[tor-bugs] #32064 [Community/Outreach]: Make web searches for Tor Browser more useful

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#32064: Make web searches for Tor Browser more useful
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 Reporter:  phw                 |          Owner:  ggus
     Type:  task                |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium              |      Milestone:
Component:  Community/Outreach  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal              |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                      |         Points:
 Reviewer:                      |        Sponsor:
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Description changed by dcf:

Old description:

> (I'm filing this under community/outreach for lack of a better
> component.)
>
> When people try to get a copy of Tor Browser, they likely search for "tor
> download" in their favourite search engine. The phrase "tor download"
> results in the following:
>
> * Google's first result points to our download page. The second result is
> techspot.com/downloads/5183-tor-browser.html, a third-party download
> site.
>
> * Bing's first result also points to our download page. The second result
> is tor.en.lo4d.com, a third-party download site.
>
> * Same story with Yahoo: the first results points to our download page
> and the second is a third-party download site.
>
> * Yandex's first three results point to our download pages. The fourth is
> a third-party download site.
>
> * Baidu's top results are all third-party download sites:
>   * tor-browser-download.en.softonic.com
>   * tor.brothersoft.com (unrelated to us)
>   * tor-browser.updatestar.com/en
>
> There are a few things we could do to make web searches for Tor Browser
> more useful:
>
> * Gus pointed out that we can mention GetTor in torproject.org's website
> description. Google makes this possible over some sort of webmaster UI.
> Maybe other search engines provide similar functionality. Our website's
> description could say something along the lines of "Unable to load this
> website? Send an email to gettor at tp.o to get Tor Browser".
>
> * Reach out to receptive third-party download sites. We recently
> discovered t-browser.sourceforge.net over baidu. It seems to be a third-
> party download site with good intentions. We could reach out to such
> webmasters and work with them to make their sites more useful.

New description:

 (I'm filing this under community/outreach for lack of a better component.)

 When people try to get a copy of Tor Browser, they likely search for "tor
 download" in their favourite search engine. The phrase "tor download"
 results in the following:

 * Google's first result points to our download page. The second result is
 techspot.com/downloads/5183-tor-browser.html, a third-party download site.

 * Bing's first result also points to our download page. The second result
 is tor.en.lo4d.com, a third-party download site.

 * Same story with Yahoo: the first results points to our download page and
 the second is a third-party download site.

 * Yandex's first three results point to our download pages. The fourth is
 a third-party download site.

 * Baidu's top results are all third-party download sites:
   * tor-browser-download.en.softonic.com
   * tor.brothersoft.com (unrelated to us)
   * tor-browser.updatestar.com/en

 There are a few things we could do to make web searches for Tor Browser
 more useful:

 * Gus pointed out that we can mention GetTor in torproject.org's website
 description. Google makes this possible over some sort of webmaster UI.
 Maybe other search engines provide similar functionality. Our website's
 description could say something along the lines of "Unable to load this
 website? Send an email to !gettor at tp.o to get Tor Browser".

 * Reach out to receptive third-party download sites. We recently
 discovered t-browser.sourceforge.net over baidu. It seems to be a third-
 party download site with good intentions. We could reach out to such
 webmasters and work with them to make their sites more useful.

--

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/32064#comment:1>
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