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To save starting a new thread I decided to post in this extant one.
Often a poster asks for information regarding a street or address on BHF.
What I find infuriating is the virtual list of house sales and what it is like to live there that litters any search.
Any guru have any idea of avoiding the menace?.
I have an ad blocker part of Opera Browser and Brave Browser also restricts ads. plus Ghostery but they do not deal with search engines as far as I know.
 
If you have a Google account, and are logged on to Google mail (gmail), then you can switch off certain features that track you.

I am pretty sure you can only do the instructions below if you have a Google account (gmail) or a gmail account on your Android phone or tablet. If you have a Microsoft account see the bottom of his update.

If you are logged on to Gmail do as follows (probably easier to do this on a PC rather than a smartphone).

Go in to Gmail and select the 9 "dots" in the top right. This displays a window of Google Apps.

Select the Account icon.

Select one of the options "Manage your data and personalization"

Here you can turn off Activity controls such as "Web and app activity", "Location history" and "YouTube History"

These basically track EVERYTHING you do on the web.

Underneath you can also turn off "Ad personalization" (these make ads more "general" rather than based on your searches etc)

There is also a option called "Go to Ad settings" where you can make selections.

Back on the main Account window there is also a section "Activity and timeline" and within that a section "My Activity".

Here Google keeps EVERY search you have ever made, plus all you have done on your Android phone if you have one.

Select "My Activity" then select "Delete activity by" then select "All Time" then "Delete now".

This will delete ALL your Google search history.

You can also select "Timeline" and delete that as it tracks where you have been (probably using GPS on your phone or tablet or laptop).

There are many other options in this "Account" area so while you are in there it may be worth turning everything off to stop Google tracking you.

Note that with Windows 10 Microsoft are playing catch up to Google so they have started tracking everything we do.

So if you have a Microsoft email address to logon to Windows 10 (outlook.com for example) then go to this web site (link below) and logon with your Microsoft email address and see if you can change or turn off options there similar to the Google options above.

Microsoft account | Sign In or Create Your Account Today – Microsoft

Sign In with your Microsoft account. One account. One place to manage it all. Welcome to your account dashboard.
account.microsoft.com account.microsoft.com

It is rather frightening how much Google and Microsoft (and Amazon and others) track what we do so turning of many of these options stops them tracking us.
 
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guilbert53 said:
If you have a Google account, and are logged on to Google mail (gmail), then you can switch off certain features that track you.

I am pretty sure you can only do the instructions below if you have a Google account (gmail) or a gmail account on your Android phone or tablet. If you have a Microsoft account see the bottom of his update.

If you are logged on to Gmail do as follows (probably easier to do this on a PC rather than a smartphone).

Go in to Gmail and select the 9 "dots" in the top right. This displays a window of Google Apps.

Select the Account icon.

Select one of the options "Manage your data and personalization"

Here you can turn off Activity controls such as "Web and app activity", "Location history" and "YouTube History"

These basically track EVERYTHING you do on the web.

Underneath you can also turn off "Ad personalization" (these make ads more "general" rather than based on your searches etc)

There is also a option called "Go to Ad settings" where you can make selections.

Back on the main Account window there is also a section "Activity and timeline" and within that a section "My Activity".

Here Google keeps EVERY search you have ever made, plus all you have done on your Android phone if you have one.

Select "My Activity" then select "Delete activity by" then select "All Time" then "Delete now".

This will delete ALL your Google search history.

You can also select "Timeline" and delete that as it tracks where you have been (probably using GPS on your phone or tablet or laptop).

There are many other options in this "Account" area so while you are in there it may be worth turning everything off to stop Google tracking you.

Note that with Windows 10 Microsoft are playing catch up to Google so they have started tracking everything we do.

So if you have a Microsoft email address to logon to Windows 10 (outlook.com for example) then go to this web site (link below) and logon with your Microsoft email address and see if you can change or turn off options there similar to the Google options above.

Microsoft account | Sign In or Create Your Account Today – Microsoft

Sign In with your Microsoft account. One account. One place to manage it all. Welcome to your account dashboard.
account.microsoft.com account.microsoft.com

It is rather frightening how much Google and Microsoft (and Amazon and others) track what we do so turning of many of these options stops them tracking us.
Click to expand...
i was horrified when i looked at my google history. and timeline.it showed every where i had been. (to the shops.down the road.to England,.so i spent time deleting it all and turned everything off, apart from my gmail.
 
Radiorails said:
To save starting a new thread I decided to post in this extant one.
Often a poster asks for information regarding a street or address on BHF.
What I find infuriating is the virtual list of house sales and what it is like to live there that litters any search.
Any guru have any idea of avoiding the menace?.
I have an ad blocker part of Opera Browser and Brave Browser also restricts ads. plus Ghostery but they do not deal with search engines as far as I know.
Click to expand...
Google are not really interested in the 'road' we are searching for they are looking to earn a crust from up-to-date items concerning the road'.

A search for Kingstanding road will show all the property sales, prices

the following will strip out the items shown in quotes and minus signs
kingstanding road -"Prices" -"properties" -"property"

but then you get the Halifax bank and VMB superstore etc etc ...

I use Google Search everyday but know it's quirks and use my knowledge to avoid them and get to what I want.

They have some useful things

The forum search for the word gas returns 'Oops the word is too short'

But Google can search the BHF for gas with the following ...

"gas" site://https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/

the space after "gas" is needed.

Chrome and Edge browsers can selectively disable javascript for particular sites ... very useful on certain newspaper sites ... :cool:
 
oldMohawk said:
Google are not really interested in the 'road' we are searching for they are looking to earn a crust from up-to-date items concerning the road'.

