Just got the Scroogle is gone message again during a search. They say that this time it may be for good. Let's hope not....

Scroogle is on again....

Quote
Zoohooter
Scroogle is on again....

ZAoohooter,

Anyone got a clue as to why Scroogle went away and how it is that they are now working once again?

N

I got this from the Scroogle site:

Quote
Scroogle
If you arrived here because you followed a link in recent stories about Scroogle's downtime on 2010-07-01, please be advised that Scroogle is now operating normally. Google has not restored the old simple interface so we are using a different one. We're not happy about this because the file we have to fetch from Google is three times more bloated for the same results. Also, our malware problem continues as before.

Forbidden
so sorry...
Google is temporarily blocking this Scroogle server.

Please wait ten minutes before trying again.

Yes, Scroogle is upset with Google.

1. Google handles 1 billion searches per day, while Scroogle handles 350,000 searches per day. This means that Scroogle is 0.035 percent of Google's load.

2. Google uses 900,000 servers, while Scroogle leases just six low-end dedicated servers.

3. Google has billions and billions of dollars in the bank, while Scroogle is a recognized public charity and survives on modest donations averaging $43 per day.

4. For more than seven years, Scroogle has always made serious efforts to detect and block any and all bots. Almost every Scroogle searcher is a live person clicking on a mouse. Yet Google treats Scroogle like a bot because they see the traffic from our six IP addresses as higher than normal. Searching Google with a bot is against Google's terms of service, but Scroogle users are not bots.

Quote
panzer
Forbidden
so sorry...
Google is temporarily blocking this Scroogle server.

Please wait ten minutes before trying again.

Yes, Scroogle is upset with Google.

1. Google handles 1 billion searches per day, while Scroogle handles 350,000 searches per day. This means that Scroogle is 0.035 percent of Google's load.

2. Google uses 900,000 servers, while Scroogle leases just six low-end dedicated servers.

3. Google has billions and billions of dollars in the bank, while Scroogle is a recognized public charity and survives on modest donations averaging $43 per day.

4. For more than seven years, Scroogle has always made serious efforts to detect and block any and all bots. Almost every Scroogle searcher is a live person clicking on a mouse. Yet Google treats Scroogle like a bot because they see the traffic from our six IP addresses as higher than normal. Searching Google with a bot is against Google's terms of service, but Scroogle users are not bots.

panzer,

Scroogle http is definitely gone, but SSL is still working.

Scroogle SSL


https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbwssl.cgi?Gw=

P.S. SIGH Goggle just blocked Scroogle SSL

P.P.S. It is working again. I don't get it? Could it be session cookies that make it fail? OR?

N



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2012 01:54AM by ndebord.

Quote
Zoohooter
Just got the Scroogle is gone message again during a search. They say that this time it may be for good. Let's hope not....

Zoohooter,

Definitely dead, many DNS attacks and Google wanted it gone and so it is.

Try Startpage instead:

http://startpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

It preserves some privacy and also uses the Google engine.

N

Quote
ndebord

Try Startpage instead:

http://startpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

It preserves some privacy and also uses the Google engine.

This is ixquick? https://ixquick.com

p.s. just realised, when search trough google engine
for example http://www.google.com/search?q=kvr it add some rubbish to the link
like
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.kvraudio.com/&sa=U&ei=cb5UT7DlGsWbOqXi3fEK&ved=0CBEQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNGN7oJtS3RMaV6iMg0tJZUz4FudDA

so you can't copy clear link anymore.

Quote
km2

Quote
ndebord

Try Startpage instead:

http://startpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

It preserves some privacy and also uses the Google engine.

This is ixquick? https://ixquick.com

p.s. just realised, when search trough google engine
for example http://www.google.com/search?q=kvr it add some rubbish to the link
like
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.kvraudio.com/&sa=U&ei=cb5UT7DlGsWbOqXi3fEK&ved=0CBEQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNGN7oJtS3RMaV6iMg0tJZUz4FudDA

so you can't copy clear link anymore.

km2,

What is this extra stuff for? Or perhaps the question is, what does it do?

N

@ ndebord

Have no idea..

For tracking maybe, for collect some data and create statistics what user search, what sites visited, etc..

Quote
km2
@ ndebord

Have no idea..

For tracking maybe, for collect some data and create statistics what user search, what sites visited, etc..

km2,

Whatever it is, it can't be good. <sigh>

N

For marketing guy, it can be good, for example..

I'm anti-google so I've been using startpage.com as my primary search but I still access google through various free web based proxy servers and I've seen the junk they're adding to the results pages now. I used to use scroogle too. BTW, Ixquick and Startpage are the same company but ixquick results are more 'meta' while startpage are mostly anonymized google results.

In the google example above, the url redirection and ei= ved= usg= parameters in the search results are a way to apply tracking and other things to users with javascript disabled. Evil javascript would normally do all kinds of quiet logging and redirecting in the background but when a user has JS disabled goog is forced to run you through an obvious redirect through their servers and apply extra parameters to the url, due to their insatiable need to log and analyze your clicks and perhaps to provide referrer info for analytics and vile marketers.

Info on the redirector and the usg value,
usg is apparently a kind of signature for an indexed url:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hackers-Find-Method-to-Bypass-Google-Redirect-Notice-219150.shtml

ei value talked about here,
it's apparently unique to each page of results and probably uniquely identifies you and your session forever
http://www.razzed.com/2009/02/12/analysis-of-google-outbound-link-tracking/

I don't know what the ved parameter does, it probably means Vital Essential and Desirable.

Tools and techniques for url cleaning:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirect-cleaner/
http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/22291/turning-off-google-search-results-indirection/22313#22313

Hey scambuster,

thanks for the reply..

So, connect to startpage.com through TLS not possible anymore?

Any equivalent to startpage but through http?
..

Quote
km2
So, connect to startpage.com through TLS not possible anymore?

Any equivalent to startpage but through http?
..

km2,

Not sure, but this is what I use for Startpage.

http://startingpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

N

Quote

https://startingpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

ndebord,

thanks for the trick...

startpage.com through tls works again..

Cheers.

Quote
km2

Quote

https://startingpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=

ndebord,

thanks for the trick...

startpage.com through tls works again..

Cheers.

km2,

I believe there are more than a few different ways to employ StartPage, but am not sure.

<g>

N

Quote

https://eu3.startpage.com/do/search?q=

at least one more..

Quote
km2

Quote

https://eu3.startpage.com/do/search?q=

at least one more..

km2,

There you go, the secure version. Nice!

N