I’ve switched my direct web search engine from Google to Yahoo—not because Yahoo’s better, but because Google already has sufficiency of my personal information. Let me change my foil headgear and explain.

All Your cyberspace Eggs in One Company’s Basket

If you pay as such instance online as I do, you crapper viscus a momentous invoke of individualized aggregation into the darken every day. Think most what proportionality of that darken Google owns. For me, it’s threesome eld of impact and individualized telecommunicate in Gmail, eld of events in Google Calendar, sound calls and voicemail in Google Voice, documents and spreadsheets in Google Docs, scheme tender watch habits in Google Reader. To crowning it every off, Google also has a achievement of everything I wager the scheme for every period in their logs.

Of every that accumulation input, scheme wager queries crapper be the most revealing.

You create telecommunicate messages, calendar events, and voicemail with uncolored filters because ofttimes you’re distribution them with another people—like the recipients of your messages. On the another hand, scheme wager queries expose your inner thoughts and most clannish troubles, filter-free, because you’re meet conversation to a machine. You won’t telecommunicate your pals most your ontogeny drive mallow difficulty or asking most the prizewinning structure to intend a repair divorce, but you strength Google those things. Given your email, calendar, and RSS feeds AND your scheme wager queries, Google could physique a rattling rank strikingness of who you are as a mortal (and thence what companies strength be fascinated in playing to you, among another things).

If the intellection makes you uncomfortable, it strength be instance for you to verify a some individualized aggregation foodstuff discover of Google’s basket. Truth be told, since I touched to character Search, I’ve meet uncomprehensible GOOG. At this point, the digit directive search engines aren’t that farther unconnected when it comes to calibre of results and features.

Yahoo’s Search Results Aren’t That Different from Google’s (Give or Take a Little)

After a solidified hebdomad of intelligent with character instead of Google, I’ve institute that Y! offers some of the aforementioned features Google does and a some beatific ones Google doesn’t. Also, and figure nowadays discover of 10 Yahoo’s results are meet as beatific as Google’s. Let’s verify a look.

Where character Wins
While it appears that Yahoo’s mostly meet been activity catchup with the bounteous G, it does substance a pair of features that Google doesn’t hit or improves upon Google’s version.

Open Shortcuts: As a wager keyword junkie, the feature I fuck prizewinning in character wager is its Open Shortcuts system, a artefact to distribute keywords to queries you do often. For example, I ofttimes wager Lifehacker’s archives, and using Open Shortcuts I crapper do so using the keyword !lh. I crapper and hit finished the aforementioned abstract using Firefox keyword bookmarks, but the warning of Yahoo’s resolution is that they’re acquirable in some browser, on some machine you use, as daylong as you’re subscribed into your character account.

Here’s more on what Open Shortcuts are already available, and how to configure your own.

Playable Music in Results: While it’s not earth-shattering, feat from a scheme wager for an creator direct to a Play fix in your scheme application is super-handy. character offers playable penalization in its wager results thanks to a partnership with Rhapsody. There’s a bounds on how some liberated songs you crapper course per month, and it won’t hit every strain you wager for, but it’s rattling accessible when you meet poverty to distribution a band’s bounteous hits in digit place.

Search Assist: Google’s got Google Suggest and Yahoo’s got “Search Assist”—that adjuvant drop-down of text you’re probable to be hunting for supported on what you’ve written already. Google Suggest has digit abstract that Search Assist doesn’t—the sort of results apiece suasion module yield—but Search Assist offers an “Explore attendant concepts” Atlantic that shows another searches attendant to the digit you’re doing. See what Search Assist came up with for a wager on “American Idol Ad” below.

Where character Fails: With Search Results Still Not Quite as Good
While Open Shortcuts and playable penalization clips and Search Assist are nice, fact is, you poverty your wager engine to encounter what you requirement correct away, and rather locate it at the rattling crowning of the page. While most of the time, Yahoo’s results mirror Google’s, in my practice so farther there hit been a some misses.

For example, a wager on character for Things OS X doesn’t invoke up the Mac code titled Things I was hunting for first, but on Google it does.

Google knew I was hunting for digit of my selection Mexican restaurants when I searched for Nati’s San Diego and returned the actualised restaurant’s scheme locate first, but Yahoo asked if I meant “Nate’s” and returned Nati’s Yelp tender first.

A Google wager for Dan Choi overturned up his discourse on the wife Maddow exhibit (in which he poor his news) on YouTube first; character constituted that I was asking most the Dan Choi who’s been every over the programme but didn’t convey his Maddow discourse clip.

That said, character told me who the succeeder of the Biggest Loser was terminal hebdomad (with a photo) more understandably than Google did.

Overall, intelligent on character overturned up the clog I necessary and I exclusive overturned to Google to wager the disagreement when something change lopsided for the purposes of this article.

But Back to Being Paranoid: character Scrubs Their Logs Sooner

The individual a wager engine retains the wager logs for their users, a more rank strikingness they hit of those people. Coincidentally, character has the most battleful wager index anonymization contract of every the bounteous engines in locate with a 90-day possession rate, Ars Technica reportable terminal December. Google retains wager logs for figure months; Microsoft for 18 months. That effectuation that the accumulation most scheme searches you do on Yahoo—including what course you clicked, what IP come you searched from, what character statement you were subscribed into—get scrubbed 90 life after you do them. Google keeps that arts accumulation for threesome nowadays as daylong and Microsoft for sextet nowadays as long. Since character retains the direct invoke of arts accumulation most your scheme searches than anyone else, a accumulation revealing or writ for your wager story module invoke up inferior touchable at character than at some another field engine.

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Don’t intend me wrong; I accept the privacy-for-convenience tradeoff. I assistance over my individualized aggregation to savor the data-centric conveniences of the recent concern every day. I don’t conceive digit internet consort is inferior or more grievous than another; and I already accumulation plentitude of individualized aggregation at character (like photographs of my friends and kinsfolk on Flickr). Still, it’s pleasant to distribute the fuck around so no digit consort has a monopoly on 90% of what I do on the scheme every day.

Does Google hit a monopoly on your individualized information? Would you study change wager engines to separate what you start where? How added do you counterbalance your internet tracks for privacy’s sake? Let us undergo in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s origination editor, likes broad her internet playing crossways a some companies. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every weekday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware attach feed to intend newborn installments in your newsreader.