I recently discovered this URL: http://google.com/ie Essentially it is a no frills version of Google Search. There are no advertisements and results are displayed as a list of links. Speeds are surprisingly even faster than the normal Google search.
I came about this information when viewing Fravia’s web site about search techniques. A very interesting read (and some videos), if you would like to more efficiently exploit the internet while avoiding commercialism. Here’s a quick sample of his rules and advice to searching and hitting the jackpots.