Sanders Media

Google’s dominance in the search engine market is well documented. However, there are quality alternatives. Here are a few.

1. Bing: This is Microsoft’s long anticipated Google rival. After their previous search engine attempt, Live, did nothing to dent Google’s market dominance, they tried again with Bing. The early results are promising. Bing has some great features that will surely steer some users it’s way. Take a tour of Bing here.
2. WolframAlpha: This is mainly a computational search engine. In fact, WolframAlpha calls itself a computational knowledge engine. For instance, enter the name of your city, and  you’ll find several bits of data. You can do the same with your birth date. It is a very useful source of raw data. It can even do calculus.
3. Yahoo: This has been around the longest among Google competitors. In fact, Yahoo once dominated the search market. Fantasy Sports, Shopping and Weather are among the useful services you can find here. Yahoo continues to try new things to make up ground on Google, so new features are surely coming.
4. Ask.com: This site was originally known as AskJeeves.com. They have added functionality that includes standard search functions. Ask.com is a good source for How-To’s and research information.

Of course, I’m leaving out a few others. Feel free to email me with your suggestions. Google is still the leader, and doesn’t appear to be letting up. However, there may come a time that you want to try something new. These are a good start.

I helped a client dispose of another Trojan for Windows. This piece of malware digs deep into your computer, and makes Google or Yahoo searches impossible. Essentially, anytime you use Google or Yahoo to search for any subject, the resulting links will not go to their correct destination. This Trojan causes the links to go to predetermined spam sites. I found this article at techspot.com which helped me solve the problem. For your convenience, I’ve also posted the instructions below. Take special care to follow the 8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware Preliminary Removal Instructions as well. Lastly, download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware program. I’ve found it to be one of the best around.

Procedural Steps
1.

• Start->Run-> Devmgmt.msc ->ok
• On the toolbar, Click on View -> ”Show hidden devices”

2.

• Scroll down and locate Non-plug and Play Drivers
• Click the + sign to expand

3.

• Search for “TDSSserv.sys”
  • More exploits: clbdriver.sys, oUltraf, seneka.sys,
• Right click on it, and select “Disable”

4. Restart your computer

5. Confirm ‘TDSSserv.sys’ is disabled. Repeat Step 1-3. Cancel to exit.

6. Begin or resume UPDATED 8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware Preliminary Removal Instructions.