.
Zero telemetry. Web extensions support.
https://kagi.com/orion/
db11
@Momentary: I used a Firefox/Safari combo up till about 4 or 5 years ago when I switched to Brave.
My issue with Brave is that it is very Web3 / Crypto-bro flavoured (though you can disable all those functions). The only reason I haven’t ditched it entirely for Orion is because of it’s superior bookmark functionality/organization.
Momentary
One tip for Kagi users: Kagi limits results to 2 pages, so when you get 2 pages of results, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all the results Kagi has for your query. Because of this, it can be really helpful to go through and use the site block option on any results that look like AI spam or otherwise junky, and then search again. You’ll get new and potentially better results to replace the ones you blocked.
Dan Almont
Does anyone have this list that includes contact information? Addresses, email addresses? I’ll even take fax numbers.
pacem appellant
Firefox for a web browser.Duck Duck Go for search.
For the overly techie, yes, I know Mozilla would love to kill Firefox because they are incapable of understanding what it is they actually do, but it works as intended, and ad-blocking in FF is superior to Chrome since at least for now the developers haven’t gutted the ability to perform ad-blocking.
And yes, I know Duck Duck Go has added AI to its search and it sucks just as bad as Google. But for me, expect for some extreme niche technical searches, DDG works and disabling the AI slop was easier than with Google.
CC:
@Momentary:
Paranoid Android
Kagi.com is fantastic. Subscription, but totally worth it!
villiageidiocy
For tracking your reading I recommend http://www.Librarything.com. No amazon affiliation AFAIK
For book buying I recommend bookshop.org. Bookshop lets you buy, or at least give the profit to, a local brick and mortar book store!
LAC
These are the companies i keep away from as much as possible for their cowardly caving into anti DEI nonsense:
https://www.advocate.com/news/companies-abandoning-dei#rebelltitem1
Gloria DryGarden
@Ohio Mom: I’m confused about ace. Each store is a franchise, owned separately.
Wrt searches, I’ve begun using duck duck go, more. I’m not used to how the app lays out the tabs, in my Android phone.
on the iPads I use safari. Their ads say it has a lot of spy protection. But does it?
pacem appellant
@Momentary:
I would say the only problem with Proton mail is that its CEO is a fascist MAGA sympathizer. (google his meltdown on Reddit)
Momentary
@Gloria DryGarden: Safari does do some good protection stuff, mostly to limit the way cookies can be used to track you from site to site, and to stop ad networks from trying to “fingerprint” your computer to get around that limit.
Nancy
@Mr. Mack:
Me, too. It works for me.
Momentary
@pacem appellant: I have read the full Reddit meltdown and I don’t think that’s accurate. As far as I can tell, he thought the Democrats favoured the big tech companies over the underdogs, and out of resentment he tweeted that he was glad to see Trump’s appointee who might potentially be better. Which was not great, and tunnel vision on his part, but I dug pretty hard and didn’t see anything that made me think he sympathised with (or even was particularly clued in about) MAGA. ETA: keeping in mind that he is a Swiss citizen of Asian descent, and also that Proton is now owned by a non-profit foundation of which he is a member of the board of trustees, so not the CEO.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Retail is tough, ask me how I know…..
I’ve owned 2 companies, one dad started, I ended up owning it longer than he did, it was a manufacturing company. Most of you would recognize some of the products our tools made. The second was a retail sporting goods store, early on we had a recession and that worked out well for me – not.
Life is often not all that easy to deal with, there are road blocks, costs, sacrifices, friend who actually aren’t, etc. Is it easier today or is it just different than decades ago? I’d say different. Still rich assholes, and people, we still have poverty, and not so much. Some of those rich assholes (or their families) are still with us, and some of them still believe that they are the height of humanity. Anyone want to buy a tesla? Bet there are a few used ones for sale……
russell
@EthylEster: regarding the -ai thing – so far so good in my experience, but I’m sure they’ll disable it as soon as they figure out that people are actually using it.
I mostly use it to avoid burning electricity just to answer simple questions. 99% of the time the AI stuff doesn’t add anything I can’t get from the basic search result.
Also – the “fucking” suggestion also has an appeal. Kind of the Roy Kent-ification of internet search! :)
Quicksand
@Momentary:
I agree. He came off as mostly politically naive — techno-libertarian-style — rather than MAGA.
pacem appellant
@Momentary: Thanks for reading up on it. I appreciate it. I took an online break for a month or so as my outrage meter is already tapped out for my lifetime. When the CEO went on Reddit, the Mastodon community (very anarchist, easily triggered), had a jucking meltdown over it, since they are acutely tuned to privacy and security.
Anecdataly, His Pro-Trump sympathy was enough to convince my MAGAt father to switch to Proton Mail over reagan dot com (yeah, he’s that kind of white cishet boomer male).
I’m keeping Proton Mail on my watch list. I don’t trust the CEO to read the room. I hope the board of Proton does a better job of reining him, as the role tech CEO seems to be an overpaid loudmouth position rather than an overpaid helmsman job as it was in times before.
