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A comment on Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo Gains. Parent comment

Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by mc808 on Thursday January 08, 2015 @05:37AM (#8855818)
Forgetting the location of a file is one use case. Another is that it's just convenient to type 'som' and have somefile pop up. Or to extract 500 similarly-named files from some program's convoluted directory structure. Frankly I'm surprised that we still store data resources as 'files' in rigid hierarchical databases after all these decades.
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Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by blueskin_ on Thursday January 08, 2015 @05:38AM (#8855823)
I don't find that convenient, I find it creepy.
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Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by mc808 on Thursday January 08, 2015 @05:45AM (#8855839)
If that's creepy, grep must be downright sinister.
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Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by blueskin_ on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:30AM (#8855920)
Because grep really sends my data to an online service, right?
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Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by mc808 on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:11AM (#8856038)
Neither does searching for a local file in the documents folder. I was referring to the "fascination with search in general" which can be invaluable when you have a lot of data shoehorned into directories or other inappropriate structures.

As for local searches commingling with online searches, there are some cases where it makes sense, others where it's a blatant violation of privacy, and many more in a subjective grey area. It's basically a matter of making sure people are informed (really informed, not small-print-in-the-legalese informed) and needing to opt in, not out.

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Re:Google Loses Most US Search Share Since 2009 While Yahoo ... by blueskin_ on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:26AM (#8856242)
>Neither does searching for a local file in the documents folder.

It does on Ubuntu/Mac OS.

>It's basically a matter of making sure people are informed... and needing to opt in, not out.

Shame nobody actually does this though. Also, does opting out actually stop the data grabbing, or just hide those results?

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