Anybody out there using the anonymous web serving part of Startpage?

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Günter Born and Kirsty pointed me to this from Paul Hill at Neowin: The private search engine, Startpage, has announced a new feature called Anonymous
[See the full post at: Anybody out there using the anonymous web serving part of Startpage?]

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks, Geo, lmacri, Elly, AlphaCharlie, Kirsty, SueW, Bluetrix, CyGuy

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I hadn’t used it in the past, but I may give it a whirl over DuckDuckGo for a few days and see how it weathers. I just tried it to go to Google which always told me a town I was close to, this time it (google) showed nil. Not to shabby for a first try out. Nice tool to have in the box.

Edit: My bad, that was the web search part not the web serving.

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I like StartPage as an anonymous way to access Google results, and the new “anonymous view” is working out fine. Sure, it’s a little slower to load a page, as it redirects through the proxy.

But one Google problem remains – the advertising results going to the top of the page. This isn’t an issue where your search can’t be mistaken for a commercial issue, but it’s tiresome for a lot of day-to-day research. It’s a good adjunct to using DDG, whose search results often don’t give enough quality results.

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks, wdburt1, Elly

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Have been using Startpage for my regular searches since it was named Ixquick. On browsers that don’t allow it to be added as default search for the browser, I bookmark it on the tool bar… which only takes a little longer to access, and is well worth it for the privacy, from my point of view. I also use their app on my smart phone.

From my experience, not all sites will work with anonymous view (they seem to be determined to get something from you)… but many will.

The anonymous view has been there for quite a while… not sure why they are promoting it as a new feature? Maybe it was a test version and now considered ready for use?

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks, wdburt1

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Using it for about a week now. Changed my default search engine to startpage as well. Still get good results when searching and pages load really well.
Cheers!!

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Getting slower load times using the anonymous web server link but that’s to be expected. A few pages that won’t load a disappointment (more with the web page than Startpage’s attempt to maintain anonymity failing) .

You have to like the head-in-a-sack wait page.

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I have been trying to use the anonymous “VIEW” function today to no avail. Almost without fail in each instance that I click on “view page anonymously” the page will not load. It opens a new tab and after a few seconds it closes the tab leaving just the search results original page. So, while Startpage may keep your initial search private, imho it doesn’t do much in the way of keeping any specific web page private. It’s akin to being able to view a main website page but if you have cookies disabled or ad-block enabled that’s as far as you get. Still, it seems you at least get to search for something without that being logged somewhere.

I was wondering how this was accomplished until I read further on Startpage. They state the reason they can use google’s search results in private mode is because Startpage pays google for that privilege.  Like I would believe google would keep it’s word not to spy on us anyway. (disclaimer … I do not trust anything google says)

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It has worked fine for me with UBlockOrigin, UMatrix, cookie deletion and decentraleyes enabled in Firefox. No tweaking needed – not even UMatrix. Even a tracking behemoth like Amazon loads and works as normal.

As Elly says, not sure why they are suddenly talking about it now…. maybe it was beta and I never even noticed.

For me on the search side Startpage and DuckDuckGo are about the same… behind Google… but so worth it for the upside.

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I changed my privacy settings in FF to allow cookies etc. I use UblockO, Adaware and Greasemonkey. Couldn’t get a page to open in private mode, oh well. It did do the search ok, and of course since it’s google powered more or less, anything Amazon sells is always at the top . So while my  actual search may be private, the search results are as could be expected. (or directed) As long as I didn’t op for the private view, pages opened like they should.

Opened WaterFox and tried Startpage private view and it works fine. <shrug>

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UKBrianC

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Mods – I think this develops the thread and not hijack it, but if it doesn’t sit right just delete it or shunt it somewhere else.

The reason I think it has some relevance here is that if we are to accept “safer than a VPN” as a feature then it becomes ever more important – who are Startpage? They don’t track, don’t monetize searches (or do they get advert income?) and pay Google money (I didn’t know that and am accepting the statement in comment #238042 at face value). So how do they eat?

My mind goes back to early Startpage days or maybe even still lxquick time and swirling suggestions of “Russian connections etc/external influences not acknowledged”. I have no facts and am asking questions not making statements.

Anyone have any facts on Startpage’s credentials and business model?

 

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Bluetrix

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They don’t track, don’t monetize searches (or do they get advert income?) and pay Google money (I didn’t know that and am accepting the statement in comment #238042 at face value). So how do they eat?

I can only tell you what I read on their “about” page. They state they pay google. I ‘assume’ they are hoping you like the privacy angle enough to buy their email service. iirc $60~ US a year, I think they also offer monthly. Me thinks these newer (privacy) tricks are cool, but like when they build a faster mouse trap … along comes faster mice.

From Startpage’s website:

You can’t beat Google when it comes to online search. So we’re paying them to use their brilliant search results in order to remove all trackers and logs. The result: The world’s best and most private search engine. Only now you can search without ads following you around, recommending products you’ve already bought. And no more data mining by companies with dubious intentions. We want you to dance like nobody’s watching  and  search like nobody’s watching.

 

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Why demonize the Russians? What about China? Why not CIA searching for terrorist keywords?

It’s all speculation. Programmers need to eat. Space on the internet costs money. I don’t see Startpage as a hobby company and imagine they need to monetize or they have a long-term ambition to monetize. That’s how economies run. No profit = company failure. Company failure = goods or service gone.

The world is shrinking. All companies now exist in a very competitive world where competitors may gain advantage from false rumors.  When it comes to spreading rumors, fast and wide, the internet is unbeatable.

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Thank you Anonymous, that is very reassuring.

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geekdom

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Thanks Woody and Kirsty for this info on Startpage!  I had never heard of it.  I’ve added it to Firefox and it’s working great.  (I tried out the anonymous view” here on AskWoody.  It worked fine but then it would not let me log on — a screen came up that said you can not log on with anonymous view. )

However, I’m very pleased with Startpage and can’t thank everyone here enough for this great tip.  I was using ddg but the search pages are not as good as Google so this is a great solution.

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Have been using it since it was Ixquick too…but I go a step further and use the eu.startpage.com.

Although my old Neotrace shows it to go from the local backbones to:

1. eurorings.net

2. nl.eurorings.net

3. Three “No Responses”

4. Then ends up then going thru some “route.net” servers, I assume in Europe.

Don’t know if using the .eu site is any more secure due to GDPR regs, but the latency is much greater for sure.

If it takes longer, I’m not in that much of a hurry if it enhances security. I HAVE noticed that at times the .eu server seems to be unreachable. Hmmmm.

BTW, anyone know of a latter-day replacement for Neotrace? 🙂

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UKBrianC

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