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I remember Paul Graham gave a keynote at one of the Pycons some years ago. It was about interesting ideas that you might want to work on in the future. One ide

by rdtsc 8y ago

I remember Paul Graham gave a keynote at one of the Pycons some years ago. It was about interesting ideas that you might want to work on in the future. One idea was to build a search engine that returns unpersonalized results. He talked about how Google will be moving into a "it's true, if it's true for you" kind of world. His idea was that it will open new opportunities. I think DuckDuckGo is one example, and they've grown and are doing pretty well. I think a lot of it comes as a reaction to Google, Facebook and other such things. "It's true, if it's true for you" is also a great phrase worth remembering. It describes so much about the current world and where things are headed, and why some things seemed to have gone off rails.

ur-whale 8y ago
While I have switched to DuckDuckGo a long time ago, there basically is no proof they're actually not doing exactly what Google does.
- anon4242 8y ago
  The funny thing is that what DuckDuckGo is doing is actually working... By limiting ads to the search words they manage to provide relevant ads (insofar any ads are ever relevant). It turns out that when I search for "office chair" I'm actually not shopping for the Macbook Pro I was looking at a month ago... :O
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  You're asking for proof of a negative. DuckDuckGo just put out a post criticizing Google for personalizing search results. They're a small company without many resources, and privacy has been their primary selling point from the get-go. Yes, DuckDuckGo could also be personalizing their own results, but if they were and people found out, there's risk of a significant outcry. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm inclined to assume good faith. See also: discussions around "but how do we know for sure that Apple has better data privacy than Google?"
  - dna_polymerase 8y ago
    They are VC-funded and make money selling ads. Stop idolising DDG as the true and only fighter for privacy. Sooner or later they will bow down to Ad Cash or fuck up otherwise.
    - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
      It's not about company size or profitability, it's about words + past actions. As I mentioned, I made a similar argument recently about Apple. If you assume all organizations are equally ready to ignore user privacy, what do you use? Do you program your own everything or do you only use FSF-approved software whose source code you have personally examined and compiled? It's all about degrees.
    - giancarlostoro 8y ago
      They sell ads based on your current search terms, not your search and browsing history. Your browsing history is easier for Google to summarize based on all your searches, and URLs you click which get redirected from google.com to other sites with a unique hash.
- PhasmaFelis 8y ago
  Do you mean personalizing search results? IF so, that's incredibly easy to check: run the same searches on computers in separate physical locations and compare results.
  - ur-whale 8y ago
    I meant tracking you and selling the outcome to the the highest bidder.
    - diffeomorphism 8y ago
      Tracking is not invisible, see ghostery of disconnect or... . So your "there basically is no proof" is both wrong and a red herring.
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    The article mentioned Google tracking users even inside browser sessions. So I'm not sure how to replicate this individually without a significant amount of effort.
tmaly 8y ago
It use to be that DuckDuckGo would let you contribute to the search engine years back providing interfaces to various 3rd party data. I am not sure if that is still the case? Has anyone written anything for DuckDuckGo?
- JBReefer 8y ago
  That's the Bang system
- baroffoos 8y ago
  You used to be able to contribute to those info cards at the top of searches but about a year ago they closed it off from external contributions.
- shakna 8y ago
  They stopped August 31st, 2017 [0], however they still have several open source efforts [1] [0] https://duckduckhack.com/ https://duckduckhack.com/ [1] https://github.com/duckduckgo/ https://github.com/duckduckgo/

by rdtsc 8y ago

ur-whale 8y ago

While I have switched to DuckDuckGo a long time ago, there basically is no proof they're actually not doing exactly what Google does.

anon4242 8y ago
The funny thing is that what DuckDuckGo is doing is actually working... By limiting ads to the search words they manage to provide relevant ads (insofar any ads are ever relevant). It turns out that when I search for "office chair" I'm actually not shopping for the Macbook Pro I was looking at a month ago... :O
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
You're asking for proof of a negative. DuckDuckGo just put out a post criticizing Google for personalizing search results. They're a small company without many resources, and privacy has been their primary selling point from the get-go. Yes, DuckDuckGo could also be personalizing their own results, but if they were and people found out, there's risk of a significant outcry. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm inclined to assume good faith. See also: discussions around "but how do we know for sure that Apple has better data privacy than Google?"
- dna_polymerase 8y ago
  They are VC-funded and make money selling ads. Stop idolising DDG as the true and only fighter for privacy. Sooner or later they will bow down to Ad Cash or fuck up otherwise.
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    It's not about company size or profitability, it's about words + past actions. As I mentioned, I made a similar argument recently about Apple. If you assume all organizations are equally ready to ignore user privacy, what do you use? Do you program your own everything or do you only use FSF-approved software whose source code you have personally examined and compiled? It's all about degrees.
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    They sell ads based on your current search terms, not your search and browsing history. Your browsing history is easier for Google to summarize based on all your searches, and URLs you click which get redirected from google.com to other sites with a unique hash.
PhasmaFelis 8y ago
Do you mean personalizing search results? IF so, that's incredibly easy to check: run the same searches on computers in separate physical locations and compare results.
- ur-whale 8y ago
  I meant tracking you and selling the outcome to the the highest bidder.
  - diffeomorphism 8y ago
    Tracking is not invisible, see ghostery of disconnect or... . So your "there basically is no proof" is both wrong and a red herring.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  The article mentioned Google tracking users even inside browser sessions. So I'm not sure how to replicate this individually without a significant amount of effort.

tmaly 8y ago

It use to be that DuckDuckGo would let you contribute to the search engine years back providing interfaces to various 3rd party data. I am not sure if that is still the case? Has anyone written anything for DuckDuckGo?

JBReefer 8y ago
That's the Bang system
baroffoos 8y ago
You used to be able to contribute to those info cards at the top of searches but about a year ago they closed it off from external contributions.
shakna 8y ago
They stopped August 31st, 2017 [0], however they still have several open source efforts [1] [0] https://duckduckhack.com/ https://duckduckhack.com/ [1] https://github.com/duckduckgo/ https://github.com/duckduckgo/