I have to find a different search engine than Google Follow

It's why I'm here on the weekend. It takes a few extra hours to cancel out their ignorance.

I'll get on that, though I fear I may be past that point. Sending people hopeful status updates saying you're making headway but aren't done yet has got to be in the gray area.

Edited, Nov 16th 2013 8:42am by someproteinguy

Is Alta Vista still around?

Google tells me "No".

The irony of using Google in a thread about switching from Google does not go unappreciated.



Jeeves has been put away for a long time now. There's still ways to bring him up, I guess, but that would require me to care enough to actually use crappy Google Ask.com

Cute story but not really telling. I bet a lot of people find out that a teenage girl is pregnant before her father. Pregnant teenage girls are probably more conscientious about keeping it under wraps from Dad than hiding her vitamin purchases from Target.

I get that. But retailers do that for everyone. The hook was supposed to be "They knew before her father did!" which just seemed like a pretty silly thing to act surprised about.

Google has nothing directly to do with the Target story.

Again, the hook from the Target story was "OMG They knew before her dad!" but, given that most people aren't trying to hide shit from Target (as opposed to hiding a teenage pregnancy from your dad), it's hardly any measure of how intrusive or omnipresent Target's data collection is. The mere fact that Target does data collection should surprise no one except maybe idiots who never looked at their own receipts and saw tailored coupons attached to it.

I wonder which family member was responsible.

Unless the father is a blackout drunk, I think he's ruled out.

It is creepy, but it's far from unexpected. Maybe I know a bit more just because I've dealt with corporations trying desperately to predict user desires, and in one case succeeding (current company, totally opposite, and it makes me laugh to see how they are missing the boat). Plus having stared at analytics on my own YT channel, it's fascinating the granularity they are getting to with something as pointless as YT views. Of course, it's pointless for me, but for a major corporation, the engagement numbers, demographics and such must be an absolute gold mine.

Really, I am stunned when I don't see companies chasing the custom data. It makes no sense. The company I am at now is trapped in 90's as far as internet presence (static website, basically one big ad with vague information, few details, poorly organized, rarely updated, and no social integration). Yet they are trying to market themselves as a leader and innovator. It's ridiculous, really. It's evolve or die, and I can already see moves by corporate to excise our group from the whole. Upper management shake-ups, "restructuring", jamming in new accounts and not really caring about losses to retain or even losses themselves. I just can't imagine the work it would take to actually bring the company into the current market. As it stands, we have a major media corp entering the market, and they will crush us like a bug when they decide the time is right. They have the integration and social presence, their website is sharp, modern and functional. You can control your account's information mostly there (only huge changes need a phone call). It's really just a matter of time before the dinosaurs that still reside over our section get completely axe'd and we get sold.

Basically tl;dr - Start stalking your customers or you will lose them

Or Infoseek.