Did you know that Google hosts several alternate domain names on their servers that all point to the Google search engine ? Instead of accessing google.com you could use an official Google domain name like 138008.org.ru or msm.byu.edu instead to use the Google search engine.
You might be wondering why someone would want to use a different domain name to search the Internet. As we all know search terms are added to the url of the result page which means that anyone who has access to that data can analyze it and see what you have been searching for.
We have for instance heard of Internet Service Providers who sell this data to companies for marketing purposes. AOL released search results in the past to the public for instance which turned out to be a major privacy invasion for several of its users because it was possible to find out the real name by analyzing the search terms.
The alternate websites do add those search terms as well but it is unlikely that they will be monitored as well. If you want to be on the safe side you could use a proxy server instead and point it to Google.com
Here is the list of alternate official Google.com urls:
- http://msm.byu.edu/
- http://138008.org.ru/
- http://americanlandmarkfence.com/
- http://intranet.falmouth.ac.uk/
- http://leslein.com/
- http://netease.google.com/
- http://taakra.com/
- http://fd2k.dyndns.org/
- http://aim.playlinc.com/
- http://0038.za.net
- http://cpl.playlinc.com
- http://gamedaily.playlinc.com/
- http://go.ogle.org/
- http://googleffffffff8f01a7ed.sbi2testsite1.com/
- http://lunaticus.dnip.net/
- http://verizon.playlinc.com
- http://yvonneschroeder.com
- http://zapchu.ppntop50.com/
Here are Google Groups Alternative urls:
- http://groups.secureearn.com/
- http://groups.lanostrafamiglia.org/
- groups.dz18.com
You might be wondering how you can check that these urls are indeed hosted on a Google server. I used a tool called Reverse IP DNS Domain Check Tool from Seo logs for it. Just enter an url or IP and the tool displays all other domains that are hosted on the same server.
Inspiration taken from Digital Inspiration
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The downside of using a domain you don’t have control over is that the owner could redirect it at any time. For that reason, I have my own dyndns.org domain whigh points to my nearest Google IP.
Another memorable alternative is gewgol.com, which Google owns.
Good to know. 10x
Hi,
I am trying to find out how many english written search engine domains/url’s google owns – for example: google.com – google.co.uk – google.com.au etc etc – how many of them can be used for the english spoken and written language?
Would anyone know where to find this data, or is it just try all 160+ local search area’s and find out which ones use the english language?
Darren