4 ms·

I think DuckDuckGo is closer to what you want. Same results for everyone, better privacy, and they're proactive about improving their results. https://duckduck

I think DuckDuckGo is closer to what you want. Same results for everyone, better privacy, and they're proactive about improving their results. https://duckduckgo.com/ https://duckduckgo.com/ Part of the problem is that there's a lot more low-quality content to wade through now than there was in 2005. I think the Google of 2005 would have trouble delivering quality results today also.

Kiro 5y ago
Try searching for the same thing from your computer and your phone and you will get different results. Also, their results come from Bing so any improvement happens at Microsoft.
- JohnFen 5y ago
  They do use Bing, but not solely Bing. DDG isn't just a frontend to a different search engine.
  - bla3 5y ago
    It's a bing frontend with a few special cases handled differently. For most queries, you get bing results. Easy to check by comparing results.
    - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
      I see Russian sites from Yandex all the time on DDG.
Sunspark 5y ago
This. DDG is my primary search engine now and has been for awhile. I don't use Google anymore to search unless I really need to. The algos they use today are not the same classic ones that actually returned results.
- kspacewalk2 5y ago
  And if you really need to, DDG !bangs[0] make a search as simple as "!g mother google help me". The keyword thing is also available in Firefox as a browser feature, and elsewhere I'm sure, but nevertheless, it makes switching to DDG easier. (Plus I can directly go to the wiki page by using "!w", "!gm" for google maps, etc.) [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
  - eevilspock 5y ago
    The only bang I use is !gvb since DDG doesn't support verbatim searches.
    - jay3ss 5y ago
      Is this the same as enclosing the terms in quotes and using the !g bang?
      - eevilspock 5y ago
        it's a google "verbatim" search. I don't know if enclosing each term separately in quotes does the same thing, but this is easier anyway.
        jay3ss 5y ago
        I didn't know about the verbatim search. I'm going to give it a try, thanks
- JohnFen 5y ago
  Same. For the sorts of searching I do, anyway, the results I get from DDG tend to be better than what I get from Google. Google tries to infer what I want rather than take me at my word, and is very bad at it.
hunterb123 5y ago
DDG never worked great for me, and it doesn't have it's own index. Brave search has been my daily driver and it works wonderful.
- adolph 5y ago
  I'll give it a try, somehow I missed the announcement even though I'm a Brave user... https://brave.com/search/ https://brave.com/search/
MuffinFlavored 5y ago
> I think the Google of 2005 would have trouble delivering quality results today also. What would you attribute to their modern 2021 success then? Just throwing a ton of money at amazing engineers to hone in their complex algorithm to tweak it to still return what us humans quantify as "good" results? Especially if they are waning through a sea of low-quality content as you say.
gbmatt 5y ago
both ddg and brave are bing (microsoft) in disguise.
- pythux 5y ago
  This is not correct. Brave Search owns its own (growing) index and relies on third-parties like Bing for some fraction of the requests. Which is not the same thing as relying fully on Bing or third-parties for results like so many meta-search engines. More detailed answer here: https://search.brave.com/help/independence https://search.brave.com/help/independence Edit: Forgot to say that I work on Brave Search.
  - gbmatt 5y ago
    brave 'falls back' to bing. which in my experience is most of the time. in fact, out of all the queries i did a while back, they all seemed to come directly from bing. is there a way to disable the reliance on bing and get pure 'brave only' results? and can you be more specific as to what this fraction is? do you blend at all?
    - BrendanEich 5y ago
      What independence percentage do you see when you click on the gear in upper right of the Brave Search results page? I get 84% personal (browser-based), 87% global (which means we hit Bing only 13% of the time from our server side).
    - pythux 5y ago
      You can check exactly which fraction of the results were fetched from Brave's index vs. third-parties using the "independence score" found in the setting drawers (opening can be done with the cog icon at the top right of any page on search.brave.com). There is there a global and personalized score of independence (respectively aggregated on all user's and for your queries only). Explanation is also found here with screenshots: https://search.brave.com/help/independence https://search.brave.com/help/independence
ricardo81 5y ago
Does DDG have any of its own organic results yet, or is it still entirely Bing/Yandex?
DavideNL 5y ago
> a lot more low-quality content I wish there was an easy way to filter ALL search results, by permanently excluding specific websites, and/or keywords. Surely there has to be some browser extension that does this...
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29404860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29404860 Not got round to trying it yet though.
  - DavideNL 5y ago
    Great and it even supports iOS…!
- MayeulC 5y ago
  Excluding, or penalizing for, advertising and trackers could do wonders against perverse incentives and SEO, IMO. It would also be a better experience for the reader.
jpswade 5y ago
DuckDuckGo isn’t really a search engine, it’s a website that uses bing’s api.
- cyberbanjo 5y ago
  Not just Bing, but nearly every search engine you've ever used https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q= https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q=
  - phil294 5y ago
    Bangs are not APIs. DDG does not access 13,565 APIs when you make a search request.

