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I think I've gotten to the point I'm ready to drop DuckDuckGo. Recently it's been mixing in region-based results in to my search engine. These are results that

by ysavir 4y ago

I think I've gotten to the point I'm ready to drop DuckDuckGo. Recently it's been mixing in region-based results in to my search engine. These are results that have nothing to do with my search query, and go against the reason I started using DDG in the first place: non-personalized results and not leaking private information (such as location) to the search service. Seems like their old core values are no longer their primary concern. I don't know of any decent alternatives yet, but I'll be keeping an eye out, and am happy to get any suggestions people have.

Dwedit 4y ago
Those are the ads. That's their revenue source.
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  They aren't labeled ads, and it seems incredibly strange that my local chamber of commerce would be buying ads for random lyrics from a song I forgot the name of.
vanilla_nut 4y ago
I feel similarly. The other problem I'm experiencing: extremely slow search page loads, both on desktop and Android Firefox. For now, I've been able to work around it with DDG's HTML site (thank god this exists!), but if I want image search I'm still stuck using the main site. There are a few small private search engines out there, I've been meaning to try out a few. This space is absolutely ready for new ideas, hopefully we'll see some decent options crop up in the next year or two.
- zufallsheld 4y ago
  I have the same problem. I thought it was me.. The HTML Page sadly has no image search I could find.
ravenstine 4y ago
Check out Kagi. It's paid, but I like it a lot.
- ysavir 4y ago
  Looking at them and their focus on AI, and especially stuff like the "Summarize Page" feature, I'm quite against them! We don't need more search engines that take traffic away from websites. I understand that I can simply not use those features, but I don't want to support a search engine that does not support its search results.
  - ravenstine 4y ago
    Good luck finding anything that doesn't try to incorporate AI. At least with Kagi you can toggle off the AI stuff. In my settings, either I already toggled it off and forgot or it's off by default.
    - marginalia_nu 4y ago
      You've always got my search engine. It runs on a literal potato that can't do AI. But it also runs on a literal potato and the results are fairly limited as a result...
- wraptile 4y ago
  Paying by query count is such an annoying monetization scheme that I refuse to even bother giving it a shot. Do they really expect me to penny pinch my search queries? I don't want anything like that in my headspace.
Night_Thastus 4y ago
I dropped DDG maybe a year ago. The problem is, I constantly am searching about esoteric things. Obscure, less known media. Content creators with small followings. Niche topics that aren't very popular. Or even just very small, specific sub-groups of a very popular thing. For that, DDG just doesn't do well. I found myself having to do the !g command so frequently to get what I wanted that it wasn't worth it anymore.
- earthling8118 4y ago
  This is the main argument I see against DDG, but I've never seen it be true. The only purpose of !g for me has been when I want Google maps specifically. For anything else it's just as good as the other search options. I think it would be more accurate to say that none of them seem to be great these days but not that this is a DDG issue.
  - Night_Thastus 4y ago
    In my experience, Google is substantially better for my searches than DDG. Google isn't perfect, but it's pretty close to what I need. I wish that wasn't true though, I would vastly prefer DDG.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    I search for a lot of really obscure stuff, but I haven't used !g for anything for a couple of years now.
  - eviks 4y ago
    Unfortunately, for non-obscure stuff I add g too often for my liking (but not too often to drop DDG yet), have made conscious decision to try to not do that, but always went back.
- eviks 4y ago
  tip: you can add a custom search engine and use g instead of !g, more convenient

by ysavir 4y ago

Dwedit 4y ago

Those are the ads. That's their revenue source.

boomboomsubban 4y ago
They aren't labeled ads, and it seems incredibly strange that my local chamber of commerce would be buying ads for random lyrics from a song I forgot the name of.

vanilla_nut 4y ago

I feel similarly. The other problem I'm experiencing: extremely slow search page loads, both on desktop and Android Firefox. For now, I've been able to work around it with DDG's HTML site (thank god this exists!), but if I want image search I'm still stuck using the main site. There are a few small private search engines out there, I've been meaning to try out a few. This space is absolutely ready for new ideas, hopefully we'll see some decent options crop up in the next year or two.

zufallsheld 4y ago
I have the same problem. I thought it was me.. The HTML Page sadly has no image search I could find.

ravenstine 4y ago

Check out Kagi. It's paid, but I like it a lot.

ysavir 4y ago
Looking at them and their focus on AI, and especially stuff like the "Summarize Page" feature, I'm quite against them! We don't need more search engines that take traffic away from websites. I understand that I can simply not use those features, but I don't want to support a search engine that does not support its search results.
- ravenstine 4y ago
  Good luck finding anything that doesn't try to incorporate AI. At least with Kagi you can toggle off the AI stuff. In my settings, either I already toggled it off and forgot or it's off by default.
  - marginalia_nu 4y ago
    You've always got my search engine. It runs on a literal potato that can't do AI. But it also runs on a literal potato and the results are fairly limited as a result...
wraptile 4y ago
Paying by query count is such an annoying monetization scheme that I refuse to even bother giving it a shot. Do they really expect me to penny pinch my search queries? I don't want anything like that in my headspace.

Night_Thastus 4y ago

I dropped DDG maybe a year ago. The problem is, I constantly am searching about esoteric things. Obscure, less known media. Content creators with small followings. Niche topics that aren't very popular. Or even just very small, specific sub-groups of a very popular thing. For that, DDG just doesn't do well. I found myself having to do the !g command so frequently to get what I wanted that it wasn't worth it anymore.

earthling8118 4y ago
This is the main argument I see against DDG, but I've never seen it be true. The only purpose of !g for me has been when I want Google maps specifically. For anything else it's just as good as the other search options. I think it would be more accurate to say that none of them seem to be great these days but not that this is a DDG issue.
- Night_Thastus 4y ago
  In my experience, Google is substantially better for my searches than DDG. Google isn't perfect, but it's pretty close to what I need. I wish that wasn't true though, I would vastly prefer DDG.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  I search for a lot of really obscure stuff, but I haven't used !g for anything for a couple of years now.
- eviks 4y ago
  Unfortunately, for non-obscure stuff I add g too often for my liking (but not too often to drop DDG yet), have made conscious decision to try to not do that, but always went back.
eviks 4y ago
tip: you can add a custom search engine and use g instead of !g, more convenient