If you want a bookmark...
Some searchers like to bookmark their searches, and couldn't do this because we prefer the POST method instead of the GET method. There is a reason behind this: the POST method keeps your search terms out of the logs of webmasters on sites that you reach from our scraped results. Search engines use the GET method, and many searchers are accustomed to the convenience of turning searches into bookmarks or shortcuts. For one thing, you can email a complete search link to someone. But there is a privacy penalty with the GET method, which is why we prefer the POST method.
For example, here is what we see in our log at cia-on-campus.org when a searcher clicks on a cia-on-campus.org link from our proxy using the GET method:
12.345.67.89 - - [11/Jan/2005:15:56:46 -0600] "GET /harvard.edu/harvard.html HTTP/1.1" 200 28063 "http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=harvard+university+journalist"
The 12.345.67.89 would be the IP address. At cia-on-campus.org we now know that someone at that address is interested in Harvard University, journalists, and the CIA. Most IP addresses are traceable these days.
Here is the exact same search, showing the same results, and clicking on the same link, but using the POST method on our proxy:
12.345.67.89 - - [11/Jan/2005:16:01:11 -0600] "GET /harvard.edu/harvard.html HTTP/1.1" 200 28063 "http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi"
As you can see, the POST method leaves off the search terms in the "referrer" information. (The log says "GET" for each, but that's misleading here.) The GET method attaches the search-term information to the URL and the logs show this referrer URL. You can also see this in your browser's address-bar window. The POST method collects the same information through a different process.
Search terms tell a lot about what you are thinking, which is why this is a privacy issue. Remember, this is what a webmaster will see when he studies the logs of any of his sites that you've visited, assuming that you found the site through a search engine. Our POST method on this proxy is the only way we know of to strip off your search terms in his log.However, people frequently find it useful to bookmark their results. Here we provide a form that will let you use the bookmarkable GET method instead of the private POST method. Our proxy will handle whatever method it detects. The two forms on the search results page still revert to the original POST method, and you should use the form on this page only if you need a bookmark.
If you want to send a search URL to someone else, or make a bookmark, use the form below. This will produce a nice, clean link in your address bar.
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In January 2007 it was reported that if you try to send the four characters ".scr" through MSN's Instant Messenger client programs, the message will be discarded, and you will have no indication that it wasn't sent. Apparently it is discarded because the ".scr" extension for screen-saver files can contain executable code. While "www.scroogle.org" contains these four problem characters, one would think that Microsoft's client software is smart enough to let it through, since these characters are not used as a file extension by Scroogle. No such luck. To send any Scroogle URLs through MSN Instant Messenger client programs, you should strip off the "www." in front of "scroogle.org." The missing period in front of "scr" should let it get through. |