[Buddha-l] The Toulmiin link and sharing the joke

[Dan Lusthaus]

> Rebellious non-conformist that I try without success to be, I much
> prefer the search engine at http://ixquick.com/ to Dr Google. Ixquick
> doesn't save data on people doing searches,

Richard, that's a false sense of security. In fact, whatever browser you 
use, google is keeping track. Go into whatever folder/directory houses your 
cookies, and look for one named

safebrowsing.clients.google.com

EVERYTIME you visit a site, google "checks it out" for you (and makes 
notation). Firefox has been embedding the "safebrowsing" gizmo since version 
2.something or other (initially you could toggle it off, but no longer).

As you get to site, a bunch of messages go back and forth between you, 
google and the site. An example:

POST 
/safebrowsing/downloads?client=navclient-auto-ffox&appver=3.5.2&pver=2.2&wrkey=AKEgNisunbhr56yS76SiCF8YILHpFJLrO-TPcUcVU2qQU5TAwvuHcSlcdQpjc99zQRu5R99FDCxPfMpLcBvWhFHm8i3rbMqF3g== 
HTTP/1.1

Why this "service" is dubbed 'safebrowsing' is because google, like a number 
of suspect computer companies (one that spells its name M$ comes to mind), 
by pretending to offer you something you may like, they can, behind your 
back, swipe tons of stuff that most likely you'll never miss, and because 
you're getting something, you'll be smiling as you're robbed, maybe even 
grateful.

What are they giving you? The keep a running list of dangerous websites, and 
on the rare occasion that your browser may actually be trying to load one of 
them, google will send (probably hiding behind your browser's ID) a message 
saying this is a dangerous site, stay away, there are cooties and spiders 
there, and they may damage your machine. For that once-annual event (if that 
often), they keep tabs on every site you visit.

So unless you find the results from ixquick superior to a google search, or 
just want to make a protest statement, you may as well do your searching on 
google. Google's keeping track regardless.

Dan