5 ms·

This is interesting because I tried Yandex for the first time after this DDG debacle, and I found it solved a major problem I have with every other popular sear

This is interesting because I tried Yandex for the first time after this DDG debacle, and I found it solved a major problem I have with every other popular search engine - Yandex respected my actual query and gave me the correct results every time, instead of trying to mind read me and mangle the results like the other ones. Google always does it, DDG started doing it some time ago, and unfortunately Brave search also seems to do it. I understand there's probably a reason others do it - maybe that that's what's needed to serve a general audience, they're optimising the results for my 70 yr old dad and 10 yr old niece. But that does mean that using them is a frustrating experience for me half of the time, of quoting everything and micromanaging the query terms so that they understand that I do mean this specific thing rather than this overgeneralised idea they seem to parse from it. Yandex was a breath of fresh air in that respect.

Biganon 5y ago
In search engines and in so many other applications, we desperately need a checkbox that says "I know what I'm doing, don't assume anything, give it to me straight". Expert modes, literal modes, they need to be everywhere.
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  Google has sort of added this - but they hide it so well I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks back. If you do a search, click tools, click the "more" dropdown, and choose "Verbatim" then the results are actually pretty close to "don't fucking try to read my mind". They claim the following about Verbatim (although this info is from 2011, and it may be different now) ---- This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results. On the verbatim page, users will see only results that: Include all their search terms. Match their exact spelling. Use the same tense (e.g., “is” and “was” will be seen as distinct). Use the same verb form (e.g., “swimming” and “swim” will be seen as distinct). Use the same plural vs singular form (e.g., “hat” and “hats” will be seen as distinct).
  - sundarurfriend 5y ago
    > click tools, click the "more" dropdown It's under Tools -> "All results" dropdown for me. I tried to see if it was possible to bookmark to get a verbatim search directly, and while I couldn't decipher the obfuscated query they seem to be using these days, the overall query length was much shorter than with the original non-verbatim search. I wonder if that has anything to do with the: > This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results. claim. The original search had a very long 64 bit encoded parameter, which perhaps had some context information - it seems plausible it had some typing history information (perhaps taken from their Google Docs code), maybe how fast I typed (for error probability), some kind of personally identifying ID about my current session perhaps. Looking at these query strings and how opaque they are, feels a bit creepy that all this information is being sent from my computer without my knowledge or significant control. Makes me glad I rarely use Google these days.
yakubin 5y ago
Using quotes in DDG used to work for me. Unfortunately, for a couple months now it doesn't. The results are garbage. Often they don't even include most of the words I typed, only the first one.

Biganon 5y ago

In search engines and in so many other applications, we desperately need a checkbox that says "I know what I'm doing, don't assume anything, give it to me straight". Expert modes, literal modes, they need to be everywhere.

horsawlarway 5y ago
Google has sort of added this - but they hide it so well I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks back. If you do a search, click tools, click the "more" dropdown, and choose "Verbatim" then the results are actually pretty close to "don't fucking try to read my mind". They claim the following about Verbatim (although this info is from 2011, and it may be different now) ---- This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results. On the verbatim page, users will see only results that: Include all their search terms. Match their exact spelling. Use the same tense (e.g., “is” and “was” will be seen as distinct). Use the same verb form (e.g., “swimming” and “swim” will be seen as distinct). Use the same plural vs singular form (e.g., “hat” and “hats” will be seen as distinct).
- sundarurfriend 5y ago
  > click tools, click the "more" dropdown It's under Tools -> "All results" dropdown for me. I tried to see if it was possible to bookmark to get a verbatim search directly, and while I couldn't decipher the obfuscated query they seem to be using these days, the overall query length was much shorter than with the original non-verbatim search. I wonder if that has anything to do with the: > This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results. claim. The original search had a very long 64 bit encoded parameter, which perhaps had some context information - it seems plausible it had some typing history information (perhaps taken from their Google Docs code), maybe how fast I typed (for error probability), some kind of personally identifying ID about my current session perhaps. Looking at these query strings and how opaque they are, feels a bit creepy that all this information is being sent from my computer without my knowledge or significant control. Makes me glad I rarely use Google these days.

yakubin 5y ago

Using quotes in DDG used to work for me. Unfortunately, for a couple months now it doesn't. The results are garbage. Often they don't even include most of the words I typed, only the first one.