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I just use duckduckgo. Silly name but the results are no different (I switched not because of ai overview but because google said it had 'no results' for someth

by qoez 1y ago

I just use duckduckgo. Silly name but the results are no different (I switched not because of ai overview but because google said it had 'no results' for something that obviously did and I was fed up).

agnishom 1y ago
I really like duckduckgo for their bang commands.
- callc 1y ago
  Didn’t know about these, thanks for sharing!
alganet 1y ago
The normal DuckDuckGo also has their own AI assistant. You need to use plain HTML DuckDuckGo in order to get rid of it. https://html.duckduckgo.com/html https://html.duckduckgo.com/html
- Throwthrowbob 1y ago
  If you don't use Private Browsing (or the equivalent) or otherwise clear your browsing cache, DuckDuckGo's AI assistant can be disabled by: - clicking the little gear to the right of the search types (near "Assist" and "Duck.ai") - Click on "Manage" for AI Features - Setting "Duck.ai" to Off - Setting "Assist" to Never To the right of the features above, I saw one can save their settings with a password, to the "cloud". This seems to be that you can enter this password when using DuckDuckGo elsewhere for your settings to be set again (or in Private sessions, though you'd have to re-enter the password on a new session).
  - yegg 1y ago
    We also offer https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ which is just regular DuckDuckGo with AI features turned off.
    - jacquesm 1y ago
      I have to pay you my respect. I've been watching DDG pretty much since day #1 and against all odds you've managed to both stay the course (which pretty much everybody claimed you would not) and steadily improve on it. It's one of the most impressive projects in this space, which many have tried and eventually gave up on (or compromised their ethics). Thank you.
      - yegg 1y ago
        Thanks! I really appreciate your comment.
    - alganet 1y ago
      That is very cool, thanks!
    - mdaniel 1y ago
      I had no idea about this subdomain. Had you not shown up to this thread, how would a DDG user have known about this?
      - yegg 1y ago
        If you disable Assist from the inline dialogue, there is a message that comes up about it, but I agree we need to show that in more places, like in the settings screen.
        BanazirGalbasi 1y ago
        Maybe include it in the Assist response window? I know you can disable Assist from the settings icon there, but also including a way to avoid AI entirely where it's most relevant also seems like a reasonable approach.
        yegg 1y ago
        Now, the first few times you interact with Assist, a dialogue automatically appears asking you how much you want it to show.
- KingMob 1y ago
  Or you could turn it off in the settings, which is much easier: https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
whitehexagon 1y ago
I use DDG too, but that has also recently started inserting AI spam as the first result. I keep switching if off, but soon reappears. I dont care if it useful or not, but on principle I wont buy or use any service with 'AI', I find it almost as offensive as all the advertising shoved down our throats.
- jacekm 1y ago
  Just kill it with uBlock. The more elegant way would be to inject a proper parameter to session storage with some kind of extension. Or switch to the light version of the service https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ edit: I can see that in a comment below @yegg shared an even better way - switching to https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ https://noai.duckduckgo.com/
Aurornis 1y ago
> Silly name but the results are no different DDG is my default, but I’ll be the first to admit that the results are not as good. I have a bookmark to quickly switch to Google when I need something specific and DDG isn’t cutting it. DDG also seems to have adopted the YouTube search strategy where once you scroll past the first several dozen results you start getting non-specific results that aren’t entirely related to your query.
- Clamchop 1y ago
  DDG supports !g to direct the search to Google, among many, many other bang shortcuts: https://duckduckgo.com/bangs https://duckduckgo.com/bangs
  - andy12_ 1y ago
    What's up with that search bar for bangs? Every time I write a new letter it appears to reload the webpage, polluting the browser history, and it's extremely slow, frequently missing letters if I type fast enough. That is by far the worst search bar that I have ever seen in any web page.
npteljes 1y ago
Local search ("shops nearby" type of thing) is much better at Google. But hey, that's what bangs are for. I use ddg as my primary, and if I don't like the results (1 out of 20 searches, if that), I just append !g and be on my merry way. (Often I find that Google also doesn't find what I'm looking for.)
rusticpenn 1y ago
I use Ecosia and it feels much better to me.