Kiro 5y ago

Try searching for the same thing from your computer and your phone and you will get different results. Also, their results come from Bing so any improvement happens at Microsoft.

JohnFen 5y ago
They do use Bing, but not solely Bing. DDG isn't just a frontend to a different search engine.
- bla3 5y ago
  It's a bing frontend with a few special cases handled differently. For most queries, you get bing results. Easy to check by comparing results.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    I see Russian sites from Yandex all the time on DDG.

Sunspark 5y ago

This. DDG is my primary search engine now and has been for awhile. I don't use Google anymore to search unless I really need to. The algos they use today are not the same classic ones that actually returned results.

kspacewalk2 5y ago
And if you really need to, DDG !bangs[0] make a search as simple as "!g mother google help me". The keyword thing is also available in Firefox as a browser feature, and elsewhere I'm sure, but nevertheless, it makes switching to DDG easier. (Plus I can directly go to the wiki page by using "!w", "!gm" for google maps, etc.) [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
- eevilspock 5y ago
  The only bang I use is !gvb since DDG doesn't support verbatim searches.
  - jay3ss 5y ago
    Is this the same as enclosing the terms in quotes and using the !g bang?
    - eevilspock 5y ago
      it's a google "verbatim" search. I don't know if enclosing each term separately in quotes does the same thing, but this is easier anyway.
      - jay3ss 5y ago
        I didn't know about the verbatim search. I'm going to give it a try, thanks
JohnFen 5y ago
Same. For the sorts of searching I do, anyway, the results I get from DDG tend to be better than what I get from Google. Google tries to infer what I want rather than take me at my word, and is very bad at it.

hunterb123 5y ago

DDG never worked great for me, and it doesn't have it's own index. Brave search has been my daily driver and it works wonderful.

adolph 5y ago
I'll give it a try, somehow I missed the announcement even though I'm a Brave user... https://brave.com/search/ https://brave.com/search/

MuffinFlavored 5y ago

> I think the Google of 2005 would have trouble delivering quality results today also. What would you attribute to their modern 2021 success then? Just throwing a ton of money at amazing engineers to hone in their complex algorithm to tweak it to still return what us humans quantify as "good" results? Especially if they are waning through a sea of low-quality content as you say.

gbmatt 5y ago

both ddg and brave are bing (microsoft) in disguise.

pythux 5y ago
This is not correct. Brave Search owns its own (growing) index and relies on third-parties like Bing for some fraction of the requests. Which is not the same thing as relying fully on Bing or third-parties for results like so many meta-search engines. More detailed answer here: https://search.brave.com/help/independence https://search.brave.com/help/independence Edit: Forgot to say that I work on Brave Search.
- gbmatt 5y ago
  brave 'falls back' to bing. which in my experience is most of the time. in fact, out of all the queries i did a while back, they all seemed to come directly from bing. is there a way to disable the reliance on bing and get pure 'brave only' results? and can you be more specific as to what this fraction is? do you blend at all?
  - BrendanEich 5y ago
    What independence percentage do you see when you click on the gear in upper right of the Brave Search results page? I get 84% personal (browser-based), 87% global (which means we hit Bing only 13% of the time from our server side).
  - pythux 5y ago
    You can check exactly which fraction of the results were fetched from Brave's index vs. third-parties using the "independence score" found in the setting drawers (opening can be done with the cog icon at the top right of any page on search.brave.com). There is there a global and personalized score of independence (respectively aggregated on all user's and for your queries only). Explanation is also found here with screenshots: https://search.brave.com/help/independence https://search.brave.com/help/independence

ricardo81 5y ago

Does DDG have any of its own organic results yet, or is it still entirely Bing/Yandex?

DavideNL 5y ago

> a lot more low-quality content I wish there was an easy way to filter ALL search results, by permanently excluding specific websites, and/or keywords. Surely there has to be some browser extension that does this...

BoxOfRain 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29404860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29404860 Not got round to trying it yet though.
- DavideNL 5y ago
  Great and it even supports iOS…!
MayeulC 5y ago
Excluding, or penalizing for, advertising and trackers could do wonders against perverse incentives and SEO, IMO. It would also be a better experience for the reader.

jpswade 5y ago

DuckDuckGo isn’t really a search engine, it’s a website that uses bing’s api.

cyberbanjo 5y ago
Not just Bing, but nearly every search engine you've ever used https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q= https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q=
- phil294 5y ago
  Bangs are not APIs. DDG does not access 13,565 APIs when you make a search request.