Cheers! :-)
chrisanthemama
That list of companies that allegedly supported trump and Project 2025–I have seen this on FB and have been unable to find any source for that online. I won’t post anything I cannot verify first, of course.
More Pie
I’ve been using Kagi, which charges after a “first 100” trial period. I just hit my 100, and the results are solid.
billcinsd
@Jane2: You can use StartPage which is Google’s search engine without the tracking
HinTN
@zhena gogolia: I’m a Kroger kind of shopper so I’m glad they’re not in the list, even if there’s a labor dispute ongoing out west.
karen gail
ACE hardware stores are franchises, so are True Value Hardware Stores; I know since my brother owns one, True Value. So while the headquarters might donate to both sides or neither sides of Presidental campaign the locals might or might not.
Also the fact that they said they did donate might affect their business depending on where they are located; like the McDonalds that allowed Trump to “work” there as part of campaigning.
jhwbiz
@trollhattan: I’m with you on Garmin. Garmin Ltd Profile: Recipients • OpenSecrets
As far as I can tell, the organization’s PAC did not give to either prez candidate, and individuals gave more to Harris than Trump. Overall more red than blue.
Bill Arnold
Protonmail and Signal also have the advantage that they are heavily used by the radical right.
That means that they would be harder to dislodge/disrupt without extensive warning.
FWIW, I mostly use Google, and DuckDuckGo when concerned about searches showing up on watch lists, and DuckDuckGo over Tor if seriously concerned and want to click on search results. Google’s keyword language and ability to do time-window searches continue to be useful.
Always with browsers larded up with ad blockers, tracker blockers and other privacy tools. Not much monetization for sites that are honestly reporting traffic. Sometimes in a “jail” to block malware using browser exploits. Regular: Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, Tor Browser,
Bare minimum is uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
Fair Economist
@trollhattan: I am working hard to eliminate plastic from my life now that we know microplastics accumulate in the body, including in the brain, and this has a side benefit of greatly reducing my reliance on P&G.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: Sorry, late to this reply.
On my mac I checked both on chrome and safari and if you are on the google.com website, the tool bar appears after you type in your search. I’m not sure which browser you are using but on both, the tool bar appears after you do your initial search and then you can switch to the “web” version from the tool bar. But the tool bar doesn’t show before you do the search.
schrodingers_cat
OT sort of related question
What note taking app do you guys like?
What knowledge management system do you recommend?
Mai Naem mobil
Frys electronics isn’t around and hasn’t been around since 2021 so not sure why it’s on the list. Ugh, there’s too many businesses on here I use. Auto Zone, Ace hardware, Sierra Trading Post and Baskin Robbins. Surprised to see Home Depot not on the list. I’ve been boycotting Walmart, Home Depot and Dell forever. I try not to use Chevron/Mobile and it’s usually not hard.
Ramalama
@schrodingers_cat:
I switched from Evernote to Joplin. It’s got fewer features but I’m cool with that. You can sync it with Dropbox and a few other cloud services, but if I want to share notes and shizzle I’ll just use Notes for Mac.
I also use 1Password to store everything else. There I keep info on subscriptions, along with passwords, licenses, and other whatnot. So basically it’s not crucial for me to sync basic notes. Usually my notes are dumb: books and movies I want to see, style sheets and how-to notes for when I am able to fix a problem.
Ramalama
@Jay K.: My only beef with Proton (aside from their head guy being a ceo-nazi) is when I upgraded my account from just ProtonMail to ProtonMail + VPN (a special offer!) and .. they fcked with the time remaining I had with ProtonMail. They didn’t bump up the expiration time so essentially I lost months of my subscription. Lots of back and forth with their asshole support team – plus my German friend telling me that “Swiss are so typical like that,” – made me say FOKE OFF to Proton.
It’s good for clients of mine who need HIPAA compliance.
That would be funny, all these MAGAS suddenly realizing that they are HIPAA compliant. That should make them run for the hills.
Denali5
I also am disappointed in L.L.Bean. Did they contribute to the Harris/Walz campaign equally?
billcinsd
I use the Vivaldi browser and duck duck go for searching
https://vivaldi.com
schrodingers_cat
@Denali5: The LLBean heir is a libertarian.
Sphex
@WaterGirl: @OhioMom: fwiw, my understanding is that the donations came from Ace corporate, but since the individual franchises are independently owned, your friendly neighborhood Ace may still be ok…
Steve and Rita
We use Opera. Is there something better? Can’t stand chrome/google or Safari. Used Firefox for awhile.
BrotherCrab
https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-turn-off-ai-overviews-google-3445771/
catpal
buffalo bills in opensecrets does not have any significant donations to republicans. – so I do not know how they can be listed here opensecrets buffalobills
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: I use Firefox on my home laptop. Work demands edge or Chrome so that’s what I use on their machine.
Manyakitty
@suzanne: Brooks are the only shoes that stop my feet from hurting. Argh.