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A Reporters Without Borders study concludes that Yahoo is the worst censor among search engines in China. The news comes just a few weeks after UK and Irish journalists urged a Yahoo boycott following CEO Terry Semel's comment that he might be willing to report them all to the Nazis.

But it's not as if Yahoo's the only search engine worth boycotting. Google's a scary hegemony that keeps all your data. MSN is run by the monopolists at Microsoft. AOL search is just too lousy to use. And every engine censors — some are just more honest about it. Any real boycotter has to get out of search altogether.

So how can an Internet user survive without search? The list is after the jump.

"You can't," says Chris Pirillo, the blogger who "Googlefasted" for two weeks. He got used to using Yahoo and his own tool, Gada.be, but living without search? "Might as well kill yourself." Oh ye of little faith!

  • Call the library. The New York Public Library has a crack team on call (pictured), according to today's New York Times. "Every day, except Sundays and holidays, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., anyone, of any age, from anywhere can telephone (212) 340-0849 and ask most any question." Won't work for porn searches, but you can always ask what they're wearing.
  • Ask chatters. Simple questions ("where I get free World of Warcraft plz") work in AOL chat rooms. Actually better than Google, which expects you to spell things correctly.
  • Okay, AOL chatters know less than you do. Ask on an IRC channel.
  • Enter whatever-search-terms.com — it probably won't be what you want, but if you're lucky, it won't be a malicious hacker's squatting site.
  • Look it up in your 1989 Britannica. See, there's your answer: O.J. Simpson is "a popular football player."
  • Let go of the search. Walk outside, feel the earth between your toes. Doesn't that feel better than searching? No? Oh heck, Googling just this once won't hurt anyone.

Yahoo! clear worst offender in censorship tests on search engines [Reporters Without Borders]