A search for Kingstanding road will show all the property sales, prices

the following will strip out the items shown in quotes and minus signs
kingstanding road -"Prices" -"properties" -"property"

but then you get the Halifax bank and VMB superstore etc etc ...

I use Google Search everyday but know it's quirks and use my knowledge to avoid them and get to what I want.

They have some useful things

The forum search for the word gas returns 'Oops the word is too short'

But Google can search the BHF for gas with the following ...

"gas" site://https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/

the space after "gas" is needed.

Chrome and Edge browsers can selectively disable javascript for particular sites ... very useful on certain newspaper sites ... :cool:
Click to expand...
:)thanks for that
 
Thanks for the comments Gentlemen.
I should have been a little more specific. I use Linux, no Windows options at all My search engine is Duck & Go. I have a Google account, you need it for You Tube, but I have no time whatsoever for their e-mail system. My e-mails are based in Switzerland and some via my ISP (TalkTalk).
I just wonder why even Duck & Go, who claim to be less intrusive than Google consider that I want to buy houses or move! :confused:

Since returning home I have tried the three browsers I have access to - Opera (default), Brave and Firefox. They all give the same results. I guess as they survive on adverts they all give the same results using the same search engine.
Maybe blocking the main culprits - if I can - could be the answer. Further experiments.
 
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There are around half a dozen real search engines and a lot more that compile results from searches made on them. DuckDuckGo used to be owned by Google so I'd suppose they're either just using Google or the same spiders to compile the list. You should get different results from the likes of Ask , Bing , and Yahoo .
 
There does not seem to be a way of eliminating the house agent menace. But maybe different a approach of wording might work. I will see when next doing a street name search. This does not apply to a BHF search, just a web search.
 
DuckDuckGo still use advertising but, because of their non-intrusive policy it's going to be based on what everyone wants or, at least, everyone using their searches wants. So you get what people are asking for. If you look for stuff in a particular area, there's a chance that you'll get house agent ads because they're the ones that produce ads tailored to a particular place. So if people are looking for things in places rather than just things, people are going to see house agents.
Chances are people who look up things anonymously are looking to find something local that they don't want other family members or police/national government to know about. Buying something on the internet will leave a trail no matter how anonymous your browser but something you can go and pay cash for could still mean no-one finds out. So an anonymous search engine will get a lot of requests tied to places. The advertising they have tied to places is for house agents. Consequently people get ads for house agents.
There's also a good chance that you'll get ads for the sort of think you wouldn't want other people knowing about.
 
The only time I get a plethora of house ads are when searching for a road/street or place connected with a thread I am reading on BHF. Otherwise it is not much of an issue.
 
I accept the 'internet' for what it is ... mainly paid for by advertising and tracking. I just find a way round when I'm searching.

The Edge browser has the privacy and services setting page below and I'm on the middle setting which has blocked trackers 4595 times, 881 of them from some organisation named Krux. Facebook have tried to track me 561 times. I'm not on Facebook although I use their Whatsapp which is free so I suppose Facebook would like to earn something from me ... but I never take any notice of internet ads or Google search results I don't want.
privacy.jpg
I might choose the strict setting and see what happens ....
 
On the other hand, checking on addresses where people have lived in more recent times can occasionally throw up information from these house agents which is of more historical use. Probably the most annoying thing is getting the same information for ten different agents!

Maurice :cool:
 
oldMohawk said:
I accept the 'internet' for what it is ... mainly paid for by advertising and tracking. I just find a way round when I'm searching.

The Edge browser has the privacy and services setting page below and I'm on the middle setting which has blocked trackers 4595 times, 881 of them from some organisation named Krux. Facebook have tried to track me 561 times. I'm not on Facebook although I use their Whatsapp which is free so I suppose Facebook would like to earn something from me ... but I never take any notice of internet ads or Google search results I don't want.
View attachment 143112
I might choose the strict setting and see what happens ....
Click to expand...
i tryd to load whatsapp,but it keeps asking to scan a pic with my smartphone. i have not got one.can i still load whatsapp ?
 
It has to be first installed in a smart phone but provided the smart phone is connected to the internet (via wi-fi) an app can be loaded in Windows 10 which runs Whatsapp. I think I got the app from the Microsoft Store. I use it a lot on my laptop ... big screen, proper keyboad, etc. When installing in the computer the phone has to scan a code pic on the computer screen to make the initial set-up.

I also have it in my iPad but it has to run within the Safari browser and the phone has to be connected to the internet.

The thing I like about Whatsapp is that when it is connected to the internet (via wi-fi) phonecalls to other mobiles are free.

I use Skype for video chats.
 
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oldMohawk said:
It has to be first installed in a smart phone but provided the smart phone is connected to the internet (via wi-fi) an app can be loaded in Windows 10 which runs Whatsapp. I think I got the app from the Microsoft Store. I use it a lot on my laptop ... big screen, proper keyboad, etc. When installing in the computer the phone has to scan a code pic on the computer screen to make the initial set-up.

I also have it in my iPad but it has to run within the Safari browser and the phone has to be connected to the internet.

The thing I like about Whatsapp is that when it is connected to the internet (via wi-fi) phonecalls to other mobiles are free.

I use Skype for video chats.
Click to expand...
thanks for that mike and phil.i see now. what the code thing was.for
 
mw0njm. said:
i tryd to load whatsapp,but it keeps asking to scan a pic with my smartphone. i have not got one.can i still load whatsapp ?
Click to expand...

If you have not got a smartphone and mobile phone number you cant run Whatsapp.

It relies on a mobile phone number on a smartphone for the initial set up (that's how it connects other WhatsApp users, via a mobile phone number).

So no Smartphone no Whatsapp.
 
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