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I tried DDG for a bit and was constantly being fed blog articles and 'developer websites' instead of canonical documentation for queries that I would have thoug

I tried DDG for a bit and was constantly being fed blog articles and 'developer websites' instead of canonical documentation for queries that I would have thought would go straight to (say) the main Python docs site. So I moved back to Google. Now Google does exactly the same thing. Time to try moving again I guess. (Also, ads? What ads? Doesn't everyone use an adblocker?)

woefblaf123 4y ago
I use an adblocker of course, but Google's top results are basically paid ads. An adblocker doesn't block them because they come from google themselves. You can just pay google to be on the top for certain search terms, regardless of the actual relevance of your website. So I'm calling them ads, but they are technically paid searh results. Indeed DDG is also pretty bad lately but I still consider it better than Google. It's just that the quality of both has gone down a lot due to these practices.
- askvictor 4y ago
  Are you saying that the top results in Google are paid results even then they don't have any markings/boxes/disclaimers indicating this is the case? I mean nothing surprises me anymore, but you'd at least imagine various regulators wouldn't be too happy about that.
  - wkat4242 4y ago
    Thay have a really small text saying "Ad" https://ads.google.com/intl/en_id/home/resources/what-is-paid-search/ https://ads.google.com/intl/en_id/home/resources/what-is-pai...
    - askvictor 4y ago
      Funnily enough, my adblocker blocks this page. In any case, the adblocker(s) I use (ublock origin in browser, pihole on the network) seem to block Google ads/paid search results. It does still clearly seem to be their policy to label all paid search results: | This is a search result, not an ad. Only ads are paid, and they'll always be labelled with 'Sponsored' or 'Ad'.
justinclift 4y ago
Maybe try kagi (kagi.com)? People have mentioned it here for a while, and I've been trying it over the last week (free trial thing). So far, the results are definitely better than DDG. I don't use Google nor Bing though, so can't compare to those.

woefblaf123 4y ago

I use an adblocker of course, but Google's top results are basically paid ads. An adblocker doesn't block them because they come from google themselves. You can just pay google to be on the top for certain search terms, regardless of the actual relevance of your website. So I'm calling them ads, but they are technically paid searh results. Indeed DDG is also pretty bad lately but I still consider it better than Google. It's just that the quality of both has gone down a lot due to these practices.

askvictor 4y ago
Are you saying that the top results in Google are paid results even then they don't have any markings/boxes/disclaimers indicating this is the case? I mean nothing surprises me anymore, but you'd at least imagine various regulators wouldn't be too happy about that.
- wkat4242 4y ago
  Thay have a really small text saying "Ad" https://ads.google.com/intl/en_id/home/resources/what-is-paid-search/ https://ads.google.com/intl/en_id/home/resources/what-is-pai...
  - askvictor 4y ago
    Funnily enough, my adblocker blocks this page. In any case, the adblocker(s) I use (ublock origin in browser, pihole on the network) seem to block Google ads/paid search results. It does still clearly seem to be their policy to label all paid search results: | This is a search result, not an ad. Only ads are paid, and they'll always be labelled with 'Sponsored' or 'Ad'.

justinclift 4y ago

Maybe try kagi (kagi.com)? People have mentioned it here for a while, and I've been trying it over the last week (free trial thing). So far, the results are definitely better than DDG. I don't use Google nor Bing though, so can't compare to those.