The Design and Implementation of laffer1

 I've been using Google for several years.  I'm thinking about trying some alternate search engines.  I just realized you can't easily change the default search in safari like you can in Firefox and even IE.  

Apple doesn't seem to have a preference for it and cuil's FAQ incorrectly suggests there is a setting.  I can't find it.  A search on cuil returned one useful hit, but the site was pulled down.  They also don't seem to cache pages like Google.  I decided to use Google to look for an answer.  There are two options.

1. Use http://www.inquisitorx.com/ to configure your search.  I don't know if they log searches or use any form of spyware.  They probably don't, but I consider search very important and don't want to trust this.
2. Some people have reported success hex editing safari.  I could do this, but I don't know what would happen when software update tries to push/install a new version.  Best case, I'd have to do this every time Safari gets a security update.

Oddly enough, it's easier to change on the iPhone where apple could lock users in.  I may stick with Google, but now I feel like I'm forced to.  It's sad as I like Safari in my any other ways and have even been using WebKit in BSD for browsing.

Is this the end of web search competition?  Microsoft and Yahoo have inked a deal to use Microsoft's Bing search engine on yahoo.com.  That means Microsoft has won.  This is the foothold Balmer has wanted in search and marks the end of his massive attention to search.  That means, Microsoft can focus on other attacks against Google or other sectors again. 

The deal is terrible for yahoo.  The CEO must not understand why the previous people in her position did not want a deal with Microsoft.  Search was the only thing yahoo really had.  Portals come and go.  They won't have a product for ten years.  There's no way they can recover and eventualy Microsoft will steal the portal users to their own websites.  It's a very bad move for Yahoo.  I feel bad for the engineers at Yahoo that will be fired.