3 ms·

I've been thinking a lot about what it would take to build a simple search engine again. I think the time for a decentralized search engine that is human vetted

I've been thinking a lot about what it would take to build a simple search engine again. I think the time for a decentralized search engine that is human vetted is now. In a way that's what sites like reddit/HN ect have become, but I think we need a real search engine not just a social network. Looking to alternatives does not leaving me feeling great right now, DuckDuckGo is just bing IE microsoft and that's not really a better trade.

abnercoimbre 4mo ago
Thoughts on Kagi? It's a paid product which slows down network effects. However, I'd argue search being "free" is part of the problem.
- fullstacking 4mo ago
  I think the issue of search being free greatly depends on who is providing the content / doing the work. If the links are provided by the public than yeah it should be free, but if the links are provided by a singular entity who had to do the work then the question is did they provide you a service and what is it worth to you? I would argue the core issue is less a monetary issue and more a public domain vs corporate ownership issue. We need a publicly owned web search so that the ethics involved with using said search can be better enforced.
ddgmorgan 4mo ago
Morgan from DuckDuckGo here! Some of our web links come from Bing; that's never been a secret. But at this point, we're significantly more than that. For the past two years, we've been building our own web index (see https://insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-why-duckduckgo-is-building https://insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-why-duckd...). Beyond web links, many of our search results, such as local results, maps, knowledge panels, answers, sports, weather, and AI features, don't come from Bing at all. When you combine all of this with our commitment to privacy and a completely different design and user experience, it's clear that DuckDuckGo is a fundamentally different search engine.
- rolph 4mo ago
  ditch Bing, and make AI go away, or at least make it opt-in. those things are why i went somewhere other than DDG. i find myself searching with cUrl a lot more lately.
  - rrvsh 4mo ago
    How do you search with curl?
    - rolph 4mo ago
      you bash on perl, with pipes and cURL.
      - rrvsh 4mo ago
        Sure, I understand the interface - I'm primarily asking what URLs you pass to the cli
- fullstacking 4mo ago
  Wow, first thank you. I mean you no disrespect as I do think DuckDuckGo is the better of the options. Sadly for me Microsoft is a big deal as I'm a Jew by ethnicity who takes great issue with the harm Israel has caused people in the name of my ancestors. For me anything that helps provide Microsoft any financial support is real a conflict of interest for me. That said these are my own personal issues and I don't expect other people to confirm to my own ethical views. Outside of that I'm also a programmer of 25+ years who has spent a great deal of my time watching Microsoft cause a great deal of harm to the industry. IDK about you, but I feel github has been hijacked, and don't get me started on all the tax dollars we have been spent on sharepoint type BS that can't seem do the basic requirements our governments / institutions have paid for. So yeah anything you can do to distance yourself from them would be something that makes me take a real look at duckduckgo again. Aside my ranting about M$, if I may ask why go beyond web search, or put another way how do you not end up on the same path as google / bing going that path?
- itnerd 4mo ago

abnercoimbre 4mo ago

Thoughts on Kagi? It's a paid product which slows down network effects. However, I'd argue search being "free" is part of the problem.

fullstacking 4mo ago
I think the issue of search being free greatly depends on who is providing the content / doing the work. If the links are provided by the public than yeah it should be free, but if the links are provided by a singular entity who had to do the work then the question is did they provide you a service and what is it worth to you? I would argue the core issue is less a monetary issue and more a public domain vs corporate ownership issue. We need a publicly owned web search so that the ethics involved with using said search can be better enforced.

ddgmorgan 4mo ago

Morgan from DuckDuckGo here! Some of our web links come from Bing; that's never been a secret. But at this point, we're significantly more than that. For the past two years, we've been building our own web index (see https://insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-why-duckduckgo-is-building https://insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-why-duckd...). Beyond web links, many of our search results, such as local results, maps, knowledge panels, answers, sports, weather, and AI features, don't come from Bing at all. When you combine all of this with our commitment to privacy and a completely different design and user experience, it's clear that DuckDuckGo is a fundamentally different search engine.

rolph 4mo ago
ditch Bing, and make AI go away, or at least make it opt-in. those things are why i went somewhere other than DDG. i find myself searching with cUrl a lot more lately.
- rrvsh 4mo ago
  How do you search with curl?
  - rolph 4mo ago
    you bash on perl, with pipes and cURL.
    - rrvsh 4mo ago
      Sure, I understand the interface - I'm primarily asking what URLs you pass to the cli
fullstacking 4mo ago
Wow, first thank you. I mean you no disrespect as I do think DuckDuckGo is the better of the options. Sadly for me Microsoft is a big deal as I'm a Jew by ethnicity who takes great issue with the harm Israel has caused people in the name of my ancestors. For me anything that helps provide Microsoft any financial support is real a conflict of interest for me. That said these are my own personal issues and I don't expect other people to confirm to my own ethical views. Outside of that I'm also a programmer of 25+ years who has spent a great deal of my time watching Microsoft cause a great deal of harm to the industry. IDK about you, but I feel github has been hijacked, and don't get me started on all the tax dollars we have been spent on sharepoint type BS that can't seem do the basic requirements our governments / institutions have paid for. So yeah anything you can do to distance yourself from them would be something that makes me take a real look at duckduckgo again. Aside my ranting about M$, if I may ask why go beyond web search, or put another way how do you not end up on the same path as google / bing going that path?
itnerd 4mo ago