Infuriated with Google Search!

[2banon]

Have been for some time, but now it's definitely sent me over the hill, I want to be done with it! It's been the "go to" search engine for me for over a decade. I have been quite satisfied with their gmail, and would like to continue using it... sans chrome which I thought was great until this past week or so.

They've changed the apps menu, I hate it, things I used to see there, such as "google news" and other items are no longer there.

But the straw that broke this camel's back is the search engine now. Everytime I "google" anything, I get a page of Ask.com links. It would appear that there was merger of the two companies not on my radar screen, I'm not absolutely certain why everything is first linked to Ask, but when I use Explorer browser, which I hadn't done in the past couple of years, I don't get the Ask links when I use the google search key.

Can anyone explain wtf? I don't understand why using IE browser I don't have that problem, but when I use my Chrome, that issue exists.

Is is something I can fix? Or do I actually need to go back to using IE for my browser?.. ugh.

Or perhaps a completely different browser and search engine?

Any help and advise would be sooo appreciated!

[hobbit709]

1. Did you install something recently that made ask.com the default search engine?

Ask is NOT Google.

[2banon]

3. Yes, quite inadvertently

I did do that, unknowingly at the moment it happened. I started a regime of caloric and sodium reduction soI need to frequently research "nutritional" details on every food item I consume meal planning purposes.

I clicked on a link that seemed to have the specific information I wanted on the links page... I thought i was clicking on a nutritional index page, but soon realized that whatever I "downloaded" took over my tool bar, with tabs that assumed every thing in that field of research.. all Ask.com.

Realizing what I had done, I spent considerable amount of time searching how to uninstall, which I finally accomplish or so I thought. The toolbar was removed and my original toolbar was restored.

I didn't want to "restore" my computer to a previous date, because I've had experience of problems fixing a problem with that approach.

Based on your response regarding Ask and Google, I'm now thinking that I didn't complete the uninstall job afterall.

If you have suggestions on what additional procedures I should take now to fix this, that would be extremely appreciated!

Good to know the two companies have not merged, but I'm wondering why many links now say "Google Ask". It's really weird.

[LiberalEsto]

2. I switched to DuckDuckGo a couple of years ago on advice from DUers

and am fairly happy with it.
They don't track your searches.

[2banon]

4. thanks for reminding me, I saw that referenced recently

in the NSA discussions.

Is it a browser or search engine? And is there anything I should know technically speaking about making it my new browser or search engine?

[2banon]

5. Gotcha it's a Search Engine, let me ask you this:

An option to install to Chrome extension appears on the drop down install menu. Were you using google chrome before you switched to duckduckgo, did you install to chrome extension? And if so, was it a satisfying experience, or no?

and if it's installed on chrome extension, does that defeat the purpose, should I avoid that feature?

[LiberalEsto]

6. Wish I could answer your question

I don't even know what Chrome is.

[2banon]

8. lol! lucky you.. it's google's browser -that I had been satisfied with until very recently

I mean in terms of functionality and appearance, I never get virus or malworms google seems to take care of all that stuff. I've always been quite satisfied google as an email client, I think they got "product" right. I've been using it for several years. And so far they haven't screwed with it too much.

They launched this browser they call "chrome" a few years back and I've not had much in the of complaints until recently. I've also become quite fed up with google search these days. Back in the day, if I was researching something, it wasn't too difficult to link on to different, independent sources for the information. But gradually that started changing to listings of multiple links to the same source. If it's a product or a service I'm researching, good god it's a whole page of links to the same company, corporation or worse to another to another on line tech company like Yahoo, Yelp or Ask etc, etc.. so fed up with that.

I'm now looking for a completely different browsing and search engine experience. But in the meantime, I need to solve this problem I think before I launch into something else that's likely going to significantly change my functionality and settings.

[TygrBright]

15. Yandex

And they are NOT friends with the NSA.

They also have a free email client that works quite well indeed.

helpfully,
Bright

[2banon]

16. Thanks for that info...

will check it out!

[lastlib]

7. I highly recommend Mozilla Firefox.

I've been using it for a year, and it's very stable. Also seems to be pretty secure--I don't get a lot of stuff that my anti-virus proram doesn't like.

[2banon]

9. I use to use Mozilla Firefox. Don't Know why that changed

I think that was on my previous computer, and then when I changed to my lap top, I think I just did the google chrome thing, come to think of it. That's how google sucked me in.

[LiberalEsto]

10. I love Firefox and other Mozilla features

I use Mozilla's Thunderbird for email and several Firefox add-ons such as Ghostery (which helps block tracking cookies) and AdblockPlus, which blocks ads.

[ohheckyeah]

11. Do you know how to get into your Chrome

settings?

Click on the three horizontal lines at the top right of Chrome. Click on settings in the drop down menu. Scroll down to SEARCH and make sure Google is set as your search engine.

If you have any trouble with that, let me know.

[2banon]

12. Did that the other day, I'll go back and recheck anything I missed... thanks

[2banon]

13. It looks like I did overlook one thing, and that was the culprit.

apparently, when I accidently allowed ask.com to download their browser and tool bar product they reset all my browser related settings. arrgggh.. when I uninstalled it the other day, I assumed things would return to previous settings. needless to say, that was a mistake.

Thanks for pointing me back to that step.

[2banon]

14. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.. problem resolved, but I'm going to

consider mozilla as a browser and duckduckgo for search engine.

[elifino]

17. Ask problem

Download Junk File Removal tool(JRT.EXE), this will remove most unwanted task bars and unwanted search engines. When you execute the file it will come up in a dos window, follow the on screen direction. Its free and safe. Removing infected files, malware is what I do on a workday basis.

[2banon]

18. Thank You!!