Google is a technology company noted for its Internet search engine. People who don’t like Google have nicknamed the company “Scroogle” or “Screwgle” (screw/Scrooge + Google).
 
Scroogle.org was a web service that allowed users to perform searches without their personal information being collected. Scroogle (with a website that included a drawing of Ebenezer Scrooge, a character of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol) was launched in 2003 and was shut down in 2012. The term “scroogle” was entered in the Urban Dictionary in 2008.
 
The term “Screwgle” has been cited in print since at least 2007. “Google” has been used as a verb as well as a noun, and “Scroogle” and “Screwgle” have also been used as both verbs and nouns.
   
   
Wikipedia: Google
Google /ɡuːɡ(ə)l/ is a United States-headquartered, multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords, an online advertising service that places advertising near the list of search results.
 
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and its unofficial slogan was “Don’t be evil.” In 2004, Google moved to its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex.
 
Wikipedia: Criticism of Google
Scroogle
Scroogle was a web service that allowed users to perform Google searches anonymously. It focused heavily on searcher privacy by blocking Google cookies and not saving log files. The service was launched in 2003 by Google critic Daniel Brandt, who was concerned about Google collecting personal information on its users.
 
Scroogle offered a web interface and browser plugins for Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer that allowed users to run Google searches anonymously. The service scraped Google search results, removing ads and sponsored links. Only the raw search results were returned, meaning features such as page preview were not available. For added security, Scroogle gave users the option of having all communication between their computer and the search page be SSL encrypted.
 
Although Scroogle’s activities technically violated Google’s terms of service, Google generally tolerated its existence, whitelisting the site on multiple occasions. After 2005, the service encountered rapid growth before running into a series of problems starting in 2010. In February 2012, the service was permanently shut down by its creator due to a combination of throttling of search requests by Google and a denial-of-service attack by an unknown person or group.
 
boingboing
Google Maps zoom feature inspires neologism
Xeni Jardin at 1:46 pm Thu, May 31, 2007
BB reader John says,
Suggested addition of a new word into the language of the web. Screwgle, as in “My wife caught me leaving a strip club on Google Street View, I got screwgled!”
 
Twitter
Joel Price
‏@joelprice
learned a new word in the 3.0 session: Screwgle
5:00 PM - 2 Jun 2007
 
Urban Dictionary
scroogle
combination of “screwed” and “google”
usually the expression used when using google maps and they give you wrong directions for the place you searched.
SCROOGLE! I was late to my daughter’s basketball game because google sent me to the wrong address!
by sliderxuk January 23, 2008
 
Atlas Shrugs (Pamela Geller)
SCREWGLE
By Pamela Geller on May 26, 2008
Mac is on da money. Basta to these leftwing cowards. They’d be the first to go should those they enable seize power. Our boys and girls are fighting and dying so that these nancy boys can tiptoe thru the tuilps unfettered.
Announcing the Blog Burst Google Boycott
 
The Register (UK)
Screwgle™ - Google’s new ad revenue model
It’s wallet-emptying good…
28 Jul 2008 at 12:02, Cade Metz
Google’s strict code of secrecy calls for extra silence when the subject is AdWords, the epic money-making machine fueling the company’s drive towards world domination. But sometimes, the truth slips out.
   
Twitter
Lane Ends Dental
‏@laneendsdental
#Google Google Sux, aka Screwgle, Alternative Anti Google Search Engine http://hithot.cc/en_US/Google/  http://www.google-sux.com/  #hithotus
2:55 AM - 14 Sep 2011
 
Twitter
SEO.com
‏@seocom
Scroogle: http://binged.it/WgbQCj  RT @cuteculturechic: Is that Scroogle or Screwgle? #searchinnuendo #SLCSEM
10:14 PM - 16 Jan 2013
 
Twitter
Netizen Nick
‏@NetizenNick
#European Union privacy regulators continue to criticize #Screwgle—er, #Google…
http://bloom.bg/WGYGFc
4:40 PM - 26 Jul 2014