i really think google has sold their soul and lost sight of what they were originally trying to be. an information site, now when i search for anything all i get are websites and links wanting me to buy something.

i just want information dammit!i dont want to buy a book or pay for someones paper on something that <i>Im</i> trying to write a paper on.

Are you talking mostly about typing in a chip number and getting a bunch of "for-pay" data-sheet download sites (rather than ANY actual manufacturers, even when you KNOW there are multiple manufacturers with downloadable datasheets for that part)? It's been pretty bad there for a while, though I expect it has more to do with sites of questionable ethics managing to "finesse" the google bots rather than google intentionally listing their sites first...

Funny that, I've never encountered one of these paid for sites. Most of my searches lead to http://www.datasheetcatalog.com for instance Googling "datasheet lm293" gives http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+datasheet+lm293&btnG=Search

Apart from the topic of the inept rating mechanisms of Google (I hate using google for searching anything at all - i always seem to find just useless information in the top50).. Google itself is a topic for itself. It started out with a nice Idea for a search machine and is now one of the mot important companies in the world (in terms of Internet world) - and in my opinion they exploit their market dominance way too much. Streetview, this new tracer application and their habit of copyiing GOOD software into something they boost and load with ads is just disgusting. Software like WorldWind is almost forgotten although it has a much better quality than Google's software. How about the market for browsers? Google simply took some good and free available code and turned it into some abomination we call Chrome. Symbian and Windows mobile dominate the smartphone market? Lets make Android... i just wait for the first Google Operating System (most certainly build upon lots of open source code, and instead of a balloon Tip you get Ads in what Cafe you find your best friend, of course also giving you the tip what to drink there...)

Long live altavista - Google has gone way to far down the hill. I hope it ends up so deep it has to face subduction zones... Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla should be waiting for that moment as well..

Believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid[ch8230] and I went ahead

Hm, in case you didnt mean it as sarcastic as it did 'sound' to me ignore this posting ;0)

The thing is that their so called free applications are never anything else but copied quality software loaden with adds. Think about someone taking some code you write in hours, maybe years and then sells (it is selling as they earn money with those programs) it - and even denies you exist.. I mean, is that nice? No..Most of the programs Google has obviously plagiated/stolen/whatever are free in their original version, and without ads..

So far Google is, for me, even worse than Microsoft, because MS at least doesnt hide behind hypocrit actions and messages...

Believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid[ch8230] and I went ahead

Most of the programs Google has obviously plagiated/stolen/whatever are free in their original version, and without ads..

What proof do you have to make claims like that? In reality, google generally buys these small programs and absorbs them. If I don't like the ads put into them to make them free, I just don't use them. BTW, I believe Chrome is an open source app.

Well.. my prrof is simply the existance of the Programs that are copied. Take WorldWind for one example. It was created, maintained and distributed by NASA and accepted by the users. A few weeks later Google Earth appeared and suddenly world wind was quite hard to find on Google (although that at least seems to have gotten better). Youtube was bought by Google, but only because their own copy (Google Video) did totally suck and wasnt accepted by the people. Google Code is nothing but a second Sourceforge and last but not least Chrome which is some sort of Mozilla copy.Oh and yes, Chromium is open source, but Chrome isnt...

Alright and as i dont like the programs they put ads into to make money - not to make them free (as they have been before!) - i stick to their predecessors, which are also most of the time also made of better quality..

Believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid[ch8230] and I went ahead

That i know (even as scientist ;0)) but i personally dislike Google much because of their hypocracy. They behave as if they were still led by two or three men sitting in a garage and complaining about the same tactics that they use. I mean, who else but Google has less right to blame other companies for exploiting their monopoly?

Believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid[ch8230] and I went ahead

I was using WorldWind before I came across Google Earth and it looked like a very cool app. I even downloaded the source and compiled my own version to have a better play with it. Then I found Google Earth and the fact that their imagery was so detailed just blew WW out of the water. At that time (it may have changed since, I don't know) WW was stuck with publicly available Landsat imagery that just about let you recognise something the size of a football pitch. With Google Earth I could see when the grass in our back garden is a bit brown because we've had a hot summer... Also the georegistration of WorldWind imagery seemed to be kilometers off, at least around me.

WorldWind looked like it would be good if you were an academic who wanted to overlay your own datasets onto the base imagery but I believe Google Earth lets you do that sort of thing now.

In short I believe Google Earth just outcompeted WorldWind in the things that the majority of people want to do.