by qoez 1y ago

agnishom 1y ago

I really like duckduckgo for their bang commands.

callc 1y ago
Didn’t know about these, thanks for sharing!

alganet 1y ago

The normal DuckDuckGo also has their own AI assistant. You need to use plain HTML DuckDuckGo in order to get rid of it. https://html.duckduckgo.com/html https://html.duckduckgo.com/html

Throwthrowbob 1y ago
If you don't use Private Browsing (or the equivalent) or otherwise clear your browsing cache, DuckDuckGo's AI assistant can be disabled by: - clicking the little gear to the right of the search types (near "Assist" and "Duck.ai") - Click on "Manage" for AI Features - Setting "Duck.ai" to Off - Setting "Assist" to Never To the right of the features above, I saw one can save their settings with a password, to the "cloud". This seems to be that you can enter this password when using DuckDuckGo elsewhere for your settings to be set again (or in Private sessions, though you'd have to re-enter the password on a new session).
- yegg 1y ago
  We also offer https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ which is just regular DuckDuckGo with AI features turned off.
  - jacquesm 1y ago
    I have to pay you my respect. I've been watching DDG pretty much since day #1 and against all odds you've managed to both stay the course (which pretty much everybody claimed you would not) and steadily improve on it. It's one of the most impressive projects in this space, which many have tried and eventually gave up on (or compromised their ethics). Thank you.
    - yegg 1y ago
      Thanks! I really appreciate your comment.
  - alganet 1y ago
    That is very cool, thanks!
  - mdaniel 1y ago
    I had no idea about this subdomain. Had you not shown up to this thread, how would a DDG user have known about this?
    - yegg 1y ago
      If you disable Assist from the inline dialogue, there is a message that comes up about it, but I agree we need to show that in more places, like in the settings screen.
      - BanazirGalbasi 1y ago
        Maybe include it in the Assist response window? I know you can disable Assist from the settings icon there, but also including a way to avoid AI entirely where it's most relevant also seems like a reasonable approach.
        yegg 1y ago
        Now, the first few times you interact with Assist, a dialogue automatically appears asking you how much you want it to show.
KingMob 1y ago
Or you could turn it off in the settings, which is much easier: https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

whitehexagon 1y ago

I use DDG too, but that has also recently started inserting AI spam as the first result. I keep switching if off, but soon reappears. I dont care if it useful or not, but on principle I wont buy or use any service with 'AI', I find it almost as offensive as all the advertising shoved down our throats.

jacekm 1y ago
Just kill it with uBlock. The more elegant way would be to inject a proper parameter to session storage with some kind of extension. Or switch to the light version of the service https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ edit: I can see that in a comment below @yegg shared an even better way - switching to https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

Aurornis 1y ago

> Silly name but the results are no different DDG is my default, but I’ll be the first to admit that the results are not as good. I have a bookmark to quickly switch to Google when I need something specific and DDG isn’t cutting it. DDG also seems to have adopted the YouTube search strategy where once you scroll past the first several dozen results you start getting non-specific results that aren’t entirely related to your query.

Clamchop 1y ago
DDG supports !g to direct the search to Google, among many, many other bang shortcuts: https://duckduckgo.com/bangs https://duckduckgo.com/bangs
- andy12_ 1y ago
  What's up with that search bar for bangs? Every time I write a new letter it appears to reload the webpage, polluting the browser history, and it's extremely slow, frequently missing letters if I type fast enough. That is by far the worst search bar that I have ever seen in any web page.

npteljes 1y ago

Local search ("shops nearby" type of thing) is much better at Google. But hey, that's what bangs are for. I use ddg as my primary, and if I don't like the results (1 out of 20 searches, if that), I just append !g and be on my merry way. (Often I find that Google also doesn't find what I'm looking for.)

rusticpenn 1y ago

I use Ecosia and it feels much better to me.