The Exalead search engine.

While using my favourite flavour of GNU/Linux as operating system I got so used to have multiple alternatives for every task that I also started to look out for alternatives for other everyday tasks. It seems as if one of the most recurring tasks to me is searching the internet. Looking up any keyword or topic I just heard of and did not know what it meant or did not know the background. My favourite engine is the Google search engine at the moment. But for several reasons I don’t want to rely on only one solution anymore.

Working in the IT-branch I do care of alternatives because you always have to have a good resort if plan A fails. That is why most internet service providers are connected redundant to the internet. It happened to us that some workers dug a hole somewhere between Vienna and Linz. Sadly they cut the three main fibre channels which connect half of Linz to the Vienna core node. If you are not connected redundant all your services will stop to work for an indefinitely time. Now imagine that one day the google webpage might not be accessible one day because all their servers were confiscated by the US because of investigations against terror. So a good alternative would be the lifebelt for those who are seeking for information.

Another thing is that it might be a good idea to spread ones activities over different services. If you take a look at the current Google empire you will realize that they have already all the data they need to track all of your activities. It is obvious that Google can see what you searched for when you use the Google search engine. But what about the not so obvious trackers? Nearly on every page on the web you can find ads which are coming from the Google Adsense program. It might not be so obvious for average surfers but technically it works like that: if a website uses the Google Adsense program the webpage itself includes ads which are coming directly from the Google servers and not from the original page itself. For e.g. if site A has got a google banner on the index page and you are watching it your browser first gets the source code of the index page of site A and then displays it to you. As the sourcecode contains commands for your browser to fetch ads from Google it connects to the Google server, fetches the information and integrates it into the index page of site A. One would think that there is no connection yet between site A and Google yet but there is. To be able to integrate the Ads site A has to provide a user ID to Google so that it delivers ads and so that Google can relate clicks on ads to the user ID for accounting reasons.

In other words: Not only by using the search engine you are giving Google the power to collect your data. On every single page which you are visiting and which contains Google ads, Google videos, Google maps, any other Google service Google can collect your data. They know on which page you where on which day and what content the page displayed. So they can make a really good profile of your person. They don’t have your personal details yet but in business world it must be a very very big power to have access to that data. A company with that information is able to track all the trends and interests on a global basis. Just amazing if you would sell such information to marketing companies or even governments. An incredible thought.

I wonder when Google is going to start as a telecommunication provider for mobile phones. The access to data would be more or less the same, just in real life. You can track where which person is at which location at which time. And as you are providing the data channels you can also analyze the content itself. And in this very case you even know the personal data such as name, address, etc. as well

Ok. Enough conspiracy theory for today. I am not telling anyone to be that paranoid but just to think all over before wakign up *after* someone misused all the gathered data. And to be honest I am not going to dump Google as my favourite search engine in the near future. And on my webpage you can see that I am also using Google maps. I will just try to also switch to alternatives more often which leads us back to the main topic here: the Google alternative.

In Europe there is some development going on on an alternative search engine to Google. The project is called Quaero and aims to bring out a good search engine alternative. On one side I am not a fan of “let’s make some clone of something” just to break into a market which is more or less entirely in American hands. But on the other hand I am a big fan of alternatives, especially when one single corporation has the control over the complete sector. One search engine which is involved in the Quaero project is Exalead. The details can also be read at Wikipedia.org. The interface is also very simple and easy to use but comes with some nice features (which you can turn on if you want but which you are not condemned to use from the beginning). So you don’t have to install multiple plugins [1] [2] for your Firefox browser.

The corporation, IMDB.org
Has anybody heard of this movie yet? Anybody seen it? It's from 2003 and we just found it in a non-mainstream video store and I do not know why I never heard of it before. No theory about the reason of this anti-propaganda now… let's switch over to the movie itself.

As you might guess The corporation is about corporations. It begins with simple introductions, history and later shows us case studies and impacts on our society, nature and any other aspect of our world as we know it. You will see many interviews with powerful people (some of them connected to big global corporations directly).

The stories are informative, stirring, enlightening. Even I was asking myself the question why our governments do not make laws which force companies to produce as sustainably as possible. It makes me wonder why we accept that companies base their decisions on what is cheaper, preserving the laws or breaking them. Please invest those 150 minutes and take a look at the prognosis.

One example topic: Did you hear about the water war of Cochabamba, Bolivia?

Do you remember when I mentioned the theory of bad luck? The last days were quite exceptional evil. A close family member suffered from acute appendicitis and today our cat got killed by a car. I hope the old boy “Tommy” did not suffer a lot and at least the operation on the appendix was successful.

But what has that to do with my theory? The last time I did not mention that I think that there is a kind of balance between good and evil days. There might be some really bad things at once but as compensation you should experience really good things. As an optimistic person I am looking forward all the nice things that will come. I'm also up for a longer period of luck and sure it will come.

Please don't get offended by my comments on my “evil” life. I know that there are much worse things happening out there. I am aware of this and try to help where I can. Peace.

I have the theory that you can divide days basically in good days and bad days. And for optimimists like me there seem to be much more good days than bad days. But if there is a bad day then you notice it from the first second. Today it started with getting up really late and rushing to the car to notice that I did not switch off the lights. Of course two days earlier. So I had to call the car rescue service to give me some power. The good thing is that my little theory was not proven totally today. Although the day started like one of those quite evil days for John Does like me it turned itself mystically into a good day. Thanks to two good friends with whom I sadly did not talk for a long time until today. So keep on hoping.