Another way for Google to gather information about us. Not only will they have a record of searches associated with your IP (when you use Google as your search engine), they will also have a listing of all sites your computer visits - information that is now held only by your ISP. No thank you.
actually I don't use my ISPs DNS servers, since they suck. As far as using google for DNS goes who cares, all DNS does is translate IPs to names. You have never heard of tracking cookies? How do you think that ads know how to find local singles in your area? They do a reverse lookup on your IP or the ad people put a cookie on your machine to track info you put into input boxes.
Regarding those tracking cookies, I've made a post about opting out from those advertising companies. I think everyone should do that. It doesn't kill the adds, but they can't deliver any behaviour related adds no more.
Tracking cookies don't pinpoint all your activities if you remove them automatically when your browser shuts down (Firefox add-on "cookie-culler"). What I'm saying is that your ISP can (does?) log all DNS requests to its DNS servers. When run in debug mode, detailed log entries show all requests by each IP address and which host names it asks to be resolved by the server(s). That information could prove embarrassing (or worse) if associated with the owner of the IP address. Google already logs all searches associated with your IP address (if you use Google) unless you go through a proxy server. Add to that the log of all host names you request when your apps run automatic DNS requests for web sites, email servers, torrent sites, etc., etc., and that produces a rich database of your online activities. Best to separate your searches and DNS requests, in my opinion. Even better to use a proxy server to mask your IP address when browsing "questionable" sites. As a long-time administrator of DNS servers and having had state/federal agencies request logs for their investigations, I know what I'm talking about. I'm careful who I allow to log my online activities as a precaution and you should be, too. That's all I'm saying.
Agreed, however Google already collect what sites you visit..(although they wont admit it) via google-analytics.com (unless you block it with No/Script in FireFox) Fire up FireFox and go to any site (check No/Script) and you will see google-analytics.com is trying to run on EVERY website) wankers!
Thanks for the heads up JBenal. Just another ploy to get more traffic then other search engines. Just part of Googles way of staying a head of the pack. Go with Open DNS or proxy sever.
Well, I used Google DNS this week for a client on a small independent cable ISP and it made a big difference. If an area has poor service with no choice in providers, then I think the Google DNS option can be very good option.
Google can gtfo, I aint touching anything related to them. Them having the ability to log my searches is the most i'll give them. Since my ISP's DNS servers are really bad however, I am using OpenDNS. Atleast with OpenDNS you can disable all the logging/statistics in the control panel, plus you can turn off their advertisment-based proxy. End result: Super-fast dns for me, no redirections, no logging.
Interesting thread, thanks for the info people. Just switched to Open DNS, will see how it goes. As Genuine555 said, if using FF then you really wat to be using Adblock and select the option to clear all cookies whenn FF shuts down. Works for me.