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Wikipedia is an incredible achievement. It's one of the only information sources I find to be consistently useful across a broad range of topics. It's also one

Wikipedia is an incredible achievement. It's one of the only information sources I find to be consistently useful across a broad range of topics. It's also one of the only remaining sources I feel to be mostly trustworthy. These days I append either "wikipedia" or "reddit" to most of my Google searches in order to get useful information. There's so much SEO'd garbage out there, but Wikipedia remains a breath of fresh air.

IIAOPSW 7y ago
Why not skip the middleman and go directly to wikipedia or reddit?
- bananamerica 7y ago
  IDK about Wikipedia, but Reddit's builtin search sucks. Google is better.
- majos 7y ago
  I find Google’s search on Reddit to be much better than Reddit’s.
- jacobajit 7y ago
  Reddit/Wikipedia search are an order of magnitude worse than Google
  - commoner 7y ago
    Wikipedia search works well for me. The site search is exhaustive, returning every single page matching the query. For topics in the news recently, all changes are propagated to Wikipedia's search index immediately, while Google takes longer to recognize changes.
  - jolmg 7y ago
    I don't know about Reddit, but for Wikipedia I just write a guess for the title of the article I'm looking for, and if I'm not redirected to the proper title of the article, then I'm normally sent to a disambiguation page. I've never found myself in need of something like Google for Wikipedia.
    - shawabawa3 7y ago
      That works if you know the article you want, but for something more abstract wiki search is terrible I just came up with this example on the spot, searching wikipedia for "inventor of paracetamol", the first result on wiki search is "Polymorphism", then "Diphenhydramine", then "List of Suicides", then "Menstruation" Searching google for "inventor of paracetamol wiki" links to the wikipedia Paracetamol page subsection History
      - jolmg 7y ago
        Oh, indeed. I think Wiki's search is based on just the titles and probably their redirection aliases, not the article bodies.
- undershirt 7y ago
  Try using Wikipedia through Mac's Dictionary app. I never touch my browser for that anymore.
Analemma_ 7y ago
If you're worried about SEO and manipulation, Wikipedia is decent but Reddit is awful. It's pretty well-established by now that astroturfing and influence campaigns are rampant on Reddit, and in some particularly bad cases like /r/worldnews have taken over subreddits completely.
- ceres 7y ago
  Yeah but it depends on the subreddit though. For some things I'd rather have multiple opinions than that of one blogger.
- benrbray 7y ago
  I wouldn't use reddit to find credible info about world events or trending topics. However, it's an excellent source for finding information about hobbies and niche topics. The culinary subreddits have great recipe advice and I'll often go there to find best practices for food safety or unfamiliar techniques. Appending "reddit" to the end of my search means I don't have to sift through hundreds of SEO'd blog posts with questionable advice! For the time being, people don't SEO their reddit comments. Now that I think of it, I actually do this quite often--Google really isn't what it used to be.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    It's also good anthropologically, for at least some segment of the population. I've found the zeitgeist of Reddit comments on (eg) political topics to pretty consistently predict shifts in broader political culture.
    - friendlybus 7y ago
      Most of the internet moves homogenously now. Fortnite streamers, reddit, hn, hollywood and Stephen Colbert all hit the same thematic marks in roughly the same time periods. Slashdot one or two days later.
      - wutbrodo 7y ago
harshreality 7y ago
You could switch to duckduckgo and use the ! codes; !r and !w search directly on reddit and wikipedia. In cases where you aren't searching directly on one of the supported sites, and would prefer google's algorithms instead of ddg's (or reddit's), all you have to do is add !g. It's a lot easier than trying to get google to do direct searches (using site:) or search on ddg (I don't think google has any shortcuts for redirecting to search on another search engine).
- Nition 7y ago
  The ability to search these sites directly is also built in to most browsers. No need to send your query through any search engine. Firefox setup: - Go to the page with the search you want, e.g. wikipedia.com - Right-click the search box - "Add a Keyword for this search" - Type your "keyword" e.g. w Now any time you want to search wikipedia, go to the URL bar and type w plus a space first, then your search term. Chrome setup: I haven't used Chrome for a while but it also has this feature. You add "keywords" for your site searches somewhere in the settings instead of via right-clicking the search box, but the usage once it's set up is the same.
  - yunruse 7y ago
    The standard argument against this is that it’s not very standardised. “wtde” will give you German Wiktionary no matter what browser you’re on. The cost of adding a code for every use case needed on every browser can get frustrating, whereas many bangs on DDG can be easily inferred, and then immediately used. The only cost then is changing a search engine.

IIAOPSW 7y ago

Why not skip the middleman and go directly to wikipedia or reddit?

bananamerica 7y ago
IDK about Wikipedia, but Reddit's builtin search sucks. Google is better.
majos 7y ago
I find Google’s search on Reddit to be much better than Reddit’s.
jacobajit 7y ago
Reddit/Wikipedia search are an order of magnitude worse than Google
- commoner 7y ago
  Wikipedia search works well for me. The site search is exhaustive, returning every single page matching the query. For topics in the news recently, all changes are propagated to Wikipedia's search index immediately, while Google takes longer to recognize changes.
- jolmg 7y ago
  I don't know about Reddit, but for Wikipedia I just write a guess for the title of the article I'm looking for, and if I'm not redirected to the proper title of the article, then I'm normally sent to a disambiguation page. I've never found myself in need of something like Google for Wikipedia.
  - shawabawa3 7y ago
    That works if you know the article you want, but for something more abstract wiki search is terrible I just came up with this example on the spot, searching wikipedia for "inventor of paracetamol", the first result on wiki search is "Polymorphism", then "Diphenhydramine", then "List of Suicides", then "Menstruation" Searching google for "inventor of paracetamol wiki" links to the wikipedia Paracetamol page subsection History
    - jolmg 7y ago
      Oh, indeed. I think Wiki's search is based on just the titles and probably their redirection aliases, not the article bodies.
undershirt 7y ago
Try using Wikipedia through Mac's Dictionary app. I never touch my browser for that anymore.

Analemma_ 7y ago

If you're worried about SEO and manipulation, Wikipedia is decent but Reddit is awful. It's pretty well-established by now that astroturfing and influence campaigns are rampant on Reddit, and in some particularly bad cases like /r/worldnews have taken over subreddits completely.

ceres 7y ago
Yeah but it depends on the subreddit though. For some things I'd rather have multiple opinions than that of one blogger.
benrbray 7y ago
I wouldn't use reddit to find credible info about world events or trending topics. However, it's an excellent source for finding information about hobbies and niche topics. The culinary subreddits have great recipe advice and I'll often go there to find best practices for food safety or unfamiliar techniques. Appending "reddit" to the end of my search means I don't have to sift through hundreds of SEO'd blog posts with questionable advice! For the time being, people don't SEO their reddit comments. Now that I think of it, I actually do this quite often--Google really isn't what it used to be.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  It's also good anthropologically, for at least some segment of the population. I've found the zeitgeist of Reddit comments on (eg) political topics to pretty consistently predict shifts in broader political culture.
  - friendlybus 7y ago
    Most of the internet moves homogenously now. Fortnite streamers, reddit, hn, hollywood and Stephen Colbert all hit the same thematic marks in roughly the same time periods. Slashdot one or two days later.
    - wutbrodo 7y ago

harshreality 7y ago

You could switch to duckduckgo and use the ! codes; !r and !w search directly on reddit and wikipedia. In cases where you aren't searching directly on one of the supported sites, and would prefer google's algorithms instead of ddg's (or reddit's), all you have to do is add !g. It's a lot easier than trying to get google to do direct searches (using site:) or search on ddg (I don't think google has any shortcuts for redirecting to search on another search engine).

Nition 7y ago
The ability to search these sites directly is also built in to most browsers. No need to send your query through any search engine. Firefox setup: - Go to the page with the search you want, e.g. wikipedia.com - Right-click the search box - "Add a Keyword for this search" - Type your "keyword" e.g. w Now any time you want to search wikipedia, go to the URL bar and type w plus a space first, then your search term. Chrome setup: I haven't used Chrome for a while but it also has this feature. You add "keywords" for your site searches somewhere in the settings instead of via right-clicking the search box, but the usage once it's set up is the same.
- yunruse 7y ago
  The standard argument against this is that it’s not very standardised. “wtde” will give you German Wiktionary no matter what browser you’re on. The cost of adding a code for every use case needed on every browser can get frustrating, whereas many bangs on DDG can be easily inferred, and then immediately used. The only cost then is changing a search engine.